It’s probably about time baseball fans learn the name Ramon Laureano. The Oakland A’s center fielder made his big-league debut last August and won his first-ever game with a walk-off single. A week later, Laureano showed off his otherworldly throwing arm, heaving a ball 321 feet from deep left center to first base on the fly to double up a runner retreating to the base.
Laureano showed off his magnificent arm again in the A’s 7-0 win over the Red Sox in Oakland on Monday night. With the game still scoreless in the top of the second inning, Mitch Moreland stroked a one-out single to center with Xander Bogaerts on second base. Bogaerts is pretty fast, and all but the slowest runners in the league would expect to score from second on a single to the outfield.
Alas! It’s Ramon Laureano!
Statcast measured Laureano’s throw at 96 mph. It traveled 270 feet in the air, directly into catcher Nick Hundley’s glove, just in time for Hundley to put a sweep tag on the sliding Bogaerts.
Laureano, a 24-year-old former 16th round pick acquired from the Astros in a 2017 trade for minor-league pitcher Brandon Bailey, later homered in the game.
