Cravy crushes homer for first big league hit

MILWAUKEE — When Brooks Kieschnick stepped to the plate for the Brewers in 2003, you could see it coming. He was a first-round Draft pick who played nine professional seasons as a power-hitting outfielder before converting to pitching and making it to Milwaukee as a two-way threat.

So when Kieschnick hit a trio of home runs as a relief pitcher in ’03, it made sense. As Tyler Cravy stepped to the plate on Saturday, it was not so obvious that a baseball was about to clear the fence.

“It was really cool,” Cravy said. “I was a little surprised by it.”

Cravy’s first Major League hit was a 409-foot home run, a solo shot off Pirates left-hander Jeff Locke that tied a wild ballgame in the fourth inning of what would become a 9-6 loss to the Pirates at Miller Park. The baseball left Cravy’s bat at 100.4 mph, according to Statcast™, and when it found the seats he became the first Brewers reliever to hit a home run since Kieschnick at San Francisco on …

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