For the past 25 seasons, no right-handed hitter has ever made a splash into McCovey Cove in San Francisco.
Until now.
San Francisco Giants outfielder Heliot Ramos became the first ever right-handed batter to hit a home run directly into the ocean at Oracle Park on Sunday afternoon. The history-making home run came in the bottom of the ninth against the San Diego Padres to tie the game and eventually send it into extra innings. The Padres would eventually win 4-3 in 10 innings.
The Giants broadcast team was unsure at first if the homer went directly over the right field wall and stands and didn’t just bounce into the water. It was confirmed that it was a true splash dinger.
McCovey Cove home runs
Since the ballpark opened in 2000, Oracle Park has been one of the best places to hit a home run because of how close the water is to the playing field. Since it’s possible to hit homers into the water, the Giants have ‘splash hits’ for whenever their players hit a dinger into the cove. Opposing players have hit splash hits, but those don’t count toward the official total.
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With Ramos’ home run, that makes it 105 splash hits in the ballpark’s history. Not surprisingly, the player to hit the most splash hits was of course Barry Bonds, who raked it a whopping 35 times straight into McCovey Cove. In second is Brandon Belt with 10.
But no matter which team they were on, no right-hander had ever accomplished the feat before Sunday. Not only is there the challenge of having a complete opposite field home run, but the winds in San Francisco can be so strong it can easily kill a potential hit destined to land in the water. It took more than two decades, but Ramos has etched himself into baseball history.