Brandon Allen (baseball)

Brandon Durell Allen (born February 12, 1986) is an American professional baseball coach and former first baseman who is the assistant hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Oakland Athletics, and Tampa Bay Rays and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.

Allen was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the fifth round of the 2004 Major League Baseball Draft.

On July 7, 2009, he was traded from the White Sox to the Arizona Diamondbacks for pitcher Tony Peña.

Allen was called up to the majors for the first time on August 22, 2009, and made his debut that day. He finished the game one for four with a single. Allen would play in 32 games that season and finished with a .202 batting average, four home runs, and 14 RBIs.

After spending most of the 2010 season at Triple-A Reno, Allen was called up on September 1, 2010. In his first game against the San Diego Padres, he hit his first career grand slam. He finished the season with a .267 batting average in 22 games.

On July 31, 2011, Allen was traded to the Oakland Athletics with Jordan Norberto for Brad Ziegler. He was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.

On August 23, 2011, Allen became only the second player in history to hit a home run into the upper deck at the New Yankee Stadium (Russell Branyan being the first). Later in the game he hit a shorter home run into the second deck to help the Athletics defeat the Yankees 6–5.

On April 9, 2012, Allen was designated for assignment.