A walk-off home run hit by a player who also homered earlier in the game is fairly rare, but Friday night’s action in Southern California made that fact easy to forget.
Within an hour of each other, two National League West rivals, the Padres and Dodgers, delivered thrilling walk-off dingers. Gavin Sheets socked a three-run shot to walk it off for a 5-2 San Diego win over Colorado, while Max Muncy’s solo clout helped Los Angeles beat Texas, 8-7.
And what made it rarer than a pair of walk-off homers from division rivals? The fact that Sheets and Muncy had already homered in their games -- with Muncy’s knockout blow his third home run of the night.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Friday was just the fourth day in MLB history in which multiple players had multihomer games that included walk-off dingers. Mike Zunino and Trey Mancini did so on June 7, 2017; Troy Glaus and A.J. Pierzynski accomplished the feat on July 2, 2008; and Robin Ventura and Jack Clark were the first to do so back on July 31, 1991.
On Friday, Sheets opened the scoring for the Padres with a solo dinger in the fifth inning at Petco Park before his walk-off shot broke a 2-2 tie in the ninth. Muncy, meanwhile, went deep in his first two at-bats in the second and fourth innings, then ended the game with his third dinger in the bottom of the ninth. It was a perfect capper to an exciting Friday slate.