CLEVELAND — Sometimes, all you need is to hear the crack of the bat to know a ball is long, long gone. The sound spoils the ending.
The moment Jo Adell sent a thunderous sound wave around Progressive Field in the Guardians’ 8-1 win over the San Francisco Giants on Aug. 18, the result of the play was clear the moment he made some high-decibel contact.
After the game, catcher Austin Hedges joked in the clubhouse that his ears were still hurting, and he was heading for a doctor’s appointment in the morning. Giants left fielder Drew Gilbert didn’t even run to the wall, he just turned around to see how far it flew.
The answer was 455 feet, the longest home run by a Cleveland hitter this season. The ball landed only a few rows short of the scoreboard, which is rare territory — officially, only Mark McGwire in 1997 has actually cleared the bleachers entirely.
“That was one of the louder cracks of the bat I’ve heard,” said Guardians starter Foster Griffin, who allowed one run in six innings in the win. “I don’t know how many balls have been put up there in that section here, but that was quite impressive.”
Jo Adell’s stats in career night
Adell’s no-doubter was a three-run home run that gave the Guardians an early lead. An inning later, with two runners in scoring position, Adell lined a single back up the middle to score two more runs. And in the fourth, he added another RBI single, giving him a career-high six RBIs.
When asked for his reaction to the home run that sounded like it might be headed for orbit, manager Stephen Vogt said all he could do was “just watch it.”
“We haven’t seen many balls fly that far to left field since I’ve been here, and his power’s real,” Vogt said. “But my favorite at-bat was the second one, two outs, second and third, right back up the middle with a two-run single. He’s just been having great at-bats since he’s been here.”
The potential for a night like that is exactly the reason Adell was acquired at that trade deadline, a right-handed hitter with a track record of demolishing left-handed pitching. He fit into the lineup like a glove. While the Guardians haven’t played their best baseball since the aggressive trade deadline that also brought in Griffin, Nathaniel Lowe and Craig Yoho, Adell’s six-RBI night allowed Cleveland to cruise to a series-opening win.
Jo Adell injury update
Adell wasn’t made available to media after the game because moments before his mammoth home run, he fouled a ball off his left knee and had to be checked on by trainers. He remained in the game, but as the night wore on, he was in pain, and the team eventually decided to pull him out of the lineup. When media members were able to be in the clubhouse, Adell was receiving treatment for the injury.
After the game, he was officially diagnosed with a bruised left knee and is considered day-to-day. One might call it even, considering he might have bruised an unsuspecting bleacher seat a few rows shy of the scoreboard in left field a few hours earlier.
Ryan Lewis covers the Guardians for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jo Adell hits 455-foot home run. Guardians marvel at sight and sound
Reporting by Ryan Lewis, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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By Ryan Lewis, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
