Launch angles — October 8, 2017

Source: http://ift.tt/tj4dWT --- Sunday, October 08, 2017
All the Baseball nuggets you need to start your day. The MLB season lasts half the year, and it can be hard for the average fan to keep up. That’s where we come in. Every day during the 2017 regular season, Beyond the Box Score will be recapping all the biggest action from the previous day — with a sabermetric slant, of course — and looking ahead to what today will bring. Yesterday’s biggest play Bryce Harper ties the game in the bottom of the 8th — +.388 WPA MLB.com Uuuuuuuuuunngh. Everything about this home run is beautiful. Before Harper turned on this pitch, the Nationals looked like they were drifting placidly toward yet another early playoff exit; after, even with the game still tied (and the series still tilted toward the Cubs ), they felt like favorites. As Devan pointed out on Twitter, it came at one of the most critical possible moments for the Nationals’ hopes of making the NLCS. The Nationals’ percent chance to win the *series* went from 18.5% to 33.3% as a result of Harper’s home run. — Devan Fink (@DevanFink) October 8, 2017 But this home run also looked the part of a game-tying, momentum-shifting dinger. It was an upper-deck blast, a 421-foot moonshot (the second-longest home run on the night). And Harper gave it the packaging it deserved, taking the time to watch it soar and bask in the noise of the packed Nationals Park. There’s also something lovely about watching a hanging curveball get turned on with this muc ...

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