PITTSBURGH – It was one of those moments that wakes up an entire baseball stadium. A moment that pauses conversations as everyone digests what they witnessed.
As soon as Jake Fraley connected on a hanging slider in the fourth inning, there was a collective groan from the PNC Park crowd of 31,761. Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Tyler Heineman turned his head to look away. Pitcher Tyler Beede put two fingers to the bridge of his nose as he stared at the ground.
Fraley hammered a two-run homer that bounced into the Allegheny River beyond the right-field seats in the Cincinnati Reds’ 10-1 win over the Pirates, a 437-foot blast.