Lineup construction helping Marlins’ Jorge Soler hit ‘moonshots’ and ‘shooting stars’
It’s safe to say Jorge Soler is feeling good at the plate right now.
A game like the one he had Tuesday will do that.
The Miami Marlins’ designated hitter slugged a pair of towering home runs — the first 468 feet to left-center field in the second inning, the second 433 feet to left in the fifth — in a 6-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
“You feel so good,” Soler said. “I practically didn’t even feel when I hit the ball. Right now, I’m looking at the ball in a good way. You can see it looks better, but when I see the ball that way and I stay in the strike zone, I get results like right now.”
But both of Soler’s home runs Tuesday also had something in common beyond the fact that they were hit incredibly far and incredibly hard.
In each of those instances as he dug into the batter’s box at Chase Field, he might have had some help based on who was on the basepaths when he took his swings.
In the second inning, Jon Berti hit a two-out double and Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked to bring Soler to the plate. Three pitches in, Soler drilled a near middle-middle 93.5 mph four-seam fastball from Diamondbacks rookie Brandon Pfaadt to left-center field. The 468 foot projected distance tied the longest of Soler’s career in the Statcast Era (since 2015) and was the seventh-longest home run hit in baseball this season.
“I haven’t seen a ball hit that far in a long time,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “That first one was pretty incredible.”
And in the fifth, Chisholm once again reached on a walk and then stole second base to put a runner in scoring position for Soler, who worked the count full before getting another mistake — a middle-down slider that he had not problem sending to left field for another no-doubt home run.
With that, he became the first Marlins player with multiple home runs of at least 433 feet in the same game since Giancarlo Stanton on May 5, 2017, against the New York Mets.
“Moonshots,” said starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo, who held the Diamondbacks to one run over six innings in the win. “It was incredible to see.”
“They looked like shooting stars. I can tell you that,” Chisholm added. “They were very far. That was sick.”
Chisholm can potentially give himself an assist for Soler’s home runs. He set the tone at the team’s leadoff hitter, getting on base three times and scored all three times after going just 3 for 27 over his past eight games. He’s a threat on the basepaths, evidenced by his 13 stolen bases. That makes pitchers think more and leads to a higher chance of making a mistake while trying to cover multiple situations.
“When he gets on base, good things happen,” Schumaker said. “He’s one of the guys in the league that can outrun the ball. It doesn’t really matter the time to the plate. He’s just gifted and puts pressure on the pitchers to maybe leave something over the plate. [That’s] what happened a couple of times with Soler. ... When guys are on base — putting pressure, chances to steal, maybe quicker to the plate — you leave stuff over potentially. I don’t know if that was the reason, but I do think that does factor in when Jazz is on base.”
Chisholm added: “That’s what I’m there for. I’m there to cause havoc. I’m there to mess with his head and even if I’m on the base not moving or doing anything, I’m just there to get in his mind.”
Overall, Tuesday was Soler’s second multi-home run game of the season. He now has nine on the season, seven of which have gone more than 400 feet and five of which have come with runners on base, in addition to leading the team with 20 RBI and being tied with Berti for team lead with 16 runs scored. Of Soler’s 30 hits, 18 have gone for extra bases.
“Just the way he goes about it, there’s not too many guys that have that kind of raw, real power, and he’s a smart player. It’s not just a huge guy hitting home runs. He’s really good at preparing and figuring out what the [pitcher] has. He’s one that’s talking in meetings and he’s one of the leaders in there. It’s pretty impressive to see.”
This story was originally published May 10, 2023 at 10:04 AM.
.JPG)