1st Oriole Park HR is his 1st walk-off! Dreams began early for Basallo

BALTIMORE -- As a kid growing up in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Samuel Basallo hoped to one day create special moments in Major League Baseball. It’s all he wanted to do.

The Orioles visualized the same thing as they signed Basallo for $1.3 million as a 16-year-old out of the D.R. in January 2021. The organization developed the 6-foot-4 slugger -- often touting his sky-high potential -- and then banked on him as a future superstar, signing Basallo to an eight-year, $67 million extension on Aug. 22, only four games into his MLB career.

The first of what could be many, many special moments came Friday night at Camden Yards.

One strike away from extra innings, Basallo clubbed a walk-off solo home run off flamethrowing Dodgers left-hander Tanner Scott in the bottom of the ninth, lifting the O’s to a 2-1 win. The 21-year-old catcher connected on a 1-2, 98.7 mph fastball and jolted it a Statcast-projected 433 feet over the right-center-field wall.

“I've been dreaming of that moment my whole life,” said Basallo, Baltimore’s No. 1 prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 8 overall. “And I hope there's many more to come. It was great.”

A lot was notable about Basallo’s no-doubt blast, which left his bat at an exit velocity of 109.3 mph and with a launch angle of 35 degrees as everybody in the ballpark rose to their feet.

Basallo’s blast was his second big league homer, but the first to come at Camden Yards, as his previous home run came last Saturday at Oracle Park in San Francisco. It was also Basallo’s first walk-off of his 15-game MLB career.

“He’s going to be a big-time hitter,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “His general skills as a hitter are so advanced for such a young kid, so in due time, we’ll see more of that. It’s a really big swing and really kind of like a jumping point in his career in some ways.”

It was the first time an Orioles player’s first Camden Yards homer came in walk-off fashion since Henry Urrutia went deep in the ninth inning of a 5-4 win over the Mets on Aug. 19, 2015. Basallo was also the first Baltimore rookie to hit a walk-off homer since Trey Mancini in the 11th inning of a 9-6 win over the Pirates on June 7, 2017.

The most recent O’s player to hit a walk-off home run within his first 15 career contests was Nolan Reimold, whose 13th game on May 27, 2009, featured an 11th-inning blast to lift the Orioles to a 12-10 victory over the Blue Jays.

At 21 years and 23 days old, Basallo became the youngest MLB hitter to slug a walk-off home run since Jurickson Profar (20, 218) in the Rangers’ 6-5 win over the Angels on Sept. 26, 2013.

The Orioles have two walk-off wins this season, both coming via hits by a 21-year-old. The previous came on Aug. 13, when Jackson Holliday hit a game-ending RBI double in a 4-3 win over the Mariners.

If there’s anybody who can understand what Basallo is going through -- the hype, the media attention, the lofty expectations -- it’s Holliday. Although Holliday is only 252 days older, he has 177 more games of MLB experience, having reached the big leagues as a 20-year-old in 2024.

There have been highs and lows so far for Basallo (who is hitting .204 with a .660 OPS), but Holliday is confident in what’s to come for the young slugger.

“He's done great, he's done a great job,” Holliday said. “This game is tough, and it'll beat you down. I think he's taking good at-bats and he's putting good swings on the ball, and that's all you can control at the end of the day. I think it'll turn around pretty quick for him, especially with a swing like that, your confidence will definitely be pretty high coming into the game tomorrow.”

Basallo is soaking in everything he can to help him reach his full potential as soon as possible.

“I have really good teammates here. Good coaches here,” Basallo said. “[Bench coach Robinson] Chirinos has been helping me a lot, we’ve been talking a lot. There have been a lot of ups and downs, but I think we are going to get there. I’m just learning right now.”

Nights like Friday show exactly what Basallo is capable of.

“I’ve been working for that,” Basallo said with a smile. “I just feel really good about that.”