The Red Sox Hit Seven Monster Balls During Their First Homestand

If there’s one thing I love about watching the Red Sox, it’s seeing, and especially hearing, a hard-hit ball banging off the Green Monster. Baseball is a rich text, a game of endless nuance. If you can’t find something to be fascinated by during a baseball game, that’s on you. But at the same time, sometimes you don’t have to search for it at all; sometimes the fun is as simple as it gets. A big, strong man hits a ball and that ball hits a big, green wall with a satisfying clunk. It’s a feast for the senses. What more could you need?

That’s why I decided to spend the first homestand of the year watching for that one thing in particular. By my count, the Red Sox banged seven balls off the Green Monster during that first homestand, which ended on Thursday. Their opponents hit some balls of the Monster as well, but I have decided not to care about those. We’re in it for the Sox and the Sox only. In fact not only did I keep count of all the balls that came off the Monster, I tracked them methodically. I have standings. I have charts. I have strong opinions. I noted this ball off the bat of Romy Gonzalez that would have banged off the wall if not for the efforts of Toronto’s Alan Roden.

Gonzalez hit it hard and deep, but I award him no points. He didn’t earn any points on this double off Ryan Helsley either, because it short-hopped the wall rather than hitting it on the fly.

Once again, no points, and may God have mercy on his soul. Romy Gonzalez is going to have to try a little harder if he wants to crack the list. After the first homestand of the season, he’s sitting at a nice round zero. On the other hand, Rafael Devers has the hardest-hit ball off the wall so far this season, a rocket that left the bat at 109.2 mph. He earns full marks for this blast.

Also earning full marks, this lilting Carlos Narváez fly ball, which floated into the Monster on a rainbow and a gentle Boston breeze. Even better, because it crashed into the scoreboard, it resulted in the most satisfying clang of the season so far.

That ball left the bat at just 86 mph. It had an expected batting average of .049, which means that based on its exit velocity and launch angle, it should result in a hit less than once every 20 times. Sometimes it’s nice to be a hitter at Fenway Park. 

And with that, let’s get to the leaderboard, which features no Romy Gonzalez whatsoever.

As I mentioned earlier, the Red Sox have bopped seven balls that bonked off the Green Monster. Alex Bregman and Triston Casas sit atop the list with two each. Bregman’s presence at the top is especially unsurprising, given his well-noted passion for doing damage by way of pulled fly balls. I’ll leave you with a breakdown of every ball that hit the Green Monster during the first homestand of the season. Hopefully, we can keep you updated as the season progresses.