SATISFACTION
Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Raimel Tapia recorded Major League Baseball’s first inside-the-park grand slam since 2017 against the Boston Red Sox on Friday night. Tapia’s baserunner, which came in the top of the third inning, gave the Blue Jays an impressive 10-0 lead.
When it comes to inside-the-park home runs, most of them are the product of a fielder swooping and missing, or the ball taking a violent bounce off them. That was not the case here. Rather, Tapia hit a fly ball to the center field warning track that outfielder Jarren Duran missed in the sky. Take a look:
Duran eventually turned and saw the ball bounce off the wall, but made little effort to retrieve it. Instead, that task fell on the shoulders of left fielder Alex Verdugo, who returned the ball to the infield too late to make a realistic shot to throw out the speedy Tapia. (Tapia is in the 74th percentile in sprint speed, a measure tracked by Statcast that attempts to quantify raw speed.)
Originally acquired in March from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for fellow outfielder Randal Grichuk, Tapia has played a sectional role, facing righties nearly 90 percent of the time. He entered Friday night’s contest hitting .275/.300/.388 (93 OPS+) on the season with four home runs and five stolen bases (in six attempts).
According to research conducted by MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, the last inside-the-park grand slam was hit on September 8, 2017 by current Kansas City Royals shortstop Michael A. Taylor. Meanwhile, the last Blue Jays hitter to record an inside-the-park home run of any kind was Ezequiel Carrera on May 6, 2017, according to Baseball Reference’s Stathead database.