Yoan Moncada appears to be figuring it out at the plate if the past couple days are any indication. The White Sox second baseman went yard Wednesday for his first career grand slam and second home run in two days against the Athletics.
BOOM. pic.twitter.com/im08cLMLxU
— Sox On 35th (@SoxOn35th) April 18, 2018
Moncada entered the Oakland series batting .184/.298/306 after sputtering out of the gate to open his first full MLB season. However, he caught fire by the bay Tuesday by going 2-of-4 with a home run and a walk in five plate appearances, then kept the good times going with the first grand slam of his big league career less than 24 hours later.
The turnaround is doing wonders to Moncada’s season-long numbers, as we’re still in that time of the year when a couple big games can have a huge impact. His batting average is already up to .241 at the time of writing, a hearty 57-point increase from six days ago.
According to MLB’s Statcast, Moncada has the highest average exit velocity of any player in baseball at 100.1 miles per hour. Jose Abreu, funny enough, comes in second at 97.3 miles per hour. Hitting the ball that hard should lead to good results like this more often.