22-year-old pitcher Huascar Ynoa has been very impressive on the mound for the Atlanta Braves this season, taking a 2.96 ERA into action on Tuesday. And he lowered that ERA to 2.36 after throwing seven innings with no earned runs allowed against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.
Ynoa has also been very impressive in the batter’s box, and that too continued on Tuesday night.
With two outs and the Braves leading 2-0 in the top of the sixth, Ynoa cranked a 427-foot grand slam. This is big-time power from anybody, but especially the pitcher.
And that comes one start afer Ynoa homered against the Chicago Cubs.
Homers in back-to-back games he pitched. As you’d imagine, that’s quite rare. Ynoa becomes the first pitcher to homer in back-to-back games since Steven Matz did so for the New York Mets in 2018.
More interesting Ynoa factoids:
Anything else Ynoa does on offense this year is a bonus for the Braves. They just hope he can keep pitching anything like he has been. But it’s clear he’s a very real threat at the plate, and maybe he’ll crank many more dingers in the coming years.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.