New York Yankees rookie outfielder Aaron Judge has been one of the biggest surprises in baseball so far this season, putting on an incredible display of power nearly every time he steps to the plate.
He currently leads the league with 18 home runs and is also hitting .330 with 41 RBI to lead the resurgent Yankees offense.
However, what he did on Thursday night against the Boston Red Sox was impressive even for him – and it wasn’t even one of the mammoth home runs he’s become famous for hitting.
In the bottom of the sixth inning against Red Sox reliever Fernando Abad, Judge stepped to the plate and, as you can see in the video below, smacked a line drive back up the middle. But the base hit wasn’t what was amazing – the fact that it came off Judge’s bat at 119.8 mph made it the hardest-hit ball so far in 2017:
The THREE hardest-hit balls of 2017 have flown off the bat of @TheJudge44.
This tops the charts: 119.8 mph! https://t.co/i1bWe5baOn pic.twitter.com/vqgLorK8pt
— #Statcast (@statcast) June 9, 2017