PNC Park in Pittsburgh opened 18 years ago. It sits on the banks of the Allegheny River, just a tad to the east of where it meets up with the Monongahela to form the Ohio. The river flows beyond -- way beyond -- the right field stands.
Several players have hit homers that have ended up in the river, but the vast majority of those bounced first. Before today, only three people had hit home runs into the river on the fly: Daryl Ward of the Astros and Garret Jones and Pedro Alvarez of the Pirates. Today Josh Bell of the Pirates became the fourth guy to do it.
Bell took an extraordinarily straight one-ball, no-strike fastball from Shelby Miller and sent it out 472 feet to right, splashing down:
4️⃣7️⃣2️⃣ feet into the river. 😱 #Crushed pic.twitter.com/QlkTwYKXvm
— MLB (@MLB) May 8, 2019
You’re not gonna find many fastballs that are that hittable, but even so, that was a hell of a rip from Bell.