On September 12 at Oracle Park, Rafael Devers hit his 37th home run of the season off a Michael King sweeper that crossed the plate just 1.35 feet above the ground. The day before, he had done the same thing on a pitch at 1.0 foot. Back-to-back home runs on pitches that barely clear the grass — and both count toward a record that Statcast has been tracking since 2008.
The record almost nobody was watching
Statistician Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) surfaced the number on X using Baseball Savant data: Devers has 18 career home runs on pitches at or below 1.35 feet above the ground. The next hitter on that list has 11. That’s a seven-home-run gap in the modern pitch-tracking era, which dates back to 2008.
For context: 1.35 feet is just over 16 inches off the ground. These are pitches that are already on their way down when they cross the plate. Most pitchers throw there on purpose — the assumption is that a ball that low will produce a weak grounder or a swing-and-miss. Against Devers, that assumption gets punished more than against anyone else in nearly two decades of data.
Friday’s home run also snapped Michael King’s career-best scoreless streak at 21.2 consecutive innings. King was sharp — he worked seven quality innings — but that low sweeper in the first inning was all it took.
Why he hits it that low: what the numbers say
This isn’t a fluke. It comes down to swing mechanics, wrist speed, and pitch recognition — all of it reflected in Devers’ Statcast profile. According to Baseball Savant, he’s averaging 93 mph exit velocity in 2026, which ranks in the 96th percentile — top 4% in all of MLB in raw contact quality. His hard-hit rate of 51.6% sits at the 94th percentile. His barrel rate of 12.5% — the share of batted balls with the ideal combination of exit velocity and launch angle — ranks in the 82nd percentile.
And September 2026 has been on a different level entirely: .342 AVG, 7 home runs, 19 RBI, .456 OBP, and a 1.699 OPS for the month. That stretch earned him NL Player of the Week honors and made him just the third Giant in franchise history — alongside Barry Bonds in 2004 and Willie Mays in 1958 — to hit 6 or more home runs and draw 7 or more walks in a six-game span.
Pitchers already know. Mason Miller walked him intentionally in the ninth inning on Thursday. The problem is that the «safe» pitches — the ones in the dirt — aren’t safe either.
The numbers behind the record
Here’s the full Statcast picture for Devers in the 2026 season:
- 633 plate appearances
- 37 home runs, 98 RBI
- AVG: .258
- OPS: .865
- xwOBA: .342 (expected production based on contact quality)
- Average exit velocity: 93 mph
- Barrel rate: 12.5%
- Hard-hit rate: 51.6%
- Average bat speed: 71.9 mph
How he ranks across MLB:
- xwOBA: 75th percentile
- Exit velocity: 96th percentile (elite)
- Barrel rate: 82nd percentile
- Hard-hit rate: 94th percentile (elite)
