Austin Riley’s double deserves home run status
Austin Riley’s double on Tuesday night was as long as it could have been without being a home run
Austin Riley is in his element with the Braves these days.
On Tuesday night, Atlanta’s utility man doubled to deep center, logging essentially the longest hit possible without going over the fence.
Mark Bowman of MLB.com pointed out the feat on Twitter:
“Riley’s double had a projected distance of 429 ft. That is tied for the second-longest projected distance of a non-home run extra-base hit during the Statcast Era,” Bowman wrote. “Two projected at 430 ft. were both hit in Arizona.”
The two hits mentioned both came in 2019. On May 17, Ketel Marte hit a 430-foot double for Arizona at home against the Giants. On June 5, Eduardo Escobar did his teammate one better with a 430-foot triple in a win over the Dodgers.
Riley’s 429-foot double on Tuesday is the longest so far in 2020, besting Fernando Tatis Jr.’s 426-foot double from Sunday night.
Austin Riley is on a hot streak for the Braves
Obviously, the Braves would have preferred Riley’s shot went out of the park. As it was, the double came to nothing. The next batter up, Adam Duval, hit a fly ball to center field and the inning ended with Riley and Travis d’Arnaud stranded. On the plus side, Atlanta led 2-0 leaving the first.
For his part, Riley is doing all he can to help his team. After starting the campaign batting .118 in his first 11 games, the second-year pro is now hitting .303 in the last 18 games, as pointed out by Bill Shanks of Sports Illustrated.
His double on Tuesday extended his hitting streak to a career-best six games. Another hit, a single to the right, scored Nick Markakis and put the Braves up 3-2 in the sixth inning.
Atlanta sits at the top of the NL East standings with a 20-14 record.