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Watch: MLB Speedster Stuns Outfielder by Somehow Scoring from 2nd on a Flyout

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There’s fast, and then there’s Billy Hamilton fast.

The Kansas City Royals center fielder put his incredible speed on display Tuesday in the Royals’ 6-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners.

With one out in the bottom of the third, Hamilton was on second base after reaching on an error.

After a Whit Merrifield ground out, Adalberto Mondesi lofted a fly ball to deep centerfield. Seattle center fielder Mallex Smith got under it at the warning track and made the catch, falling to his knee briefly.

That was all the speedy Hamilton needed to get the go sign.

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He tagged up and advanced two bases on the sacrifice fly to score.

After Smith went to his knee, he paused for a moment before throwing it in, not thinking that Hamilton would try to advance two bases. That was a mistake.

Is Billy Hamilton the fastest player you've ever seen?

When he saw that Hamilton wasn’t slowing down at third, Smith quickly got up and fired it to the cutoff man, but the relay was too late to catch Hamilton.

MLB Statcast said he covered 30.1 feet per second — which is ridiculous.

His time from third to home was clocked at 3.12 seconds.

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Mallex Smith couldn’t believe it.

In 2017, MLB Statcast ranked the fastest runners in baseball, and Hamilton was first running at a speed of 30.1 feet per second — the same number he hit Tuesday. The Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton (29.9 feet/sec) and the Cleveland Indians’ Bradley Zimmer (29.8 feet/sec) were second and third.

In Hamilton’s first five years in the majors with the Cincinnati Reds, he placed second in stolen bases each year. He ranks fifth among active players with 279 stolen bases. The Royals signed Hamilton in the offseason.

Kansas City’s Merrifield went 2 for 5 to extend his hitting streak to 30 games, which ties George Brett’s team record. The hitting streak goes back to last season as he has hit safely in the first 10 games of this season and the last 20 games of last season.

The Royals are off to a 2-8 start.

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Dave is a lifelong sports fan who has been writing for The Wildcard since 2017. He has been a writer for more than 20 years for a variety of publications.
Dave has been writing about sports for The Wildcard since 2017. He's been a reporter and editor for over 20 years, covering everything from sports to financial news. In addition to writing for The Wildcard, Dave has covered mutual funds for Pensions and Investments, meetings and conventions, money market funds, personal finance, associations, and he currently covers financial regulations and the energy sector for Macallan Communications. He has won awards for both news and sports reporting.
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