Chaparro: ‘As soon as I hit the ball, I knew it was gone’

On Tuesday, Venezuelan third baseman Andrés Chaparro of the Washington Nationals hit his first MLB home run on a thrown ball from current Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole after nearly eight years in the minor leagues with the Yankees, the organization that signed him as an international free agent in 2015.

Also read: Save it! Andrés Chaparro hits his first home run in MLB

Obviously, there were a lot of feelings about the first hit, especially contributing to the team’s victory.

As soon as I hit the ball, I knew it was gone,” the El Vigia native said in a statement reported by Jessica Camerato of MLB.com.

Meanwhile, he had a chance to joke about the episode from the previous night, when Aaron Judge stole a ball between left field and center field that would have surely hit it out of the park. “Luckily, Aaron Judge wasn’t with her,” he said. “I had a lot of feelings and emotions and joy to see her go.”

It is noteworthy that after Chaparro, rookie José Tena’s pitch to Cole knocked down the wall, making the Creole and Dominican the sixth pair of “National Team” players to hit consecutive home runs this year. Before them, Lane Thomas and CJ Abrams did it on June 6 against the Braves.

Young people in Washington tell the time

“That’s our goal, to go out there and play, try to contribute and help the team win in any way possible,” the reigning LVBP Rookie of the Year said when asked about Youth Work in Washington“That’s what we’re here for, so it’s really special that we can do that.”

Additionally, the team has the second-best prospect class in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline , and Dylan Crews got his first two hits in the “Big Show” and also drove in a run.

Andrés Chaparro had 13 hits in his first 13 games, eight of which were extra-base hits; including seven doubles. In total, he hit .265 with a .777 OPS in 52 games.