On Sunday afternoon, in the ninth inning, Hicks went where no one in baseball has gone before. Facing Herrera, he threw five pitches, the slowest of which was 103.7. Those five pitches were the five fastest thrown in the majors this season. The fastest was clocked at 105.1, which tied a pitch thrown by Aroldis Chapman in 2016 as the fastest thrown in the four seasons the Statcast system has been used to track pitches and stands alone as the fastest strike. (Chapman’s pitch on July 18, 2016, was a ball. Herrera fouled Hicks’ pitch off.)
The next pitch, the only ball in the sequence, was 105.