Anthony Volpe completely missed on two sliders, both of them in the zone.
If there was a knock on his spring performance, it’s that the relative talent level he was facing on the mound was right about Double-A pitching. That OPS has hovered around 1.000, but he hadn’t seen much major league caliber opposition. Friday morning he was facing a bona fide MLB rotation arm in Pablo López, who made Volpe look like a Double-A hitter in that first at-bat.
That second at-bat though, Volpe was hunting sliders in the zone. He got one on the first pitch and put it into the seats, his third home run of the season.