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Walk-off home run
In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. For a home run to end the game, it must be hit in the bottom of the final inning and generate enough runs to exceed the opponent's score. Because the opponent will not have an opportunity to score any more runs, there is no need to finish the inning and the team on defense will "walk off" the field while the player who hit the home run is rounding the bases. The winning runs must still touch all three bases and be counted at home plate. A variant of the walk-off home run, the walk-off grand slam, occurs when a grand slam exceeds the opponent's score in the bottom of the final inning and ends the game.
Although the concept of a game-ending home run is as old as baseball, the adjective "walk-off" attained widespread use only in the late 1990s and early 2000s.[citation needed]
The first known usage of the word in print[citation needed] appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 21, 1988, Section D, Page 1. Chronicle writer Lowell Cohn wrote an article headlined "What the Eck?" about Oakland reliever Dennis Eckersley's unusual way of speaking: "For a translation, I go in search of Eckersley. I also want to know why he calls short home runs 'street pieces,' and home runs that come in the last at-bat of a game 'walkoff pieces' ..." Although the term originally was coined with a negative connotation, in reference to the pitcher (who must "walk off" the field with his head hung in shame), it has come to acquire a more celebratory connotation, for the batter who circles the bases with pride and with the adulation of the home crowd.
Jim Thome holds the MLB record for most career walk-off home runs with 13, the first being hit on June 15, 1994, and the last (which broke the previous record of 12) on June 23, 2012. Most notably, he hit his 500th career home run for a walk-off home run. Freddie Freeman is both the only player to hit multiple walk off home runs in the World Series and the only player with a World Series walk-off grand slam.
Sportscasters have applied the term "walk-off hit" to any kind of hit that drives in the winning run to end the game. It is an expansion of the term to call a hit a walk-off when what ends the game is not the hit, but the defense's failure to make a play. The terms "walk-off hit by pitch", "walk-off walk" (a base on balls with the bases loaded), "walk-off wild pitch", "walk-off reach-on-error", "walk-off steal of home", "walk-off passed ball", and "walk-off balk" have been also applied, with the last dubbed a "balk-off". The day after Eric Bruntlett executed a game-ending unassisted triple play for the Philadelphia Phillies against the New York Mets on August 23, 2009, the Philadelphia Daily News used the term "walk-off triple play" in a subheadline describing the moment, although it was not a true walk-off.
A grand slam is a home run hit with all three bases occupied by baserunners ("bases loaded"), thereby scoring four runs—the most possible in one play. A walk-off home run with the bases loaded is therefore known as a walk-off grand slam. Since 1916 there have been more than 250 walk-off grand slams hit during Major League Baseball's regular season.
Since its institution in 1903, only two walk-off grand slams have been recorded in the postseason. The first was in Game 2 of the 2011 ALCS, by Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers. The second playoff grand slam was hit by Freddie Freeman of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. In Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS, Robin Ventura of the New York Mets hit a game-winning home run with the bases loaded against the Atlanta Braves, but as only the Mets player on third base – Roger Cedeño – reached home before the Mets started their on-field celebration, the play was officially recorded as a single.
Three players have hit two walk-off grand slams in a season: Cy Williams in 1926, Jim Presley in 1986, and Steve Pearce in 2017. Pearce's first was on July 27 (an 8–4 victory over the Oakland Athletics) followed by his second on July 30 (an ultimate grand slam, for an 11–10 win over the Los Angeles Angels), becoming the first player in MLB history to hit multiple walk-off grand slams within the span of a single week.
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Walk-off home run
In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. For a home run to end the game, it must be hit in the bottom of the final inning and generate enough runs to exceed the opponent's score. Because the opponent will not have an opportunity to score any more runs, there is no need to finish the inning and the team on defense will "walk off" the field while the player who hit the home run is rounding the bases. The winning runs must still touch all three bases and be counted at home plate. A variant of the walk-off home run, the walk-off grand slam, occurs when a grand slam exceeds the opponent's score in the bottom of the final inning and ends the game.
Although the concept of a game-ending home run is as old as baseball, the adjective "walk-off" attained widespread use only in the late 1990s and early 2000s.[citation needed]
The first known usage of the word in print[citation needed] appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 21, 1988, Section D, Page 1. Chronicle writer Lowell Cohn wrote an article headlined "What the Eck?" about Oakland reliever Dennis Eckersley's unusual way of speaking: "For a translation, I go in search of Eckersley. I also want to know why he calls short home runs 'street pieces,' and home runs that come in the last at-bat of a game 'walkoff pieces' ..." Although the term originally was coined with a negative connotation, in reference to the pitcher (who must "walk off" the field with his head hung in shame), it has come to acquire a more celebratory connotation, for the batter who circles the bases with pride and with the adulation of the home crowd.
Jim Thome holds the MLB record for most career walk-off home runs with 13, the first being hit on June 15, 1994, and the last (which broke the previous record of 12) on June 23, 2012. Most notably, he hit his 500th career home run for a walk-off home run. Freddie Freeman is both the only player to hit multiple walk off home runs in the World Series and the only player with a World Series walk-off grand slam.
Sportscasters have applied the term "walk-off hit" to any kind of hit that drives in the winning run to end the game. It is an expansion of the term to call a hit a walk-off when what ends the game is not the hit, but the defense's failure to make a play. The terms "walk-off hit by pitch", "walk-off walk" (a base on balls with the bases loaded), "walk-off wild pitch", "walk-off reach-on-error", "walk-off steal of home", "walk-off passed ball", and "walk-off balk" have been also applied, with the last dubbed a "balk-off". The day after Eric Bruntlett executed a game-ending unassisted triple play for the Philadelphia Phillies against the New York Mets on August 23, 2009, the Philadelphia Daily News used the term "walk-off triple play" in a subheadline describing the moment, although it was not a true walk-off.
A grand slam is a home run hit with all three bases occupied by baserunners ("bases loaded"), thereby scoring four runs—the most possible in one play. A walk-off home run with the bases loaded is therefore known as a walk-off grand slam. Since 1916 there have been more than 250 walk-off grand slams hit during Major League Baseball's regular season.
Since its institution in 1903, only two walk-off grand slams have been recorded in the postseason. The first was in Game 2 of the 2011 ALCS, by Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers. The second playoff grand slam was hit by Freddie Freeman of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. In Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS, Robin Ventura of the New York Mets hit a game-winning home run with the bases loaded against the Atlanta Braves, but as only the Mets player on third base – Roger Cedeño – reached home before the Mets started their on-field celebration, the play was officially recorded as a single.
Three players have hit two walk-off grand slams in a season: Cy Williams in 1926, Jim Presley in 1986, and Steve Pearce in 2017. Pearce's first was on July 27 (an 8–4 victory over the Oakland Athletics) followed by his second on July 30 (an ultimate grand slam, for an 11–10 win over the Los Angeles Angels), becoming the first player in MLB history to hit multiple walk-off grand slams within the span of a single week.