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WATCH: SF Giants Thairo Estrada blasts longest homer of his career

SF Giants infielder Thairo Estrada blasted the longest home run of his career to lead off Friday's game against the Detroit Tigers.

Marc Delucchi

WATCH: SF Giants Thairo Estrada blasts longest homer of his career
WATCH: SF Giants Thairo Estrada blasts longest homer of his career /
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The SF Giants quickly jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Friday against the Detroit Tigers. Leading off against southpaw Joey Wentz, Giants left fielder Thairo Estrada squared up a 3-2 fastball in the middle of the plate. Estrada blasted the pitch 441' for a solo home run, his third homer of the season, and posted a 110.5 mph exit velocity. According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, it was the longest home run and hardest-hit ball of Estrada's young career.

Estrada has arguably been the Giants best infielder over the past two seasons. While he shifted to left field today, enabling Giants manager Gabe Kapler to stack the lineup with more right-handed hitters against Wentz, Estrada is the team's primary second baseman and backup shortstop. Prior to the start of Friday's game, Estrada was already hitting .341/.386/.537 with two doubles, two home runs, three walks, and 10 strikeouts in 44 plate appearances (11 games).

Over his tenure with the Giants, Estrada has excelled against left-handed pitching. While he posted a mediocre .250/.311/.360 line against righties last season, Estrada hit .280/.347/.487 when he was facing southpaws, like Wentz. He also hit as many home runs against lefties as righties, despite having far fewer opportunities. Estrada's lead-off home run was his first blast of the season against a left-handed starter.

Wentz, in his second big-league season, has gotten off to a rough start this season. Entering Friday, he had a 10.29 ERA with just three strikeouts and five walks across seven innings pitched (two starts). With that said, he had only allowed one home run prior to Estrada's blast.

Will the SF Giants be able to win their first game of the series against the Tigers? We'll see if Thairo Estrada's lead-off blast can lead them to victory.

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Marc Delucchi
MARC DELUCCHI

Marc Delucchi (he/they/she) serves as the Managing Editor at Giants Baseball Insider, leading their SF Giants coverage. As a freelance journalist, he has previously covered the San Francisco Giants at Around the Foghorn and McCovey Chronicles. He also currently contributes to Niners Nation, Golden State of Mind, and Baseball Prospectus. He has previously been featured in several other publications, including SFGate, ProFootballRumors, Niners Wire, GrandStand Central, Call to the Pen, and Just Baseball. Over his journalistic career, Marc has conducted investigations into how one prep baseball player lost a college opportunity during the pandemic (Baseball Prospectus) and the rampant mistreatment of players at the University of Hawaii football program under former head coach Todd Graham (SFGate). He has also broken dozens of news stories around professional baseball, primarily around the SF Giants organization, including the draft signing of Kyle Harrison, injuries and promotions to top prospects like Heliot Ramos, and trade details in the Kris Bryant deal. Marc received a Bachelor's degree from Kenyon College with a major in economics and a minor in Spanish. During his time in college, he conducted a summer research project attempting to predict the future minor-league performance of NCAA hitters, worked as a data analyst for the school's Women's basketball team, and worked as a play-by-play announcer/color commentator for the basketball, baseball, softball, and soccer teams. He also worked as an amateur baseball scout with the Collegiate Baseball Scouting Network (later renamed Evolution Metrix), scouting high school and college players for three draft cycles. For tips and inquiries, feel free to reach out to Marc directly on Twitter or via email (delucchimarc@gmail.com).

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