Red Sox outfielder Hunter Renfroe is showing off his power swing
Hunter Renfroe carried the offense in a slugfest where the Boston Red Sox needed every bit of his production to fend off the rallying Minnesota Twins.
Renfroe drove in a season-high five RBI while blasting a pair of home runs to fuel the Red Sox to an 11-9 victory at Fenway Park on Tuesday.
His first homer of the night was a three-run shot that put the Red Sox ahead in the fourth inning. Renfroe pulled a towering shot 374 feet to left field into the second row of Monster seats. He added a two-run homer in the fifth that was fired in almost an identical direction but traveled much further at 420 feet, clearing the wall entirely.
HR Derby! pic.twitter.com/fwcsUXuPsM
— Red Sox (@RedSox) August 25, 2021
Both of his home runs came when Renfroe was behind in the count with two strikes. That’s nothing new for a Red Sox team that leads the majors in two-strike extra-base hits and RBI. Boston strung together four consecutive home runs with two strikes this week, including both of Renfroe’s in this game, Travis Shaw’s solo shot that put Boston on the board in the third inning, plus The Mayor’s walk-off grand slam on Monday. Kike Hernandez snapped the streak when he homered in the eighth inning last night with only one strike.
His second multi-home run game of the season raised Renfore’s total to 25, tying him for 17th in the American League. One of the several players he’s tied with is teammate Kyle Schwarber, who hit all 25 of his homers in the National League prior to being traded to Boston at the deadline. Only Rafael Devers (29) has more home runs this season for the Red Sox.
Renfroe leads the majors with 10 home runs in the month of August. He got off to a slow start in the power department with only one home run in April but since May 1, Renfroe’s 24 home runs are the 11th most in the majors.
The recent power barrage has been incredible but perhaps more impressive than the number of homers Renfroe is piling up is how far he’s hitting them. According to Baseball Savant, Renfroe is tied with Shohei Ohtani for the American League lead with an average home run distance of 417 feet.
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Renfroe can’t match Ohtani’s elite exit velocity and his max home run distance of 456 feet doesn’t even crack the top-50 in the majors this season. His lofty ranking in terms of average distance shows that Renfroe doesn’t hit many cheap homers. When he hits one out of the park, it’s typically a no-doubter.
With over a month remaining in the season, Renfroe has a solid chance of exceeding his career-high 33 home runs that he set with the San Diego Padres in 2019. He’s already set a career-high with 77 RBI, which is currently tied for 13th in the league this season.
Renfroe is never going to win a batting title but his .256 average would also be a career-high. While that might seem underwhelming, keep in mind that batting average across the majors has been down in general. Only 45 qualified AL hitters currently have a higher average than Renfroe.
The Red Sox signed Renfroe to a bargain 1-year, $3.1 million deal last offseason. Contrary to some confusing comments from the NESN booth during last night’s game, Renfroe isn’t a free-agent this winter. He’s technically only signed for this year but he has two years of arbitration-eligibility remaining. He remains under team control as long as the Red Sox tender him a contract, which they obviously will for next season. Renfroe has been a key addition to this roster and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.