Major League Baseball has a new velocity king.
Many baseball fans on Saturday night were introduced to Cincinnati Reds flamethrower Hunter Greene, who showed off his eye-popping velocity in a way no pitcher before him ever had.
In the second start of his MLB career, the 22-year-old right-hander set the record for most 100-plus mph pitches in a game. He totaled 39 such pitches — six more than the previous record set by Mets ace Jacob deGrom last year. MLB.com’s Sarah Langs was the first to report Greene’s record-setting night.
Hunter Greene was throwing ⛽️ all night.
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 17, 2022
The @Reds right-hander set an MLB record for pitches over 100 mph with 39. pic.twitter.com/BvFiznNIqQ
Greene struck out six and allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings. He threw only 80 pitches, meaning nearly half of the balls he threw Saturday night were at least 100 mph. Thirteen of them went 101 mph — also a record. His fastest pitch was a 102 mph heater to strike out Freddie Freeman.
Hunter Greene, 102mph ⛽️ pic.twitter.com/lPGeVGqKry
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 17, 2022
Greene’s velocity didn’t come out of nowhere. The hard-throwing prospect was the second overall pick of the 2017 draft out of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California — just 15 miles away from where he broke the record Saturday night playing against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
Hunter Greene’s 59 pitches of 100+ mph through his first two MLB starts are more than the Twins, Orioles, Brewers or D-backs have recorded as a team over the entire pitch-tracking era (since 2008).
— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) April 17, 2022
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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