There wasn't a whole lot to be happy about in Tuesday's 9-3 defeat at the hands of the Yankees, but leave it to Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz to give Boston fans something to cling to. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Ortiz worked a 3-1 count against Masahiro Tanaka, forcing the right-hander to throw a strike.
Ortiz took this 92 mile per hour pitch and launched it in the opposite direction at 120 mph. No, that's not an exaggeration -- that's the recorded speed off of Ortiz's bat:
Only Giancarlo Stanton's 484-foot blast ranks ahead of this 482-foot monster in 2014, giving Ortiz the longest homer in the American League in 2014. Normally, that might not be a big deal -- it's still April -- but 482 is a serious bomb: the longest homer by anyone in 2013 was Evan Gattis with a 486-foot dinger. It's no wonder Ortiz's shot beat out the previous AL-high by the Twins' Josmil Pinto by a whole 25 feet, considering he's already nearly matched the best all of last season had to offer.
It was Ortiz's fourth homer of the season, as well as his fourth "No Doubt" shot by Hit Tracker Online's reckoning. Look at this thing fly off the bat as Ortiz makes contact:
This was well before the game got out of hand for the Red Sox, too, so Ortiz's ridiculous blast merited this post-homer strut.
Look at Mike Napoli just stopping and staring in awe with the rest of us. Nap knows art when he sees it.