Brandon Belt nearly visits Coors Field party deck with mammoth homer
Just when you thought it was safe to party at Coors Field on a Friday night, Brandon Belt of the San Francisco Giants is here to crash it. Or at the very least make you reconsider your choices in life.
During Friday’s wild 11-8 victory against the Rockies, Belt unloaded on a Kyle Kendrick offering and sent a towering, almost majestic blast to the upper deck in right field, just a few rows short of the relatively new party deck.
It’s an area of Coors Field that a scarce few have reached in its 20-year history, though that list is now populated by three Giants. In addition to Belt, Barry Bonds and, wait for this one, Nate Schierholtz have also reached that section.
As always, the distance is up for some debate. According to MLB’s statcast data, it traveled 475 feet, which would easily rank among the longest home runs hit in MLB this season along with Alex Rodriguez and Giancarlo Stanton. ESPN’s Hit Tracker estimated a more conservative 437 feet of true distance, which wouldn’t even crack their top 25.
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Either way, it was a monumental blast for a guy who isn’t necessarily viewed as a home run hitter. In fact, Belt didn’t hit his first this season until May 15 in Cincinnati. Oddly enough, he homered in all three games during that series, and then again on Friday making it four straight games. His career high was 17 in 2013.
Overall, Belt is off to the best start of his career offensively, hitting .317/.391/.520 across the board. The Giants would gladly take those numbers and another dozen homers from Belt between now and the first week of October.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
