Mazara’s homer distance disputed, but long shot sparks Rangers in 15-9 win
The thing about the home run Nomar Mazara launched Wednesday, whether it traveled 491 feet or a paltry 442, is that, technically, it counted for just one run and the Texas Rangers were still trailing after he hit it to start the second inning.
But right-hander Colby Lewis, who needed every bit of run support he could get, said that the homer was more than just one run. It was a catalyst for the Rangers’ most productive offensive day of the season.
They collected 15 runs and 18 hits, both season-highs. All of Bobby Wilson’s career-high four hits came after the Mazara homer, as did 13 more runs and 16 more hits and enough firepower to overcome Lewis’ most ragged start in a terrific season and another tough outing for Shawn Tolleson.
The 15-9 victory over the Los Angeles Angels gave the Rangers another series win and moved them a season-high seven games over .500 heading into a Thursday off day in which they are expected to learn if Rougned Odor’s eight-game suspension will be reduced.
Despite the plate contributions of Wilson (4 for 4), Odor (three RBIs), Ian Desmond and Ryan Rua (three hits apiece), and Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus (two hits apiece), the talk afterward was Mazara and his long home run.
MLB’s Statcast measured it as the longest in the major leagues this season and the longest in Globe Life Park history.
“What about it?” Mazara said. “I didn’t feel it when I hit it, but I put a good swing on it. A slider up and in. It’s cool to hear that.”
Mazara started the second inning by sending a Hector Santiago offering into the upper deck of the home run porch in right field. Players said that it hit one of the support beams a little less than halfway up.
By calculating its trajectory along with a 108-mph exit velocity, Statcast cranked out a projected distance of 491 feet.
The Rangers have been using Statcast to track homer distances only since the start of the season, and their method for measuring homers the previous 22 seasons at the Globe showed Mazara’s homer going 442 feet.
The club said that it has no way to verify the Statcast distance and isn’t currently inclined to call it the ballpark’s longest homer. Josh Hamilton had the longest entering Wednesday with a 490-foot blast he hit off Roy Oswalt on June 27, 2010, beyond the corner of the home run porch that overhangs the Rangers’ bullpen in right-center field.
I don’t want to be standing on the mound when something like that goes off. He struck it perfectly and had a huge swing on it and it went a long ways. It was cool to see. I feel like it sparked us the rest of the day, too.
Rangers pitcher Colby Lewis on Nomar Mazara’s home run
The top slugger in the Rangers’ system, Joey Gallo, was in high school when Hamilton homered. He was in the dugout Wednesday.
“That’s crazy,” Gallo said. “He’s got me beat. He said he crushed it. I believe him.”
Left-hander Derek Holland was on the 2010 Rangers team that eventually went to the World Series. He has a faint recollection of the blast and observed one difference with Mazara’s.
“It was still going when it hit that beam,” Holland said.
It looked like a long home run. Look, I don’t have a range finder in the dugout. Obviously, when it goes in the upper deck, it was a long home run.
Rangers manager Jeff Banister
The Rangers, though, were still down 4-2 after the Angels scored once in the first, a run that the Rangers quickly countered, and three more in the second. The Rangers scored twice more for their own three-run second and then added another three-spot in the third.
Lewis (4-0) settled down before yielding a run in the fifth and two singles to start the sixth. After Alex Claudio yielded another single, Tony Barnette entered with the bases loaded and no outs.
Ian Desmond raced to catch a Jett Bandy fly ball that turned into a sacrifice fly, but the Angels got only the one run. The first out was one of 10 putouts for Desmond, a club record for an outfielder.
“It’s a big spot,” said Barnette, the former star closer in Japan. “The game can go one way or the other. You try to go out there and throw strikes and be aggressive with it.”
The Rangers responded with four runs in their sixth, including a two-out floater into left by Mazara that scored two. They scored two more in the seventh, and responded with another two-run inning in the eighth after Rafael Ortega swatted a three-run homer off Tolleson.
But the Rangers’ offensive success could be traced to the second inning, when Mazara launched a homer that went a long, long way. How long — 491 feet or 442 feet — is up for debate.
“I don’t want to be standing on the mound when something like that goes off,” said Lewis, who allowed six runs. “He struck it perfectly and had a huge swing on it and it went a long ways. It was cool to see. I feel like it sparked us the rest of the day, too.”
Jeff Wilson: 817-390-7760, @JeffWilson_FWST
Rangers vs. Pirates
7:05 p.m. Friday, FSSW
This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 6:50 PM with the headline "Mazara’s homer distance disputed, but long shot sparks Rangers in 15-9 win."