A 442-foot Tork Bomb to the shrubs in straightaway center field? Sounds like a preview of things to come when Spencer Torkelson eventually gets to Comerica Park, but it was actually his Thursday night performance for High-A West Michigan. His fourth professional home run was a tape-measure drive to the trees beyond center at Dow Diamond, home of the Great Lakes Loons.
The first-inning solo shot continued Torkelson’s recent tear; all four of his homers have come in his last eight games as MLB Pipeline’s No. 3 overall prospect dug himself out of a 6-for-41 start. The only thing to stop Torkelson over the last couple weeks was a tight left hamstring that kept him out of four games last week before a two-homer game against Lake County.
Though Torkelson didn’t homer in his first two games against Great Lakes this week, he had plenty of loud contact, from a pair of doubles to a foul ball that nearly hit two fans walking along the concourse beyond the left-field corner. He got under a couple other pitches Wednesday for a pair of towering pop-ups, but he centered a 96 mph fastball on Thursday that former Dodgers Draft pick Logan Boyer left in the strike zone on a 2-1 pitch.
The drive was estimated at 442 feet, according to Whitecaps radio voice Dan Hasty. Not even the depths of Comerica Park could’ve held the ball in play.