Sunday was a pretty bad day for the Cubs, as they were rocked by the Yankees in an 18-4 defeat. It got bad enough that Chicago put a position player on the mound to close out the game.
Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel was called upon to pitch in the eighth inning. The task was daunting for him, as he was set to face Kyle Higashioka, Joey Gallo and Aaron Judge in the inning and would have to face Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton if anyone got on base.
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Schwindel was able to retire the Yankees on just seven pitches. He faced five batters and had a solid inning overall.
Ironically though, the batter against whom Schwindel had the most trouble was arguably the worst of the group. Higashioka was able to crush the first pitch he saw over the left field fence for his second home run of the game and the season.
The Cubs brought in 1B Frank Schwindel to pitch in the eighth inning.
— ESPN (@espn) June 12, 2022
This is how Kyle Higashioka responded 😳
(via @Yankees) pic.twitter.com/fLuUTD6MI5
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The pitch that Schwindel threw wasn't fast at all. The eephus floated lazily to the plate and Higashioka had plenty of time to square it up. In doing so and taking it deep, he made history.
Schwindel's pitch to Higashioka traveled at a speed of just 35.1 mph. That makes it the slowest pitch hit for a home run since MLB began tracking that data in 2008.
Previously, a 43.9 mph pitch from Brett Phillips that Sheldon Neuse took yard on April 11 of this season was the slowest pitch ever hit for a home run. Schwindel's delivery was a whopping 8.8 mph slower than that.
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Before Sunday's game, Higashioka hadn't hit a home run since the Yankees' 8-7 win over the Mets on Sept. 11 of last season. The 32-year-old catch was pleased that he managed to snap that streak Sunday and was amused by his second homer of the day.
"That was pretty funny," Higashioka said of the blast off Schwindel, per MLB.com. "Someone once told me, the key to hitting a knuckleball is, 'Stay back, stay back, stay back.' So that’s what I was trying to do there. I saw it come in and was like, ‘Yeah, I can hit that.'"
