Inside Wilyer Abreu’s Historic Night At The Plate

Baseball has been played for over 100 years. While stat tracking wasn’t as detailed as it is today, you can find statistics for players who played in the early 1900s. That is to say, it’s hard to do something that’s never been done before.

During the Boston Red Sox’s 13-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds, outfielder Wilyer Abreu came pretty close.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Abreu hit a ball that hit the wall in center field, caught a fortunate hop, and bounced over Reds center fielder TJ Friedl. Friedl fell over as he tried to recalibrate, and Abreu scored before the ball reached the infield. The last Red Sox player to hit an inside-the-park home run came seven years ago, when Eduardo Nunez did it in Tampa Bay.

In the eighth inning, Abreu came up again, this time with the bases loaded. On the first pitch of the at-bat, he put the ball in the bullpen for a grand slam. According to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo, it marked the first time a Red Sox player had both an inside-the-park home run and a traditional home run in the same game since Pokey Reese in 2004.

The history doesn’t stop there, though. Cotillo also reported that Abreu was the first Red Sox player to hit an inside-the-park home run and a grand slam in the same game since 1939, when Jim Tabor did it. However, Tabor outdid Abreu by hitting two grand slams to go with his sprint around the bases.

After the game, Abreu seemed most excited about his first home run of the night.

“It was the first time that I’ve hit an inside-the-park home run,” Abreu said through his translator. “It was very exciting, but I was very tired at the end.”

He clearly wasn’t too tired, though. His second home run of the night was a no-doubter at 407 feet.