Reds rookie Aquino units MLB mark with HR No. eight
WASHINGTON — The Punisher has punished once more.
Cincinnati Reds rookie Aristides Aquino went deep in opposition to the Washington Nationals on Monday night time, making him the primary participant in MLB historical past to hit eight residence runs in his first 12 profession video games.
Aquino’s newest blast got here on a mammoth solo shot in opposition to Nats reliever Tanner Rainey. With two outs within the prime of the eighth inning of Cincy’s 7-6 loss, the 25-year-old Dominican native crushed a 98 mph fastball from Rainey and deposited it over the fence in right-center area, 425 ft away.
Nicknamed “The Punisher” by his brother when he was rising up, Aquino — who appeared in a single recreation final season — has been pulverizing baseballs since getting referred to as up on Aug. 1.
In 11 video games since his promotion, the 6-foot-Four-inch, 220-pound slugger is hitting .429 with eight residence runs and 16 RBIs. All eight of his roundtrippers have come within the Reds’ previous 9 video games, and he is gone yard seven occasions in his previous six contests, a torrid streak that helped earn him Nationwide League Participant of the Week honors earlier on Monday.
It is a heady begin for a participant who was non-tendered this previous offseason, and who wasn’t thought-about a extremely regarded prospect heading into the 2019 marketing campaign.
“I believe it is the timing,” Aquino mentioned via an interpreter. “It is the proper timing, and God has a plan. I simply need to go on the market and do one of the best that I can do.”
Thus far, Aquino’s finest has been higher than something his teammates have witnessed.
“Quite a lot of us say we have by no means seen something prefer it, and that might clarify it,” Reds supervisor David Bell mentioned. “It is by no means occurred earlier than. We have been speaking about him now, and the nice factor is, with the success, simply the way in which he is dealing with it, simply his maturity degree. He is dealt with it with a number of poise, and we imagine in him. We imagine that he will hold going.”
Previous to getting referred to as up, Aquino was hitting .299 with 28 homers and 53 RBIs in 78 video games with Triple-A Louisville. Beforehand, 4 hitters shared the document of seven residence runs of their first 12 profession video games. The latest incidence was in June of this yr, when Houston Astros rookie Yordan Alvarez completed the feat.