Willians Astudillo Lovingly Admired a Monster Home Run

Sometimes you just have to take a moment to soak it all in.

There are plenty of reasons for Twins utilityman Willians Astudillo to be your favorite baseball player. He’s primarily a catcher and built like a shorter Bartolo Colon, and yet made his MLB debut playing centerfield. When he hustled around the bases to score from first in a game in September, he said he did it to prove “chubby people can also run.” On top of that, he’s got the inspirational story of toiling in the minors for nine years before being called up by the Twins in June. 

Astudillo gave fans another reason to love him on Tuesday night in Venezuelan winter league action. Not only did he blast a massive homer while falling to one knee like Adrian Beltre, he paused to stare at it like he was looking his first-born child in the eyes for the first time. 

And get this: It wasn’t even a walk-off. Astudillo’s solo shot broke a 1–1 tie with two out in the bottom of the eighth. 

Between the stare-down, the bat flip and the chest-pounding trip around the bases, it’ll be hard for Astudillo—or anyone—to top that this season.