MILWAUKEE — Listed here are the pitchers who’ve homered to this point in 2021:
That’s it. That’s the checklist.
Houser — 2-for-28 with 21 strikeouts in at-bats coming into the night time — was an unlikely candidate to go deep however that’s what he did, hammering a Daniel Castano fastball 109 mph off the bat and a Statcast-projected 418 ft to heart subject for the primary of back-to-back residence runs within the Brewers’ 5-4 win over the Marlins on Tuesday at American Household Area.
“It felt actually good, felt like a very good swing. I simply didn’t know the place it went,” Houser mentioned. “Once I seemed up the lights began going out, so I mentioned, ‘Residence run.’”
That’s a brand new characteristic of an improved LED lighting system this season, and Tyrone Taylor set it off once more when he hit the second of these consecutive homers on a three-RBI night time because the Brewers gained for the sixth time in eight video games behind their power-hitting pitcher.
“He is at all times proven energy,” mentioned Brewers supervisor Craig Counsell, who’s seen loads of Houser hitting as a result of starters routinely take batting observe as a bunch. “So, he is within the prime three [of candidates on the staff to homer], for positive. He took an ideal swing and that ball exploded off the bat. It was a no-doubter.
“After which the nice half was simply seeing how fired up Adrian was. He is fairly low key more often than not however he was as fired up as I’ve seen him coming to the dugout.”
Houser dealt with the lumber effectively each instances up. His residence run with two outs within the second inning put the Brewers on the board earlier than Taylor adopted with one other residence run for the Brewers’ first lead. Two innings later, Houser executed a textbook sacrifice bunt that produced one other go-ahead RBI for Taylor on a run-scoring groundout.
On the mound, Houser allowed three runs on 5 hits in 5 2/three innings, with one stroll, a season-high seven strikeouts — his most since a career-best 10 strikeouts in opposition to Texas in August 2019 — and a run-scoring wild pitch.
However the spotlight was the homer. Houser turned the primary Brewers pitcher to hit a house run since Aaron Wilkerson in opposition to Michael Wacha and the Cardinals on April 17, 2019, and the 27th totally different Brewers/Pilots pitcher to go deep. The checklist incorporates a pair of Houser’s teammates, together with one who took over in aid of Houser on Tuesday, Brent Suter, and the one Brewers pitcher to homer within the common season and within the postseason, Brandon Woodruff.
Houser has a protracted method to go earlier than he’s the Babe Ruth of Brewers pitchers, nevertheless. Yovani Gallardo holds the membership document for pitcher plate prowess with 12 residence runs throughout his Milwaukee tenure.
Taylor might attest that this was not the primary time Houser homered. They had been teammates at Triple-A San Antonio in 2019 when Houser hit his solely different residence run in 11 seasons enjoying skilled baseball.
“It was epic and I’m glad that occurred,” Taylor mentioned in a postgame interview with Bally Sports activities Wisconsin’s Sophia Minnaert. “It was nearly equivalent from the final time. It was sick.”
Houser has quietly been pitching quite a bit higher in 2021, one of many causes the Brewers are 14-9 and atop the NL Central with 12 gamers presently on the injured checklist, together with Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain and starter Brett Anderson. Houser is 2-2 with a three.65 ERA by means of 5 begins and 24 2/three innings after going 1-6 with a 5.30 ERA in 56 innings throughout the shortened 2020 season. His strikeouts had been up Tuesday however he’s nonetheless a contact pitcher; Houser’s 59.7 % groundball charge is fourth-highest amongst Main League qualifiers.
“I believe it is simply understanding who he’s,” Counsell mentioned. “It is type of taking the robust moments and getting previous them, getting proper on to the following second. I believe he is accomplished a extremely good job with that. Once more, it is being on the market each 5 days or six days and understanding what a beginning pitcher has to do. He is bought some nice examples round him proper now of how guys can proceed to get higher and proceed to enhance, and he is following proper alongside.”
Now he added an enormous hit to the issues he’s accomplished effectively this season. Does Houser think about himself a good hitter?
“As ‘Murph’ says it,” he mentioned, referring to bench coach Pat Murphy, “we [stink]. We’re not hitters, we’re pitchers.”
On Tuesday night time, Houser was each.