Patrick Bailey left everything on the field, and then some.
As soon as he realized where his towering fly ball was headed, the bat was out of his hands, and his helmet hit the dirt as he charged around third base. His jersey got ripped off somewhere between rabbit punches and a Gatorade shower before he could even catch his breath.
More than a decade ago, the Giants had one of their most memorable wins when Angel Pagan slid across home plate for a walk-off inside-the-park home run. Fast forward to Tuesday night, history repeated itself, but Bailey somehow cranked up the crazy factor. With just one out in the ninth inning and two runs down, the Giants snagged a wild 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Bailey sent his 414-foot shot screaming towards the right field arcade, hitting the concrete above the archway and ricocheting away from two scrambling Phillies outfielders. It rolled like a lost Bocce ball toward left field, setting off a chain reaction.
Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh bolted after it as if he were racing a greyhound, making a blind throw in desperation. The following heaves, unfortunately for the Phillies, were far too late and off-target.
“I saw it was towards Triples Alley,” Bailey recounted, “and I thought, ‘I gotta get to third.’ Then I saw the bounce and thought, ‘Just stay upright.’”
Bailey crossed the plate without a slide, becoming the first major-league catcher in 99 years to end a game with an inside-the-park home run—a testament to a deflection physics experts would scratch their heads at. The home crowd of 40,212 witnessed this Giants spectacle become an unforgettable memory.
Casey Schmitt, who kicked off the rally with a critical double, observed from home: “I was just hoping to get home and see what happened. Patrick was moving faster than I’d ever seen him. It was pure hustle.”
Bailey, entering the game with a subpar hitting average, was known more for his defensive prowess than his batting. Earlier in the game, he demonstrated his Gold Glove-worthy skills by throwing out Kyle Schwarber attempting to steal third. However, past defensive lapses, like recent errors in Arizona, had plagued him.
“There might be no Giants player on the roster who wanted this moment more than Bailey,” manager Bob Melvin noted. “You know, he hasn’t produced a ton, but he’s had some big hits. Hopefully, this gets him going.”
Patrick’s sprint around the bases clocked in at 16.59 seconds, hitting speeds of 27.4 mph—well above his typical average—a testament to his adrenaline-fueled dash. Brett Wisely, who pinch-ran after Wilmer Flores’ single, was astounded by Bailey’s pace.
“The whole thing was happening behind me, but I turned, and there’s Patty flying down the line,” Wisely shared. “It was just unreal.”
Bailey agreed: “Exhausting. I wish it’d gone over the fence.”
Statcast showed Bailey’s shot would have cleared any other MLB park’s fences—an odd quirk of fate that treated the home crowd to a euphoric display of athleticism instead.
In the booth, Duane Kuiper pushed through laryngitis for a gravelly, iconic call: “Bailey hits a high drive, way into right field, it is off the bricks, this game is tied, Bailey’s on the move, Bailey’s on the move, and… this game is ohhhhver!”
His teammates mobbed him at home plate, jersey-torn and drenched in celebration liquid. It marked only the fifth walk-off, three-run, inside-the-park home run in major league history, a rare spectacle leaving all in awe.
The Giants have packed their season with thrilling moments, proving regardless of where they land in the standings, they provide blockbuster entertainment.
Wilmer Flores added a peculiar twist to the narrative, swapping bats mid-at-bat due to sticky pine tar. The switch bore fruit, as his resultant hit loomed large in this crazy game.
“We’re just resilient,” Bailey emphasized. “It feels like it starts with our leaders playing hard every day. I just wanted to be part of that.”
Bailey, out of breath and stripped to his shirt remnants, embraced his coach Pat Burrell. By the time Melvin reached him, words were few but emotions ran high.
“And had no clothing on, it didn’t look like, either,” Melvin jested.
When you leave everything on the field, sometimes there’s not much left except the roar of a satisfied crowd and the thrill of an unforgettable victory.
