FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Sports

Jake Arrieta Hit the Longest Home Run Ever (For a Pitcher)

Jake Arrieta hit a home run 465 feet. That's a lot of feet!

Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta crushed a 465-foot bomb to left center field in spring training yesterday and, according to ESPN, that's the longest home run ever hit by a pitcher. There are a few interesting quirks involved here, too. For starters, although it was his third start of the spring, that was Arrieta's first swing of the year. He also hit it off Arizona Diamondbacks ace Zack Greinke, who's got a Cy Young award and some pop himself, with six career home runs.

Advertisement

Arrieta also holds the regular season record for longest home run by a pitcher "in the Statcast™ era (2015-present)," which is a preposterous thing to say and write, but I'm just giving you the facts, man. That one was a 440-footer he hit just over a year ago last April. Even though he knows what he's doing up there, he played it cool after the game.

"You never know what to expect early," Arrieta said. "I was just trying to pick up the ball, put good swings on the ball and try not to look too foolish up there. I see the ball pretty well -- people, especially like Anthony Rizzo -- laugh at that, but I see it OK."

His performance on the mound didn't quite live up to his afternoon at the plate. He gave up three runs on eight hits over five innings.

There were no winners on this day, though, as the Cubs and Diamondbacks tied 5-5.

[MLB]