There has been no one hotter in the game of baseball at the current moment than Cincinnati Reds star Rece Hinds who in his first two games of his career, has had an amazing start like no other. He has hit five extra base hits in the two games played where he has clobbered two home runs which those put him in great company that few in the sport are a part of.
According to ESPN, the two home runs Hinds hit combined to be 907 feet which is the “second most by any player” in the first two contests of a major leaguer's career ever since they started tracking dingers. The only other person that hit longer combined was Trevor Story, currently with the Boston Red Sox and formerly on the Colorado Rockies, with 1,232 feet according to ESPN.
“Hinds, 23, the Reds' No. 15 prospect according to MLB Pipeline's latest rankings, has hit 907 feet of home runs in his first two games,” ESPN said. “Which, according to ESPN Stats & Information research, is the second most by any player in his first two career games in the home run tracking era, which began in 2006. Only Trevor Story, who hit three home runs totaling 1,232 feet in his first two career games in 2016 for the Rockies, has registered more.”
Hinds is “having fun” in first two games with the Reds
The one aspect people could point to with those two behemoth of records is that each played in what are considered “home run friendly” places in Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati and Coors Field in Colorado. Still, a player needs immense power to do that, especially in a respective star's first two outings in their career.
Even besides the two home runs, Hinds has also had two doubles and a triple in his first two games which brings it to the aforementioned five extra base hits, which is the most in history since 1901. Cincinnati manager David Bell spoke after Hinds' second game and said that not only is it a “great start,” but he is “having fun.”
“He's playing with confidence and having fun,” Bell said per ESPN. “When you hit like that, you have a lot of fun. He's contributing to wins, and these are big games for us. It's a great start.”
In the biggest understatement of the season, Hinds would say that “The ball looks slow and big coming into the zone right now” according to Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. Besides making history through his first two games, he also was a base hit shy of hitting for the cycle in his second game as even Bell said he was hoping for one last at-bat as Hinds calls it “pretty awesome,” but wants to “try to stay humble.”
“That’s pretty awesome. I knew I was doing some pretty cool stuff,” Hinds said. “I try not to look up at the board and look at numbers, I try to stay humble and do my thing out there.”
Reds teammate calls Hinds “special”
There is no doubt that Hinds has been getting love from not just Reds fans, but also the amazement from his teammates like catcher Tyler Stephenson. He would say that he has “known him for a long time” and how Hinds is the “real deal.”
“It's special,” Stephenson said after the game in an on-field interview on Bally Sports. “I've known him for a long time. The power, the athletic ability, it's there, it's special, it's the real deal. And when he hits the ball, he sure hits it.”
“The power is legit,” Stephenson continued. “Man, when he gets a hold of the ball — I’ve never really seen many balls go where he hit it tonight. Just how hard he hits the ball, too. It’s impressive. I’m happy for him. He’s living the dream.”
Hinds was selected in the 2019 MLB draft in the second round as he came out of Niceville, Florida where the top of that event for the Reds looks solid as the first round pick that year was Nick Lodolo. The starting pitcher would talk about his draft classmate and said “you could see it then, the guy is a freak athlete, for sure.”
Hinds feels like “no one can stop me”
It already feels far away that Hinds was called up by the Reds Monday where in triple-A ball, he was hitting a .216 batting average, 13 home runs, and 41 runs batted in (RBIs), but had a 43 percent strikeout rate. Hinds would say that that cutting down on his strikeouts have been a key focus.
“When I get hot, I feel like no one can stop me,” Hinds said. “I would say the last week or so, I started heating up a little bit. I cut my strikeouts down, and started putting the barrel on the ball a little bit more.”
Goal will be to keep up the consistency for Reds standout
While Hinds is confident in his ability, who knows if he even thought this was capable of him as he is also the first Reds player to hit two home runs in his first two games of his career. He even said in his first game that “it was much more than expected,” if only he knew what would come the next game and hopefully for the future.
“It was surreal. I can't put words to it,” Hinds said in his postgame on-field interview on Bally Sports. “You see my smile, that's all I got right now…It was much more than expected, I just wanted to go out, get a win, which we did. Just wanted to let my abilities take care of itself.”
At any rate, Hinds has to be focused in keeping up the consistency as opposing pitchers will look to adapt to him as they did to the hot Aristides Aquino as he was hitting home run after another in 2019, but could not maintain as he is not in the MLB at the moment. Cincinnati is fighting to stay alive to get a playoff spot as they are 44-48 which puts them fourth in the NL Central as their third game of the series against the Rockies is Wednesday night.
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