What happened: Merrill hit a solo homer Saturday that traveled 432 feet. The ball came off his bat at 111.4 mph.

Why it matters: The swing adds another loud-contact marker to a month that has already included multiple Merrill power bursts, including two homers in one game earlier in September. Another ball hit that hard keeps attention on the quality of his contact late in the regular season.

What to watch: Watch whether this blast turns into another multi-hit or multi-homer stretch. The next meaningful update is whether Merrill stacks more extra-base damage behind it.