



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 Aug. 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.
Romano began the at-bat against Bailey with a 93.9 mph four-seam fastball right down the middle. Bailey sent it into the San Francisco night. Thanks to Oracle Park’s architecture and geometry, the ball took a sharp bounce off the concrete and darted towards left field.
Casey Schmitt, who led off the inning with a double, prepared to tag up at third just in case the ball was caught, then cruised home. Wisely, who was on first base as a pinch runner, was already rounding second once the ball bounced and also scored easily. By the time center fielder Brandon Marsh retrieved the ball, Bailey was rounding third.
“Once I scored, I saw Schmitty kind of pop up. I was like, ‘Oh (expletive), Bailey’s coming too,’” Wisely said. “When I turned around, I saw Patty coming. Honestly, that was the wildest ending to a game I’ve ever been a part of.”
With every base that Bailey touched, Oracle Park’s sellout crowd of 40,212 seemed to go up an octave, a cacophony of cathartic cries that somehow kept growing louder and louder. Shortstop Edmundo Sosa desperately heaved the ball home upon fielding the relay, but the throw was equal parts errant and late.
“Once I saw the bounce,” Bailey said, “I was like, ‘All right, just don’t fall over.’”
Bailey wouldn’t fall over until after he crossed home plate as his teammates frenetically mobbed him near the first-base dugout. In the fervor of the celebration, Bailey ended up at the bottom of a dog pile defending himself from an onslaught of Giants who were losing their minds. Willy Adames rushed in and ripped off the black City Connect jersey. Another teammate bombarded him with the yellow contents of a Powerade jug.
“I fell down and just got in a fetal position,” Bailey said. “Everyone’s tugging on my jersey. I literally blacked out while I was rounding third.”
Bailey’s inside-the-park homer marked the Giants’ ninth walk-off win this season, a mark that leads all of baseball. Among the other eight walk-offs, the only one that can match the pure lunacy of Bailey’s was Heliot Ramos’ Little League home run, one that required the Texas Rangers to commit two throwing errors.
“The Ramos one was more odd,” said Robbie Ray, who allowed one run over 5 2/3 innings with five strikeouts. “This one was just kind of amazing”
“Patrick’s was more epic,” Adames laughed.