'I am freaking out': Marlins prospect hits TWO slams in same game

Intrinsically, hitting a grand slam takes some luck. And not just the garden-variety “hit a 90-plus-mph fastball more than 350 feet” type, either. You need three batters in front of you to all get on base without driving one another in, leaving one man to do the damage.

You could ask Ryan Ignoffo about hitting one, but it had been a while. He hadn't had a slam in his pro career prior to Thursday night. In fact, he had given up a grand slam more recently than he’d hit one, having been a two-way player during his college days at Eastern Illinois University.

A walk, a lineout and a groundout to the pitcher in his first three plate appearances didn’t exactly portend that entering the bottom of the seventh Ignoffo would swing his way into history during High-A Beloit's 14-5 win over Cedar Rapids at ABC Supply Stadium. But then he mashed a hanging breaking ball over the left-field fence in the seventh for a grand slam. An inning later, he managed to pull a heater on the outer third to nearly the same spot.

As High-A Beloit announcer Josh Flickinger said as Ignoffo stomped on home the second time: “I am freaking out!”

Hitting two grand slams in one game is incredibly rare, after all. It’s happened just 13 times in Major League history, most recently when Josh Willingham did so for the Nationals on July 27, 2009.

In the Minors, it’s happened at a tad higher frequency (seven times) dating back to 2015. Most recently, D-backs prospect Jose Urbina accomplished the feat last July 17 in the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League.

Ignoffo, an MLB Draft League alum, used the circuit to get his name on the map in 2023. He was selected in the final round (20th) by the Marlins later that summer and has steadily climbed through the club’s ranks since then.

It’s been a circuitous pro career thus far. After making starts at four different positions in Year 1, and despite never having caught during college, the 24-year-old got down into the squat last season. It’s now his full-time home as he gets his feet wet in a Marlins system that features a boatload of young talent both on the hill and behind the dish.

But nobody in that group can say he's hit two grand slams in a Minor League game, except for Ignoffo.