Brady House gave Nationals Park one of those swings you remember.
In the third inning last night, he turned on a 99 MPH fastball from Eury Perez and launched it into the concourse on a drive that was first measured at an estimated 474 feet. Perfect swing, massive result, and the kind of blast that stops a ballpark cold.
The distance later got revised to 445 feet, which is where things got a little murky. That number would still match Heriberto Hernandez’s 445-foot homer in the eighth inning, but to the naked eye House’s shot looked like it carried well beyond that.
House himself said it was probably the furthest he has ever hit one, and the ball ended up in a part of Nats Park that doesn’t usually see many visitors. Blake Butera said he has seen Andres Chaparro and Andrew Pinckney get balls up there in batting practice, but never anything like that in a game.
Doing it against a 99 MPH heater only made it look even louder.
However the math gets sorted out, the larger point is easy enough to see: House has real juice. He’s been through plenty of ups and downs in his first 145 big league games, but his tools have always made people look twice.
He’s hit some monstrous shots before, including a 458-footer in AAA last year that hit the top of the batter’s eye, and the power has been there since high school. Raw strength is not the question.
What has started to change is the approach around it. House has taken steps forward, with his chase rate down 3%, his barrel rate up over 8% and his walk rate up over 4%.
That kind of progress matters for a hitter who has long been talented but still a little raw. After the game, House talked about going into cage work with more purpose instead of just swinging to get reps.
Butera said he expects even more power as that plan becomes more defined.
That’s the encouraging part. The scary part, if you’re facing him, is that the ceiling is obvious. He has the kind of raw tools that can lead to 30 homers if the rest of the game catches up.
Still, one moon shot doesn’t erase the bigger picture. House is hitting just .183 with a .569 OPS against right-handed pitching, and going into next year he has to show he’s more than a platoon bat. He’s flashed enough to keep the dream alive, but the next step is making it stick.
For now, though, the homer is the headline. It was the sort of swing that brings fans to the park and makes everybody in the building react at once.
The sound off the bat was different, the left fielder barely budged, and Eury Perez just threw his arm up in disgust. Whether the ball went 474 feet or 445, it was an absolute nuke.
And for Brady House, it was another reminder of why people keep waiting for the breakout. The power is real. Now it just needs to show up with more consistency.
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