Get used to Manny Machado in LA by watching him hit a homer almost entirely out of Dodger Stadium
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After all the rumors, all the speculation and all the hugs, handshakes and selfies on the bases in the All-Star Game, it's official: Manny Machado is a Dodger. The news was announced on Wednesday, with five prospects heading to Baltimore in exchange for Machado's services in Los Angeles.
We don't need to remind you how much of an offensive jolt this gives the already-prolific Dodgers offense. No team in the National League has hit more homers than the Dodgers' 129, and no Dodger has hit more individual homers than Machado's 24. Breakout starMax Muncy was the team leader with 22 before the All-Star break.
You may be wondering what it'd look like to see Machado step up to the plate in Los Angeles and club a homer deep into the Left Field Pavilion. Well stop wondering, because that happened back in 2016, when the Orioles were playing an Interleague series with the Dodgers and Machado timed a Kenta Maeda offspeed pitch perfectly:
That prodigious blast was measured at 453 feet by Statcast and nearly screamed its way completely over the bleachers and onto the concourse adjacent to the ballpark gates. That's quite a shot. In fact, it was Machado's longest homer of 2016, and his fifth-longest since Statcast was implemented.
What's more, nobody has hit a longer homer at Dodger Stadium since Machado's 453-foot moonshot. Machado's bested a 451-foot dinger crushed by Kiké Hernández a few weeks before the Orioles paid a visit.
In terms of homers that almost left the ballpark and headed for the parking lot, Machado's fell 22 feet shy of this absolutely absurd 475-footer from Giancarlo Stanton in 2015 that flew over the Pavilion and into the crisp evening air:
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With that truly outrageous Stantonian blast, Giancarlo joined a small list of players who have done that, as only Mark McGwire (483 feet in 1999), Mike Piazza (478 feet in 1997) and Willie Stargell, twice (470 feet in 1973 and 506 feet in 1969) hold the honor.
So, in addition to helping the Dodgers in their quest for another National League West title and a deep run in the postseason, might he also add himself to that conversation as well?
We'll have to wait and see ...