SAN FRANCISCO — Patrick Bailey‘s entrance into the Main League Baseball document books on Tuesday night time started with a decent swing from the Giants catcher that despatched a fastball from Phillies reliever Jordan Romano into Triples Alley.
It ended with Bailey chugging his approach round third base after which getting mobbed by his teammates at house plate after turning into the third catcher in main league historical past to hit a walk-off, inside-the-park house run.
The three-run shot had an exit velocity of 103.4 mph and bounced off the brick wall on the Giants’ waterfront ballpark. It ricocheted again towards middle discipline as Nick Castellanos and Brandon Marsh gave chase.
Bailey mentioned his preliminary thought was to get a triple earlier than he noticed third-base coach Matt Williams waving him in.
“Off the ball I simply knew I bought it nicely,” Bailey mentioned. “I noticed it was in direction of Triples Alley and I used to be like, ‘Oh, I gotta go. I at the least gotta get to 3rd.’ As soon as I noticed the bounce, I used to be like, ‘All proper, simply do not fall over.'”
It was the primary time in practically 9 years {that a} participant hit a walk-off, inside-the-park house run within the majors. Cleveland’s Tyler Naquin was the final to take action, towards the Toronto Blue Jays on Aug. 19, 2016. The Phillies’ Bob Dernier was the final to take action for a crew trailing by a number of runs, towards the Giants in 1989.
Bailey, who grounded right into a double play and struck out in two of his earlier at-bats, joined the Chicago Cubs‘ Pat Moran in 1907 and Washington’s Bennie Tate in 1926 as the one catchers in MLB historical past to hit a walk-off, inside-the-park house run.
The three-run homer lifted the Giants to a 4-3 victory that had the Oracle Park crowd roaring as Bailey crossed the plate.
It was the ninth time this season the Giants received of their closing at-bat, tops within the majors.
“He has gotten some huge hits this 12 months,” Giants supervisor Bob Melvin mentioned. “In huge conditions he is come by. Not as a lot as he would really like. Hopefully that is one thing that catapults him. Have not seen him drive a ball like that shortly.”
Bailey could not recall whether or not he had beforehand hit an inside-the-park house run at any degree. His homer Tuesday night time would have been an outside-the-park house run in 29 of 30 ballparks, with Oracle Park being the exception.
As good as this one was, he mentioned he would have most popular to hit an everyday house run.
“Drained,” Bailey mentioned when requested how he felt. “I wanted it might have gone over the fence.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.