Matt Carpenter seemed to defy the laws of physics over the weekend.
The St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter had one of the strangest at-bats of the season in the fourth inning of Sunday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Carpenter swung at an 0-1 offering from Bryse Wilson and broke his bat before he even made contact with the pitch.
Check out the surreal scene.
whoa this bat broke before contact pic.twitter.com/T6u5OHtQDa
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) May 12, 2024
Here is a video of the swing in normal speed.
Matt Carpenter’s bat broke before he even hit the ball
pic.twitter.com/WTxnGyu39s
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) May 12, 2024
The 38-year-old former All-Star Carpenter has taken more than 5,600 plate appearances over the course of his career, but that break definitely had to be a first. Either he was gripping the bat too hard, he was gripping the bat too low, he was swinging with the force of a Mike Tyson haymaker or all of the above.
Carpenter, who returned to the Cardinals over the offseason on a one-year deal, would eventually line out in the at-bat. But that had to be baseball’s flukiest broken-bat sequence since this one from several years ago.
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