Alec Burleson was on base when Joshua Báez hit the first one — a fly ball to center field, two runs on the board. The second was a fly ball to left, solo. The third was a line drive to right, Burleson aboard again, and this was the swing that left the bat at 108.6 mph and carried 449 feet.
Three home runs, three fields. Báez went center, left, right — a complete circuit of the outfield, and the 12th three-homer game in baseball this season. Read off the box score, it is three home runs and five RBI, which is plenty. Read off the scorecard, it is three balls sent to three different parts of the park, which is something else.
He came up a fourth time and lined out to left fielder Ian Happ. Four balls in play, four in the air, three over the fence. He never put one on the ground.
The first two home runs were fly balls — elevation carrying them out. The third was force. A line drive at 108.6 mph that traveled 449 feet does not scrape a wall; it goes through the air so hard that arc barely matters. That it came last, on his third home-run swing of the night, with Burleson on base again, is what reads as adjustment rather than accident. The first and third both scored Burleson. The RBI went two, one, two — five in all, more than half the Cardinals' eight in an 8–4 win.
What makes three home runs difficult is not the strength. Major-league hitters hit balls 449 feet every week. What makes it difficult is that a batter has to be right three times against a pitcher actively trying not to give him anything to hit, and the contact has to hold up across three different pitches in three different counts. Báez was right three times. He was right to center, to left, and to right, and the hardest swing he took all night was the last one that left the yard.
