The first New York Mets grand slam was hit last night as Francisco Lindor sent a James Kaprielian pitch 439 feet to clear the bases. The home run was Lindor’s third on the season and helped the Mets dominate the A’s 17-6.
Francisco Lindor StatCast: New York Mets Grand Slam
The second inning started poorly for Kaprielian as he walked five of the first six batters in the frame. With Lindor batting, it appeared that the young A’s pitcher was trying to get ahead of the count and maybe thought the Mets shortstop would take a pitch or two to see if Kaprielian could find the strikezone. Instead, the perfect situation was there for the first New York Mets grand slam on the season.
Instead, Lindor turned on the first pitch, an 85 mph changeup that caught way too much of the plate. The Francisco Lindor statcast for the grand slam had an exit velocity of 106.6 mph with a 29 degree launch angle. In statcast history, balls hit that hard and at that angle have gone for a hit 100% of the time.
Grand Slam Issues
For both Kaprielian as an individual and the Oakland Athletics as a team, the New York Mets grand slam wasn’t the only one to haunt the team. Grand slams have been an issue in the early part of this season. In addition to the New York Mets grand slam, the team has let up two grand slams to the Tampa Bay Rays and another to the Baltimore Orioles just a few days ago.
For Kaprielian, he becomes the first pitcher to let up multiple grand slams this year, after allowing one to the Rays’ Brandon Lowe on April 9th. The other two grand slams let up by Oakland pitchers were from the Rays’ Isaac Padres and Orioles Ryan Mountcastle.
With the tendency to not only load the bases but also to allow the long ball, it is perhaps no surprise that Oakland has been one of the worst teams in baseball this year. The loss against the Mets dropped their record to 3-11, giving them the worst record in the league.
It was expected to be a long season for the Athletics and with the team still in talks about a new stadium, either in Oakland or elsewhere, it appears the team is headed for a long summer.
Looking Forward
While the season is still young, the New York Mets grand slam brings the total number of grand slams up to 14 on the year. You can find more about the other grand slams here!
For New York, the first Mets grand slam of the year coming from their superstar shortstop likely but a big grin on manager Steve Cohen’s face. As the team has been bit by the injury bug in the early season, Lindor’s blast helped the team improve their overall record to 8 and 6 and move the team just 2 games behind the rival Atlanta Braves.
With plenty of season still to play, we have a lot of grand slams yet to be hit this year. For the Mets, they’ll hope to see Lindor’s bat continue while Oakland desperately needs to find a way to start limiting the long ball.
So far this season, the only other team to let up multiple grand slams is the Chicago White Sox, who have let up exactly half (2) as the Oakland A’s. The A’s weren’t expected to be competitive this year but their young pitching staff will have to do better, or else it will be a very long season on the bay.
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