Voit slugs his way into Syracuse record books

Luke Voit may have led the Majors in home runs in 2020, but on Friday, he accomplished a new long ball feat.

The slugger is in perhaps the hottest stretch of his career, as he went deep for the sixth straight game in the Triple-A Syracuse Mets' 6-3 win over Lehigh Valley at Coca-Cola Park.

Voit had homered in five straight games before, en route to hitting 22 roundtrippers for the Yankees in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. But this was a new high for him. And for Syracuse.

This is the first six-game streak for any Syracuse player, with records that go back to 1961. On Thursday, Voit tied Corey Brown’s 2012 record of five straight, in a game that was suspended and later completed Friday afternoon.

"I'm just happy I'm healthy and getting my swagger and swing back from where it was a couple of years ago," Voit said. "The home runs are great, but my objective is to get back to the big leagues, and I'm trying to do everything I can to get back there."

Voit’s prodigious power is easy to see -- just look at his 6-foot-2, 258-pound frame. He's happy to show off his biceps while homering, too. But what makes his hot stretch even more impressive is just how hard he’s hitting the ball.

All six of his home runs came off the bat in excess of 104 mph. With the ball rocketing out so quickly, most were no-doubters, giving him plenty of time to admire the shots. That's no surprise, considering he leads Triple-A (min. 100 ABs) with an average exit velocity of 93.2 mph.

He struck his first home run of this stretch Saturday against Buffalo, 417 feet at 109.1 mph, which was his hardest-hit homer of the year. And somehow, he continued to hit the ball farther. His final two home runs, hit at 106.7 and 108.7 mph, respectively, went 429 feet and 427 feet.

"I think a good sign for me right now is all my home runs are coming all over the field, whether it's been right field, down the field, center," Voit said. "I'm not getting too pull-happy right now. Another thing I'm liking, too, is I'm not rolling over on pitches that I should be doing damage on. I'm getting great extension with my barrel right now, and I'm just driving the ball."

You might be wondering why teams continue to pitch to Voit, who’s hit .455/.590/1.318 over the last week. And, in fact, they haven’t always. When he’s not lasering unsuspecting balls over the fence, he’s drawn six walks and even been plunked once, so pitchers aren’t exactly giving him a ton to hit.

"I like to take my walks," Voit said, "and these guys aren’t going to challenge me with a lot of stuff, so you’ve just got to take your walks whenever you can get that. OPS is everything for a power hitter, so just keep driving that up.

Voit is just mashing every chance he has.