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Between the quality of Orioles sluggers and the lack of quality of Orioles pitchers, there are a lot of home runs hit at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. What you don’t see every day, or even every year, is a home run rocked into the second deck of the left field seats.
Before tonight, you would have to go back to August 7, 2011 to find an Orioles home run that went so far. Mark Reynolds went deep into the second deck against the Blue Jays on that night - a game where Robert Andino was the leadoff hitter and Alfredo Simon was the Orioles starting pitcher. It has been quite a while... until tonight.
Manny Machado broke the streak with his own titanic dinger to add to the lore at Camden Yards. They don’t put plaques up in the second deck like they do on Eutaw Street, but maybe they should. I mean, just look at this shot off of last year’s AL Cy Young winner, Rick Porcello:
Wave it bye-bye!
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) June 2, 2017
Machado's home run traveled approximately 465 ft and hit the second deck at OPACY. #VoteManny pic.twitter.com/MiZHTSAB43
That’s power that can make you drool. According to MLB.com’s Brittany Ghiroli, that home run, which traveled 465 feet, was Machado’s third of the season to go 460+ feet. He is the only player in MLB with that many home runs of that distance.
From the Statcast guru, Daren Willman, the tale of the tape for Machado’s eleventh homer of the season:
Manny Machado's HR was hit 114.3 MPH and projected at 465ft... That's the 2nd hardest HR he's hit and the 3rd longest @Orioles pic.twitter.com/wA9i9miAXe
— Daren Willman (@darenw) June 2, 2017
Machado’s home run was the second one of the first inning for the Orioles, giving the team a 2-0 lead Friday night against the Red Sox.