Patrick Bailey is one of the reasons you have to love baseball. The light-hitting San Francisco Giants catcher hit a historic, improbable game-winning home run on Tuesday night to lift his team to a 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at Oracle Park in San Francisco. His feat was so unexpected because it had only occurred twice in Major League Baseball (MLB) history.
With one out, and runners at the corners in the bottom of the ninth and Phillies reliever Jordan Romano on the mound, Bailey hit a three-run, inside-the-park, walk-off homer in front of a stunned San Francisco crowd. The last time a player won an MLB game with a walk-off, inside-the-park home run was Cleveland’s Tyler Naquin against the Toronto Blue Jays on Aug. 19, 2016.
Bailey, an Improbable Hero
Patrick Bailey was among the unlikeliest heroes possible on Tuesday night. The Gold Glove, but light-hitting backstop entered the game with only one tater this season and 16 in his entire MLB career spanning 938 at-bats. He is also one of the slowest players in the league with an average sprint speed of 25.6 feet per second, which ranks him 436th out of 499 major leaguers.
Bailey’s shot hit the brick wall in right center field and caromed back toward center field past Philadelphia right fielder Nick Castellanos, forcing center fielder Brandon Marsh to give chase. Before Giants third base coach Matt Williams waved him home, he thought he would end up at third base.
About the play, Bailey said. “Off the ball, I just knew I got it well. I saw it was towards Triples Alley, and I was like, ‘Oh, I got to go. I at least got to get to third.’ Once I saw the bounce, I was like, ‘All right, just don’t fall over.” But he didn’t fall over as he chugged around the bases, scoring easily.
More History Made
More history was made that night as Bailey became only the third catcher in MLB history to hit a walk-off, inside-the-park home run. In this exclusive club, he joins the Chicago Cubs’ Pat Moran (1907) and Bennie Tate of the old Washington Senators (1926). He is also the first Giants catcher to hit an inside-the-park homer since Bob Brenly did it against the Montreal Expos on Aug 29, 1984.
Additionally, it was San Francisco’s second game-winning home run to stay in the park since 1932. And it was the first since 2013 when Angel Pagan hit a similar home run at Oracle Park in the 10th inning against the Colorado Rockies.
Another Fun Fact
Also on Tuesday, the Athletics’ right fielder Lawrence Butler led off their game against Atlanta with an inside-the-park homer on the way to a 10-1 A’s trouncing of the Braves in Sacramento. Coupled with Bailey’s shot, this was the first time in MLB history that a leadoff inside-the-park tater and a walk-off inside-the-park home run occurred on the same day.
