Teoscar Hernandez hit a grand slam, but despite a spirited comeback, the Dodgers couldn’t pull through, falling 6-5 to the Padres in Game 3 of the National League Division Series. This loss puts the Dodgers behind in the best-of-five series, trailing two games to one.
Interestingly, Game 3 kicked off in almost the same fashion as Game 2. Betts commented on his home run, “We lost, so there is no personal goals out there right now.”
The game then took an unexpected turn in the bottom of the second inning, as the Dodgers’ fortunes shifted drastically.
“There was a bunch of mayhem and then I made a bad 0-2 pitch and give up the homer to Tatis,” said Walker Buehler, the Dodgers’ starter, about the six-run inning. “You can’t give up six runs in an inning in the playoffs and expect to win. At the end of the day I put us in a really bad spot, and even though we fought back, the spot was too big.”
For the third consecutive postseason, the Dodgers are in familiar but tough circumstances: an elimination game, an away crowd, and their season on the edge. Even so, the chatter around Teoscar Hernandez’s grand slam continues to dominate discussions. Curious about what a grand slam in baseball is? Here’s everything you need to know.
The MLB glossary defines it this way: “A grand slam occurs when a batter hits a home run with men on first base, second base and third base. Four runs score on a grand slam — the most possible on one play — and a batter is awarded four RBIs.”
Grand slams have a massive impact because they bring in four runs at once, often shifting the momentum in a game. However, they’re not common. The situation—a batter coming up with the bases loaded—doesn’t happen frequently, so even some of the greatest hitters may not have many to their names.
The term ‘grand slam’ actually comes from the card game Bridge, where it refers to winning all the tricks in a hand. It transitioned into baseball because it signifies scoring as many runs as possible in one swing.
Roger Connor is considered the first major league player to hit a grand slam, doing so on September 10, 1881, for the Troy Trojans of the National League at Riverfront Park in Rensselaer, New York. While Charlie Gould hit one for the Boston Red Stockings of the National Association in 1871, Major League Baseball (MLB) doesn’t recognize the NA as a major league.
Alex Rodriguez holds the MLB record with 25 career grand slams. Don Mattingly (1987) and Travis Hafner (2006) hold the single-season record with six each. Mattingly hit these as the only grand slams of his career. Ernie Banks (1955) and Albert Pujols (2009) hold the single-season National League record, with five each.
In 1968, Jim Northrup of the Detroit Tigers set a record by hitting three grand slams within a week, including two in back-to-back at-bats. Larry Parrish of the Texas Rangers matched this feat in 1982, but Northrup’s three slams in just 14 plate appearances remains a record as of 2021.
Four players hit grand slams in their first Major League at-bat: Bill Duggleby (1898), Jeremy Hermida (2005), Kevin Kouzmanoff (2006), and Daniel Nava (2010). Kouzmanoff, Nava, and Duggleby each hit theirs on the first pitch, while Hermida’s came in a pinch-hit scenario.
Tony Cloninger is the only pitcher in MLB history to hit two grand slams in a single game, doing so for the Atlanta Braves against the San Francisco Giants in 1966.
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