You won't believe how hard Burger hit this HR
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CHICAGO -- Jake Burger has not just been hitting the baseball since returning to the White Sox from Triple-A Charlotte. He has been hitting the baseball with overwhelming authority.
Take the first inning from a 3-0 White Sox victory in the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Phillies at Guaranteed Rate Field as an example. Burger crushed a three-run blast off Philadelphia’s Bailey Falter, giving him home runs in four of his past five games. The third baseman’s blast carried a projected 417 feet, according to Statcast, and had an exit velocity of 118.2 mph.
That exit velocity gave Burger the hardest-hit White Sox home run since Statcast began tracking in 2015, and it ranks second in Major League Baseball this season, trailing only Atlanta’s Matt Olson, whose home run on April 11 off Cincinnati's Luis Cessa had an exit velocity of 118.6 mph. Burger also has the sixth-highest exit velocity at 116.5 mph, on his double against the Giants’ Alex Wood on April 6.
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“Yeah, I had the double, the 116, I thought that was going to be the hardest one I hit all year,” Burger said. “I was just fortunate to get that one today, and it felt good coming off.”
There appears to be a new celebratory handshake with shortstop Elvis Andrus added into the home run equation, which ends with the two taking a bite of an imaginary hamburger. The handshake was on display Tuesday night in the nightcap, after the White Sox lost Game 1, 7-4.
In the nightcap, Burger also showed speed on the basepaths by going from first to third on Andrus’ softly hit single to center with two outs in the seventh. That single was the first White Sox hit since Burger’s homer. Other than Eloy Jiménez's single before Burger's blast, the only other hit in the game came when Brandon Marsh’s double off Aaron Bummer broke up the White Sox combined no-hit bid leading off the eighth.
“So I think it surprises some guys with my speed at times,” a smiling Burger said. “It felt good going first to third. Haven’t done it in a while.”
“Can’t make mistakes on him,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “And if you do, he’s strong enough to mis-hit a ball out of the ballpark, and he’s strong enough to hit a ball 118 miles per hour. He’s picking us up big time.”