The Dodgers utterly crushed the Padres on opening day Monday, 14-3. Corey Seager hit a three-run homer. Joc Pederson came through with the first grand slam in MLB in 2017. There were two other home runs, both off the bat of catcher Yasmani Grandal.
A switch hitter, Grandal went back to back with Pederson in the third inning, hitting from the left side (video here). Then in the eighth inning, Grandal hit a two-run shot, this time from the right side (video here).
Now, this is rare.
In fact, I found only two other instances where a switch hitter homered from both sides of the plate on opening day. And this is pretty shocking as well, both cases came from the same team in the same game.
Back in 2009, the Diamondbacks got home runs from Felipe Lopez and Tony Clark from the left side against Aaron Cook and later from the right side against Glendon Rusch.
And that’s it in baseball history on opening day, until 2017 with Yasmani Grandal pulling it off. So there’s your trivia tidbit for the night.
