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Everybody loves when a pitcher hits a home run, especially one like Hyun-Jin Ryu nearly two years ago. This post, however, is a blast (or two) from the past.
It was 21 years ago today when pitcher Darren Dreifort went deep twice in a 7-5 win over the Cubs. This is the last time a pitcher hit two home runs in one game for the Dodgers.
Los Angeles would hit five homers in total on that night, four of which came in the bottom of the fourth inning. Kevin Elster started the inning with a solo shot and was followed with a 441-foot blast to the right-center pavilion, according to the game story.
Gary Sheffield would also hit a solo homer in the inning, two batters before Shawn Green smacked a two-run shot to drive in Eric Karros.
Dreifort’s second long ball came just an inning later on a 3-2 fastball from reliever Todd Van Poppel that traveled a whopping 462 feet to left-center.
The 28-year-old would also get the win on the mound, going 6.2 IP while allowing four runs (two earned).
Fun Fact
Dreifort is also the last Dodger pitcher with a walk-off hit. All the way back on May 27, 1994 in the right-hander’s first season in the big leagues, Dreifort came up in the bottom of the 10th inning and stroked a single up the middle to score catcher Carlos Hernandez for a 6-5 win over the Pirates.
After Jay Bell put the Bucs ahead with a solo shot in the top of the frame, the Dodgers rallied to tie it back up on a Mitch Webster RBI-single. Dreifort followed with the dagger to give the Dodgers their fifth walk-off of the month and seventh of the season. Interestingly enough, the Dodgers had also lost in six walk-offs that season to that point as well.
Links
- Kenny Kelly over at Beyond the Box Score took a deep dive into Cody Bellinger’s struggles at the plate this season.
- Thinking about what becomes of prospects traded at the deadline ever amount to? Baseball America dug through all 612 traded from 2001-2016 to find out how many played the majority of one season in the majors and post a positive career WAR.