Any inside-the-park home run in MLB is going to be a combination of bad defense and bad rebounds. Tampa Bay Rays quarterback Luke Raleigh took full advantage of the latter on Wednesday.
In the sixth inning of a road game against the San Francisco Giants, Raleigh smashed a deep fly ball to right center field off pitcher Ross Stripling. In almost no other MLB stadium has a 425-foot fly ball gone over the fence. However, in Oracle Park’s wide right field, Raley’s hit bounced off the tall brick wall, and that’s when things got weird.
The ball rebounded, then bounced again off the top of the center court wall and dropped again for play. This was the good news for the giants. The bad news was that quarterback Wade Meckler ran too far down the caution lane and couldn’t stop the ball jumping several feet from him and right fielder Michael Conforto.
Raleigh, hitting Jose Serre, was crossing home plate by the time Meckler’s throw hit the cutter.
The Rays won the game, 6-1.
It probably goes down as one of the strangest inside-the-park MLB has seen, and another reminder that right field defense at Oracle Park, particularly the part known as “Triple Alley,” is very different from the league’s other ballparks.
The rebound rewards Raleigh at least for a noteworthy hit, and a continuation of a breakout season for a player acquired by the Rays in an unnoticed deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers two weeks prior to the 2022 season. Raleigh entered the season hitting . 189/.278/.284 with three kills in 144 games. at the MLB plate between the Rays and Dodgers, but turned into a masher of right-handed pitchers.
Through Wednesday, Raleigh hits .257/.340/.517 with 17 homers and 12 stolen bases. There are a lot of things wrong with the 73-50 Rays, who are currently fighting for their place in the AL East, right now, but he’s not one of them.