San Diego Padres reliever stuns MLB world with grand slam in first at-bat

Dan Camarena probably didn't have grand designs when he stepped into the batter's box against Max Scherzer on Thursday.

The San Diego Padres journeyman reliever had been called up from Triple-A El Paso earlier in the day and forced to enter the game in the fourth inning after the Washington Nationals roughed up starter Yu Darvish for six runs in three innings. 

The Padres needed Camarena to throw some innings, so with the bases loaded in the fourth, they let him hit. All Camarena hoped to do was make contact.

"In that AB, just trying to put the ball in play in that situation," Camarena said. "Especially against Max, that's hard to do. I was just trying with everything that I had just to put a ball in play."

He did better than that, turning on a 96 mph fastball and blasting it into the right-field seats.

It was not a cheap one, either, rocketing out of Petco Park at 107.2 mph and traveling an estimated 416 feet.

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Camarena, a San Diego native, had family members in attendance, and they soaked in the moment.

"Family is everything to me," Camarena said. "We've been so tight-knit. I mean, my older brother, we probably spent more time in the batting cage at home than we did practicing pitching. I still haven't even gotten the chance to see him, so I can't wait to give him a big hug and just share this moment."

Camarena is not a highly touted prospect. He’s a 28-year-old who was drafted in the 20th round by the New York Yankees – 10 years ago.

He has been a member of the Yankees organization three separate times, as well as the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Minnesota Twins and Padres, who signed him in February 2020.

He has a pedestrian 4.26 ERA across more than 800 minor-league innings, including a 5.24 ERA in Triple-A, the highest level below the majors.

Now Camarena is part of MLB lore. He is the first relief pitcher to hit a grand slam since 1985 and only the second Padres pitcher to do so.

He is only the second pitcher in MLB history to hit a grand slam in his first big-league at-bat. The other was Bill Duggleby of the Philadelphia Phillies, who accomplished the feat in 1898 (via STATS). 

At that rate, it will happen again in the year 2144 or so.

Even more remarkable is that Camarena accomplished the feat against Scherzer, one of the best pitchers of this era who will one day be enshrined in Cooperstown. The right-handed great doesn't allow this sort of thing to happen very often. In fact, in his 14 seasons in the big leagues, Scherzer has allowed only four grand slams against:

– Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who has 52 home runs in 267 big-league games

– Stephen Piscotty, 87 homers in 665 games

– Matt Joyce, 149 homers in 1,393 games

Camarena now has one home run in 156 games, counting his time in the minor leagues.

Oh, and by the way, the Padres, who at one point trailed 8-0, rallied to win the game 9-8.

This sort of thing just doesn’t happen, and it's why we love baseball – you never know what you’ll see when you go to the ballpark or turn on the TV.

Here are some of our favorite reactions from across the baseball world.

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