PHOENIX —
Austin Hedges spent 13½ minutes in the batter’s box Thursday night waiting for one pitch.
It’s a relatively new tenet for him, focusing on what might be a single offering per game that he can turn into damage.
Turned out, he got the pitch in the sixth inning. Sent it 449 feet in a hurry. It was the farthest and, at 108.2 mph, the hardest Hedges has ever hit a home run. It was the biggest blow in what ended up a 7-6 Padres victory over the Diamondbacks.
But that three-run homer in the sixth inning — on an at-bat that, counting the second-and-a-half he stood watching it fly, took 38 seconds — wasn’t the most impressive thing he did in his four times to the plate at Chase Field.