Aroldis Chapman is one of the hardest throwers in Major League Baseball, routinely hitting triple digits. In fact, MLB.com has a filter named after him on its Statcast Leaderboard of fastest pitches thrown this season.
When stepping into the batter’s box against Chapman, there’s a good chance you’re going to see his trademark blistering fastball. Based on his swing behind 0-1 in the count, Enrique Hernandez was anticipating one because he muscled up on his swing enough that it caused him to fall to the ground when he failed to make contact.
As far as an answer for Charley Steiner’s “I don’t know which was harder, the pitch or the swing” goes, the swing might win out in this case. That was a mighty cut indeed, one that resulted in a smile from Hernandez as he regrouped and probably a few laughs in the dugouts of both teams.
