It was Adam Wainwright's first big league at-bat. The Cardinals pitcher had been on the mound plenty of times already, but this was the first time he was given the chance to walk up to the plate.
Even then, he wasn't supposed to hit. That day, the Cardinals had to scratch the planned starter, so were relying on a bullpen day. Wainwright entered in the fourth inning and, after he had completed two frames, manager Tony La Russa told Wainwright that his day was over.
"You're done," La Russa told the pitcher, "When your spot in the order comes up, we're going to hit for you."
So, Wainwright went to relax on the bench and chat to his teammates.
"All of a sudden, he came back over," Wainwright remembered. "He's like, 'Actually, I need you to get one more inning so you're on deck.'"
Wainwright jumped out of the dugout, "grabbed my bat really quick, my gloves and literally -- no practice swings -- ran straight into the box."
With no time to be nervous, Wainwright swung on the first pitch from the Giants' Noah Lowry. He connected, driving it up and out over the wall. When he got back to the dugout, he tried to play it cool until his more veteran teammates got him to break the facade.
"I was trying to act all serious," Wainwright said. "And they're like, 'Hey, you just hit a home run! In your first at-bat! I'm like, I'm like, 'I know, that was pretty awesome!"
That may have been Wainwright's first big league home run, but in a moment of psychic brilliance, Jason Marquis called it.
"Jason and I got traded together from the Braves, so we had hit a lot together in the Braves organization and with the Cardinals, in Spring Training, we took batting practice really seriously," Wainwright said. "[Marquis] was like, 'He's about to go deep.' He called it in front of everybody."
On Saturday, Wainwright will get to show off that swing again as he'll be representing the Cardinals at Home Run Derby X at Principal Park in Des Moines. He'll have some stiff competition in another pitcher who can swing it, though, as he'll be going up against the Cubs' Jake Arrieta. Wainwright may have the regular season edge in dingers, leading 10-6, Arrieta is the only one to have gone deep in the postseason.
Going up against one of the most powerful-hitting pitchers to ever take the field, Arrieta went deep against Madison Bumgarner in Game 3 of the 2016 NLDS.
"Every time I would hit a home run, [I knew it] was gone," Arrieta said. "But this one in particular was on a line, and so I basically just dropped the bat and started sprinting. I'm kind of eying the ball, and as I get to first base, [first base coach] Brandon Hyde went for the high five. As I hit him, he spun me around, and I almost did a 360 and fell down. Fortunately, my adrenaline was through the roof, so I was able to catch my footing and make it around the bases without falling down or getting hurt. I think at the time, Bumgarner hadn't allowed a run in the postseason in like five or six starts -- something crazy like that. So, to break that up in that moment was pretty special."
Perhaps in a sign of what was to come, as the Cubs would soon go on to break the 108-year World Series drought, the ball also managed to find its way to a Cubs fan who was surrounded by a sea of Giants fans in the left field stands.
"In a sea of a Giants fans, a Cubs fan caught the ball," Arrieta said. "[My teammates] are going nuts. And I remember a story that [teammate Ryan] Dempster told me after the game. He just kept screaming, 'The Russian's been cut! The Russian's been cut!' Really cool moment."
While pitchers no longer hit in the Majors anymore -- something that both Wainwright and Arrieta lament, though they understand, especially as so many young pitchers come to the big leagues having never hit in their professional careers -- it was something that both players took very seriously during their Major League careers.
"I think that the philosophy from the whole organization was, 'Let's get an edge in that ninth hole,'" Wainwright said. "We hit a lot. Tony La Russa especially took it really serious, and then probably all the way until the last year or two of pitchers hitting, we always hit a lot. We were on the field every day at home and on the road we were in the batting cage every day hitting. I hit before I started every time."
Arrieta trained enough that he was even able to go old school and hit without batting gloves.
"We hit BP all the time, so the hands were -- and they still are -- pretty calloused up," Arrieta said. "Years in the weight room, grabbing those bars that have that weird, rough grip. I was seasoned for it. I didn't have soft hands. It just felt good in my hand without batting gloves. You just better hit it on the barrel or it's going to hurt."
There was even a time when it looked like that a team of the best hitting pitchers might get together to join the Home Run Derby.
"That started between myself, [Zack] Greinke, Wainwright, Bumgarner -- we all wanted to do it. There was some chatter about it around the league, at least behind closed doors," Arrieta said. " But we knew it wasn't going to happen because how bad would it look if four or five of the top pitchers in the league strained an oblique in a home run derby before the All-Star Game? ... It would have been a blast, I wish it would have happened, but the decision makers did it for a good reason."
While the two won't be taking the mound at Home Run Derby X, they both admitted they wouldn't go easy when a pitcher stepped into the box.
"I'm picking up two or three more strikeouts right here. You know, these are free punches," Wainwright said with a laugh.
However, Arrieta did admit that he once made a deal with the Mets pitchers Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard. The trio had run into each other while warming up in the outfield before one of their games
"'Hey boys, this is what we're gonna do,'" Arrieta explained. "'If any of us come up with nobody on base, fastballs only.'"
The group stuck to the agreement.
"I flew out to center against Syndergaard and then that same game, he had a double off me, I think off the wall," Arrieta said. "You tip your cap and hey, a deal's a deal. That's a fun story I like to tell people, just the games and [stuff] that goes into it. It would have sucked if he hit the ball over the fence, but hey, a deal's a deal."
There won't be any deals in Des Moines on Saturday, though. Each pitcher is looking to win and send themselves and their teams to the finals in Salt Lake City.
"He's won this before," Wainwright said about Arrieta, who won the event in Hartford in 2023, "so I don't want to start anything, but he should have a pretty big advantage going into this thing. ... I want to go out there and just play well and hit the ball hard and far."
"I hope that he's been swinging because I don't know if he knows exactly what he's in store for," Arrieta said. "But I think he's in trouble either way."