Padres Reliever Daniel Camarena (In His Second MLB Game & Second Time At Bat) Hits A Grand Slam For His First Career Hit; The Only Other Pitcher To Do That Did It In 1898

 There was an interesting game in San Diego last night:

Nationals - 303 200 000 - 8 11 0
Padres    - 000 701 001 - 9 11 2

Craig Calcaterra, Cup of Coffee, July 9, 2021:

Yesterday I said you all should stay up late and watch the fantastic pitching duel between Max Scherzer and Yu Darvish. Let's see how that panned out:

Scherzer: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 7 ER, 2 HR
Darvish:  3.0 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 1 HR

My dad, who was a weatherman, used to say "at what job can you be as wrong as often as I am not get fired?" Welp, baseball pundit is right the hell up there.

The Nationals jumped out to an EIGHT RUN lead by the top of the fourth inning. By the end of the fourth it was 8-7, thanks to a Fernando Tatís Jr. homer and — get this crap — a grand slam from Padres relief pitcher Daniel Camarena off of Scherzer. For this I really think you need the Spanish language call:

Here's the Spanish-language radio call of Daniel Camarena's grand slam, courtesy of XEMO 960. pic.twitter.com/qqxHrioqVH

— Foolish Baseball (@FoolishBB) July 9, 2021

Contrast that with the Hawk Harrelson-style angry silence from the Nationals homer-ass broadcasters. Utter clownery. When you see something amazing like that, even if it happens against the team whose games you call, you have to at least attempt to live up to the moment, man. . . .

The story of the game, obviously, was Camarena, however. A local San Diego kid, he was just called up to the team earlier in the day. This was his first ever hit. It was his first ever homer. He is the first relief pitcher to hit a grand slam since Pittsburgh's Don Robinson did it on Sept. 12, 1985. He’s the first player of any position to have his first hit be a grand slam since Brandon Crawford did it back in 2011. . . .

(At the link above, Rich MacLeod tweets: "One of the all-time hilariously butthurt calls by the Nationals TV broadcast, and that's saying something because they're consistently the worst & saltiest telecast in baseball.")

Last night was Camarena's second major league game. He made his debut on June 19, allowing three runs in 2.2 innings and striking out in his only plate appearance. Then . . . back to the minors for almost four weeks . . . before being called up yesterday. And that evening, he sends a 97-mph Max Scherzer fastball 416 feet, over the fence in right.

Scherzer had never given up a home run to an opposing pitcher. Pitchers had been 30-for-351 against him (.085, 26 singles and 4 doubles).

The only other pitcher in National or American League history whose first career hit was a grand slam was Bill Duggleby of the Phillies, who did it on April 21, 1898.

I looked up Duggleby at B-Ref and saw that 1898 was his rookie season. April 21 must have been  pretty early in the year . . . and that game turned out to be Philadelphia's fourth game. I then went to the LA84 Foundation, which has an online collection of issues of The Sporting Life from 1883-1916, and checked out the box scores for the Phillies' first four games.

Duggleby did not appear in any of Philadelphia's first three games, and the short recap for April 21 indicates that it was indeed his debut and that he hit his grand slam off Charlie Gettig in the second inning – his first major league at-bat. And Duggleby's grand slam, like Camarena's more than 123 years later, went over the right-field fence.

This isn't just a grand slam.

And it isn't just a grand slam BY A PITCHER.

It's a grand slam, BY A PITCHER, FOR HIS FIRST CAREER HIT.#SlamDiego pic.twitter.com/goraKjGanH

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) July 9, 2021

Daniel Camarena’s dad is having an out of body experience watching his son hit that grand slam 😭 #Padres pic.twitter.com/BlG5ZCEkAb

— Jim Russell (@JimRussellSD) July 9, 2021

From Doug Kern (I added some linescores):

Daniel Camarena: Second grand slam by a pitcher in Padres history.  Mike Corkins at CIN, Sep 4 1970.

Daniel Camarena: Second relief pitcher ever to hit a grand slam against Washington. Dizzy Trout, then with the Tigers, Jul 28 1949 (W 13-7).

Daniel Camarena: First relief pitcher to hit a grand slam since PIT Don Robinson vs CHC, Sep 12 1985 (W 10-2).

Daniel Camarena: First Padres pitcher with a 4-RBI game (forget the slam) since Jake Peavy at LAD, Jul 26 2006 (W 10-3).

Max Scherzer: Second game of career where he gave up 7 runs, 2 homers, and hit 2 batters.  Other was Aug 17 2009, for D'backs in Atlanta (L 4-9).

The Padres trailed 8-0 in this game and went on to win. That's tied for their largest comeback win in franchise history (5/23/70 & 6/10/74).

May 23, 1970

Padres - 005 200 151 020 001 - 17 21  1
Giants - 170 010 122 020 000 - 16 23  2

June 10, 1974

Pirates - 012 020 210 - 8 12  2
Padres  - 000 000 045 - 9 13  1

Padres: First game where they trailed by 6 or more after the 3rd inning and came back to win since Aug 23 2013 vs CHC (W 8-6).

Cubs   - 600 000 000 - 6 10  1
Padres - 000 321 11x - 8 13  1

Nationals: First game where they scored 8+ runs in the first 4 innings and lost since Jun 12 2017 vs ATL (L 10-11).

Atlanta   - 303 000 023 - 11 11  0
Nationals - 221 400 001 - 10 17  2

STATS also sez: "The Padres are the first team ever to face an 8+ run deficit with a multi-time former Cy Young winner on the mound for the opposing team and yet come back to win."