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Sometimes It’s Great When Diamondbacks Swing at the First Pitch

As a team, Diamondbacks batters performed better when they swung at the first pitch. In 2021 through 20 May, BABIP was better (.301 vs .268) and RBIs per PA was better (.151 vs .093). Albeit that if the pitcher misses the plate the batter is better off not swinging.

Let’s compare the first 45 games of this season to 2020, when there were 60 games. That comparison showed that while the RBIs per PA comparison was nearly the same (.151 vs .093), the BABIP comparison was different. In 2020, BABIP was the same whether of not the batter swung at the first pitch (.