



SAN FRANCISCO >> At any other ballpark, Patrick Bailey could’ve jogged. Here — and only here — the Giants catcher had to sprint.
Bailey’s deep drive to right-center field in the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday night traveled an estimated 414 feet. If Bailey’s ball landed in the bleachers, the moment would’ve still been special. Oracle Park would’ve still erupted. His teammates would’ve still doused him in Powerade for lifting the Giants to a thrilling 4-3 win over the Phillies.
Instead, the ball bounced off the concrete lip of an angled 24-foot-high wall. As it rolled along the warning track, the moment was no longer going to be just special. As Bailey lost his helmet in between second and third, the moment was no longer going to be just memorable. As Bailey crossed home, his oxygen reserves depleted after completing a walk-off, three-run, inside-the-park home run to win it for the Giants, the moment transcended into the echelon of unforgettable.
“That was the most electric play I think I’ve ever seen,” said Brett Wisely of the first walk-off, inside-the-park home run by a catcher since Bennie Tate on August 11, 1926.
Manager Bob Melvin, a former catcher, said, “I thought it was out, but it kicked off the wall. You don’t see many inside-the-park home runs. It was Ichiro-esque in the All-Star Game, maybe a different speed.”
There are few individual plays in Oracle Park’s two-and-a-half-decade history that exist in the same stratosphere of what Bailey orchestrated on Tuesday night. One of them was when Ángel Pagán achieved the same feat against the Colorado Rockies on May 25, 2013. But while Pagán barely beat the throw home — injuring his hamstring in the process — Bailey’s mad dash was more of an inevitability.
Bailey stepped to the plate against the Phillies’ Jordan Romano with the Giants trailing, 3-1, and down to their final two outs and runners on first and third.