Taijuan Walker celebrated the birth of his first child with a booming, 455-foot home run
Earlier this week, D-backs right-hander
As any new parent will tell you, starting a family brings with it a constant flood of emotions. This must have also brought some serious confidence for Walker in the batter's box, considering he promptly clubbed a game-tying home run in the fifth inning against
Statcast measured the blast at 455 feet, a profoundly prodigious display of pitcher power second only to the Rockies'
That’s 455 feet!
— #Statcast (@statcast) July 26, 2017
Second-longest HR by a pitcher since 2015, behind only Jon Gray’s 467-foot blast this year. #Statcast https://t.co/RpsQeR1Wnz
After the game, Walker told MLB.com's Jarrid Denney about how it felt hitting a homer right after becoming a father:
"My son's here for the first game, so that's pretty cool. He's not here -- he was just born, but [this was the] first game he got to watch. Hopefully he had his eyes open -- so that's pretty cool."
Walker had a similar reaction to his homer, too:
"It was awesome. 0-2 and I was expecting a slider but I got a fastball, so I just put a good swing on it."
Congrats again to Walker -- for both his first career home run and his first career baby.