Fenway Park is probably the quirkiest ballpark in all of baseball, and Andrew Benintendi offered a reminder of why on Saturday.
In the second inning of their game against the rival New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox outfielder hit one of the more interesting home runs of the season. Benintendi, a left-handed hitter, pulled a ball just barely inside of Fenway’s famous Pesky Pole in right for a whimper of a dinger at 310 feet.
The replay on this clearly shows that this was a Benintendi HR and it looks like it may have brushed the Pesky Pole on its way down.
— Dan Roche (@RochieWBZ) July 27, 2019
Even more ridiculous: the homer had an exit velocity of 87.7 mph and an xBA (expected batting average) of just .010, Seth Rothman of YES Network.
The xBA on that Benintendi home run was .010.
It was 87.7 MPH off the bat and had a distance of 310 feet.
— Seth Rothman (@SethDRothman) July 27, 2019
Fluke or not, the homer was Benintendi’s ninth of the year and counts for just as many runs as it would have had he blasted it 470 to dead center instead. It’s definitely not the first time Pesky Pole has worked in Boston’s favor either.
