NLCS Game 4: Willson Contreras crushes 491-foot home run off Wrigley video board

CHICAGO — Down 3-0 in the NLCS, the Cubs aren’t going quietly.

With a brisk wind blowing out at Wrigley, they’re actually making quite a bit of racket.

Willson Contreras hit an absolute rocket to left field in the bottom of the second inning in Wednesday’s Game 4. One of the Wrigley Field video boards abruptly ended the ball’s flight — it would’ve easily landed on Waveland Avenue — but MLB Statcast calculated that the ball would’ve traveled 491 feet if unimpeded, the longest postseason home run ever tracked by Statcast. The blast, coupled with another solo shot from Javy Baez off later in the inning, gave the Cubs an early 2-0 lead over Alex Wood and the Dodgers in the elimination game.

Clay Bellinger halved the lead with a homer of his own in the top of the third inning.

Contreras’ massive homer was just four feet short of the 495-foot blast that Aaron Judge hit in July, the longest home run of the 2017 regular season. The previous longest home run in this year’s playoffs was the 444-foot homer that Chris Taylor of the Dodgers hit in Tuesday’s Game 3.

The Cubs opening the proceedings with a homer is not a strange sight in this NLCS. The first runs of all four games have been scored by a Chicago home run.