Chicago Cubs outfielder Ian Happ’s long home run drought is finally over, and he made sure to end it with authority.
Happ hadn’t hit a home run since May 5, a span of 118 at-bats, according to MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian.
When he came to the plate in the bottom of the first inning, with Mike Tauchman and Nico Hoerner on base, he made sure to get every stitch of a pitch from Luis Ortiz, cranking a home run to right field to give the Cubs a 3-1 lead.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Chicago sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
The home run had an exit velocity of 110.3 miles per hour, according to StatCast, and had an expected batting average of .990.
The ball traveled an estimated 393 feet, and would have been a home run in every ballpark in baseball.
Despite his power outage of late, Happ has started to hit the ball better in recent weeks, bumping his hard-hit percentage back up to 36% while pushing his slash line back to .260/.385/.379.
MLB
While his on-base percentage would be a career high, his slugging percentage would be a career-low, according to Baseball Reference.