Two Home Runs, Both Alike in Dignity, in a Cold, Uncaring Universe, Where We Lay Our Scene

[Davy Andrews]

Before Devin Williams hung an airbender and the world turned to garbage, Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick hit two extremely similar home runs--using two extremely different swings.

Image courtesy of © Jovanny Hernandez/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

Before Devin Williams hung an airbender and the world turned to garbage, Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick hit two extremely similar home runs--using two extremely different swings.

Look, I know it’s bleak. The season ended in abrupt, heartbreaking fashion. I’m sure you’re crushed. Everyone is crushed, and everyone will stay crushed for a while. If only there were some magic potion that could make us all feel better. Some elixir we could drink that would make us feel light and happy, just for a little while, to take the edge off all this pain. But unfortunately, no such thing exists. There’s no magic beverage out there that would let us drink away our troubles and then, later, maybe let us barf out a few of our troubles too. Surely, there’s no group of people who know how to concoct such a beverage. So let’s talk about the Brewers.

During the glorious seventh inning of last night’s game – before, you know, all the other stuff happened – Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick hit back-to-back jacks. They hit double dongs. They went onesie-twosies. Bauers hit a home run, and then Frelick also hit a home run, right after Bauers’s home run, consecutively. It was fun (until, that other stuff happened). Let’s watch them, shall we?

Ah, good times (briefly). Not long after the double fireworks, MLB.com’s Mike Petriello noted something fun.

“Bauers and Frelick basically hit identical tanks,” he tweeted, along with this graphic. 

The two homers differed by less one mile per hour of exit velocity, two degrees of launch angle, and three feet of distance. Even the bat speed of the two swings was within 2 miles per hour. If you use the slightly complicated formula that tells you exactly how well a player squared up a ball, you can see that Frelick squared it up at 94%, while Bauers squared it up at 93%. Again, nearly identical. But what makes this even more fun is that the actual swings were absolutely not identical. They were comically different. Watch that video again, both because it’s relevant and because it may well be the only thing that bring you joy for a while. I’m going to pull a couple stills. Here are the two players at the moment of contact.

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