When Bruce Bochy Homered Off Nolan Ryan

New Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy has an connection to the "Ryan Express" that's worthy of a footnote.

Last month after making an appearance at a local children’s hospital, Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy took another tour of Globe Life Field.

At one point, he came across an area devoted to Rangers legend Nolan Ryan. As part of the display is a list of every player that Ryan struck out in his 27-season Major League career. Bochy found his name. Ryan struck him out twice.

He’d much rather talk about the home run he hit off Ryan.

“I was going up the escalator and I saw my name on the wall and I thought to myself, 'You know a guy that hit a home run off of him should get his name on the wall, too,'” Bochy said.

Bochy was the definition of a journeyman back-up catcher, just trying to make a living in baseball. He played nine years and with three different teams. He actually broke in with the Houston Astros in 1978, and he and Ryan were teammates for a year when Ryan joined the team in 1980.

Bochy hit 26 home runs in his career. His moment of glory against Ryan came on July 1, 1985, at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

Ryan started for the Astros. Bochy sat on the bench as Terry Kennedy started the game. But the game dragged into a 10th inning. This being the mid-1980s and Ryan being Ryan, he kept on pitching.

Padres manager Dick Williams brought in Bochy as a pinch-hitter for Kevin McReynolds, the Padres center fielder. With two outs in the bottom of the 10th, Bochy toed in against Ryan and drove an offering over the fence to give the Padres a 6-5 victory.

Yep, Bochy’s home run was a walk-off and that has significance. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2019, it was the only walk-off home run Ryan ever gave up.

Ryan started 807 games in his Hall-of-Fame career.

Bochy basically won baseball’s version of the lottery. He admitted that he probably benefited from it being the 10th inning and Ryan having thrown “150 pitches, so his velocity was down to about 97,” he told the Chronicle.

Bochy also told the Chronicle there was no bat flip, no showing up his former teammate. He just ran his bases, met his teammates and headed for the showers.

A couple of days later, Bochy said, he ran into Ryan as he was working through a bullpen session between starts. Ryan couldn’t resist giving Bochy something to think about.

“He actually did,” Bochy said. “He's warming up and I was shagging (balls) in right field and because we played together in Houston, he said to me, ‘Hey Boch? I got something for you next time.’ He dropped down and threw it about 95 (mph) right where my head would have been.”

It makes Bochy a footnote in Ryan’s career. And Ryan a highlight of his.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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