Prior to Monday’s game against the Mets, Cincinnati Reds batters were hitting .327 this season when they swung at the first pitch of an at-bat and put the ball in play. That was a surprising discovery, so we did some extra checking, thinking that number may be a fluke.
Turns out, the number for this year just might be a fluke on the low side. In 2018, the Reds hit .349 as a team when they put the first pitch of an at-bat in play. Both statistics are considerably higher than the team batting average overall, or for all pitch counts.