SEATTLE -- The wait was worth it for Rodolfo Durán.
The aim was pretty good, too.
The 11-year Minor Leaguer, who earned his callup on May 7, when Luis Campusano went on the injured list with a fractured toe, had gone 0-for-10 across four games to begin his big league career.
Saturday, in the top of the seventh inning of the Padres’ 7-4 win over the Mariners, Durán gave himself a batting average and did it in style, swatting a first-pitch fastball from Seattle starter Logan Gilbert into the Padres' bullpen for his first career hit, his first career home run and his first two career RBIs, giving San Diego a 7-2 lead at the time.
The 95.1 mph heater came off Durán’s bat at 101.2 mph with a 25-degree launch angle and traveled a Statcast-projected 386 feet.
Despite the distance, it found a glove -- Jason Adam’s glove, to be exact, as the right-hander was warming up to throw the bottom of the seventh for San Diego.
Two innings later, Durán put an even better swing on a sinker from Domingo Gonzalez, drilling a shot 389 feet out to right-center field -- only for Julio Rodríguez to reach over the wall and bring it back.
Durán signed with the Phillies all the way back in 2015 as a 17-year-old out of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. In the decade-plus since, he’s spent time in the Yankees and Royals systems, before coming to the Padres on a Minor League contract in January 2025. He’d racked up 614 career games in the Minors before earning his callup.
In 23 games with Triple-A El Paso this season, he’d hit .238 with a .785 OPS, 20 RBIs and four home runs.
None of those felt as good as Saturday’s, though.