If you love mammoth home runs, then you probably should have Josh Bell on your radar by now.
In case you don’t know much about the Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman, he’s having a monster season thus far — and he’s absolutely destroying baseballs.
Bell jacked his 15th home run of the season on Wednesday, sending a ball into the Alleghany River beyond right field at PNC Park on the fly. Yes, on the fly.
How often does that happen? Uh, not very. This was just the fifth home run to hit the river in the air in the 19-year history of PNC, and two of them belong to Bell. Unsurprisingly, he’s the only one to achieve that feat more than once.
Here’s the bomb:
Josh Bell is the first player ever to hit TWO homers out of PNC Park and into the Allegheny River on the fly! pic.twitter.com/UWbb99NZqo
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) May 22, 2019
It honestly gets more impressive the more times you watch it.
Josh Bell, yet again.
His 116.2 mph, 454-foot blast into the Allegheny River had the highest exit velocity of any batted ball the Pirates have recorded since @statcast began tracking in 2015. pic.twitter.com/xNFAmM8Fgj
— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) May 23, 2019
His first river blast may have been even more impressive, however, carrying 472-feet (!!!) back on May 8.
4️⃣7️⃣2️⃣ feet into the river. 😱 #Crushed pic.twitter.com/QlkTwYKXvm
— MLB (@MLB) May 8, 2019
Think about it, three home runs had reached the river before this season. Bell did it twice in May, and the month isn’t even over.
Mercy.
