Way Back Wednesday: #SloerPwoer On Full Display

On Tuesday night, a few fans attempted to show off the signs they had brought to the game to pay homage to the Cubs left fielder. Ecstatic that they were being shown on television, the crew triumphantly lifted the examples of their handiwork for all the world to see. Too bad they couldn’t quite get the letters in order.

S-L-O-E-R, the signs read.

Maybe Jimmy Nelson should have heeded their advice Wednesday night. With two on and one in the bottom of the 1st, the Brewers pitcher had Jorge Soler in a 2-2 count after getting a swing and miss on a slider. So of course Nelson, who had already walked one man, hit another, and given up two singles in the inning, piped a 93 mph fastball instead of going back to the breaking stuff.

You know those homers that just sort of float up there and carry until they finally nestle in the basket? Yeah, this wasn’t one of those. Soler absolutely mashed it, turning the ball around at 107 mph and sending it screaming an estimated 450 feet. Talk about pwoer.

https://twitter.com/statcast/status/766079757188419584

Amazingly enough, this was only Soler’s second-longest homer of the season. He hammered one 452 feet (461 by some measures) back on May 27, a shot that put a dent in the left field video board. You might also remember that as the game in which Grandpa Rossy hit his 100th career dinger. Good times.

Soler came into the game slashing .360/.429/.760 with 3 home runs and a wRC+ of 212 in 9 games since being activated from the DL on August 5. And that’s before the bottle rocket he ignited Wednesday night. I gotta say, this guy is blowing me away right now. If he can stay healthy and maintain anything even close to this pace…whoa.