After being denied his first career home run twice on Wednesday night, Adolis García played hero for the Rangers in the series finale, finally hitting his first career home on a go-ahead shot in the 10th inning to secure a 6-4 win over the Rays on Thursday at Tropicana Field.
In doing so, he became just the second player in Rangers/Senators franchise history with an extra-inning homer as his first career home run, joining Bud Zipfel (on Aug. 2, 1961 in the 11th inning). He is also the first batter in Texas Rangers history (1972-present) to hit a go-ahead home run in extras as his first career homer.
García drove a slider up over the plate from reliever Cody Reed into the right-field seats, approximately 45 feet from the spot where he missed a homer the night before. In that wild sequence, the ball plunked off the yellow line and a screen above the right-center-field fence instead of sneaking over, and García wound up called out at the plate after a replay review.
As he rounded first base Thursday night, García said he thinks he jumped pretty high at the realization that he had, in fact, officially hit a home run.
“Just to see the joy when he's running around first base, that's so cool to watch, not only as manager but just as a baseball fan to see true joy like that,” said manager Chris Woodward. “That's why we play this game. And we don't play for any other reason, obviously there's a lot of money to be made for these guys, but the true reason you play this game is for moments like that.”
Woodward said pregame that he hoped García would make up for the missed home runs on Wednesday. García said he told a friend Wednesday's events that “it is what it is," remarking that he would "get it tomorrow." So when tomorrow came, he absolutely knew the ball -- which traveled 366 feet at a 101.1 mph exit velocity -- was out of the park when he hit it.
“I was focused on my bat, trying to stay focused on my approach to continue doing everything I did in every other bat,” García said. “I thank God that today I hit my first home run on Jackie Robinson Day. It's a very special day for everybody for everything that he did to allow people from all colors and races to be able to come and play the game of baseball.”