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San Francisco Giants Veteran Ties Record With Extraordinary Homer

LaMonte Wade Jr. belted a highly improbable home run for the San Francisco Giants on Mother's Day.

Tyler Maher

May 12, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants infielder LaMonte Wade Jr. (31) homers.
May 12, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants infielder LaMonte Wade Jr. (31) homers. / Robert Edwards-USA TODAY Sports
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The San Francisco Giants had one of their best wins of the season on Sunday, walking off the Cincinnati Reds 6-5 to claim the rubber match of their three-game series.

Fresh off a 5-1 victory on Saturday, the Giants immediately fell into a 3-0 hole during Sunday's series finale at Oracle Park. Jeimer Candelario cleared the bases with a three-run double off rookie Kyle Harrison in the top of the first, giving Frankie Montas a 3-0 cushion to work with.

Harrison settled down after that, and the score was still 3-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth. That's when San Francisco's hitters finally woke up and LaMonte Wade Jr. made history.

Tyler Fitzgerald started the Giants' rally with a one-out double, and Matt Chapman promptly singled him home. That brought up Wade Jr., who'd already walked and flown out deep to center in his first two at-bats.

Showing his trademark patience, MLB's OBP leader worked the count full. On the sixth pitch of his at-bat, Wade Jr. turned on a 96-mph heater from Montas up and in, launching it high and deep to right field. The ball seemed to hang in the air forever before finally landing just beyond the wall for a game-tying two-run homer.

The long ball was just the second homer of the season for Wade Jr. and his first since April 13, snapping a 24-game homerless drought. It also extended his hitting streak to eight games, boosting his batting line to a remarkable .340/.480/.457.

More notably, Wade Jr.'s dinger tied a record for the highest launch angle (50 degrees) on an over-the-wall home run in the Statcast era, which began in 2015. Because the ball was hit so high, it barely cleared the wall, reaching the seats with just six feet to spare. It would not have been a homer in any other ballpark and had an expected batting average of just .020.

But after narrowly missing a homer in his previous at-bat, Wade Jr. was due for a little luck. His 398-foot shot to center field didn't quite have the distance, falling into the glove of Stuart Fairchild instead.

Wade Jr.'s record-tying blast keyed a five-run fifth inning for the Giants, who tacked on two more runs after his big hit. The Reds rallied to tie the game in the top of the eighth and wisely walked Wade Jr. his next time up, but San Francisco prevailed in the bottom of the 10th on Casey Schmitt's walk-off ground-rule double.

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Tyler Maher
TYLER MAHER

Tyler grew up in Massachusetts and is a huge Boston sports fan, especially the Red Sox. He went to Tufts University and played club baseball for the Jumbos. Since graduating, he has worked for MLB.com, The Game Day, FanDuel and Forbes. When he's not writing about baseball, he enjoys running, traveling, and playing fetch with his golden retriever.

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