SAN FRANCISCO — Michael Harris II said after getting to San Francisco on Tuesday, a day before he was to be activated from the 60-day injured list, “It feels kind of weird, like the first day of school.”
On Wednesday night, Harris quickly became the most popular kid in school. On the second pitch of his first plate appearance after two months on the IL, the Braves center fielder hit a first-inning grand slam that sailed out of Oracle Park and splashed into McCovey Cove beyond right field, setting the tone for Atlanta in a 13-2 rout against the San Francisco Giants.
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“That’s the way to, I guess, make your entrance,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said, laughing. “That’s pretty good.”
Welcome back, kid.
“It’s still weird,” Harris said afterward, then smiled before adding, “but that was cool or whatever.”
It was just the second ball hit to the water this season at Oracle Park and the first by a visiting player.
MICHAEL HARRIS II GRAND SLAM@MoneyyyMikeee | #BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/4JofANBxQ8
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) August 15, 2024
“I mean, some people are just born with it, and he’s one of them,” said Matt Olson, who hit another of the Braves’ four homers in the lopsided win. “It was really impressive, because (Giants starter Robbie) Ray was kind of spraying it around, too. To be on ‘go’ like that, and put that swing on, was really impressive.”
Rookie Grant Holmes pitched a career-high seven innings for his first win in his fourth MLB start, and only Jorge Soler’s fourth-inning exit due to hamstring tightness kept it from being a perfect night for the Braves, who’ll go for a four-game series sweep Thursday afternoon.
Both Snitker and Soler, who felt it when he was running out a grounder in the fourth inning, characterized the situation as tightness rather than a significant injury. But they also said they won’t know more until Thursday, when Soler is scheduled to have an MRI in San Francisco before the Braves travel to Anaheim to face the Los Angeles Angels in a weekend series.
“It didn’t seem that bad,” Snitker said. “I think he said he felt like he could’ve kept going, but he felt something. So I’m glad he said something. We kind of felt like he was on the verge after the last series (Soler hit four homers in three games at Colorado to start the trip) and even in this series, of getting going. So hopefully this thing doesn’t sideline him for very long.”
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Soler, traded to the Braves two weeks ago from the Giants, seemed upbeat after the game and was asked how impressive it was that Harris hit a homer in his first at-bat coming off a two-month IL stint, and that he hit it to McCovey Cove.
“It looks like he’s been playing the whole time — he hit a tremendous home run there,” Soler said through an interpreter. “It’s tough (to hit it to the cove). It’s cold here, the ball doesn’t really travel as much, so he really got it.”
The Braves tried to get the ball for Harris as a memento. But a fan, who goes by the moniker McCovey Cove Dave and sits in the cove in a kayak during games, declined to make a trade for a jersey or other equipment. He told the Braves’ representative that it was the first grand slam among the 37 balls he’s retrieved from the water, so he wanted to keep it.
Olson, who has three homers in 20 games at Oracle Park, is among the many left-handed sluggers who’ve never hit a ball to McCovey Cove. It’s nearly impossible for a right-handed hitter.
“I guess a lot of lefties that come here are wanting to hit the ball into McCovey Cove,” said the left-hitting Harris. “Yeah, it felt good. Too bad I couldn’t get it back. Guy didn’t want to give it back. But it’s alright. Just got to, I guess, try to do it again.”
After Ray hit the first two Braves batters of the game and issued a pair of one-out walks, the second to Orlando Arcia to bring in the first run, Harris stepped to the plate for the first time in an MLB game since June 14, the day he suffered a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring.
He fouled off Ray’s 0-1 fastball above the strike zone, then crushed an 84.2 mph knuckle-curve at the top of the zone, driving the ball over the right-field fence, over a tall, seat-topped brick wall beyond the bench, over a walkway behind it and into the water.
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Harris went 10-for-23 (.435) with one homer during a six-game rehab assignment in Triple A before being activated. But no one could have predicted this.
“I was just trying to be aggressive. It’s crazy because I told myself before the game, I think I had seen somebody hit a grand slam and I told myself I’d never hit one, and went up there and did it in my first AB back. That was pretty cool,” he said.
After the Braves batted around in a five-run first inning, the Giants’ Tyler Fitzgerald led off the bottom of the first with a homer on the first pitch from Holmes, a fastball above and inside the zone. Holmes brushed it off and had another strong outing in his 15th MLB game, including 11 relief appearances before moving to the rotation.
“Crazy — it’s like a dream come true, like I’ve said so many times,” said Holmes, charged with eight hits, two runs and one walk with six strikeouts. “This journey, dream come true. Every day it feels surreal. I’m just thankful for each day I get. Just taking it one day at a time.”
A 28-year-old South Carolinian, Holmes spent 10 seasons in the minors with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics and Braves before making his MLB debut June 16.
“I’m sure he’s been thinking about this time for a while,” Olson said. “A guy that spent some more time in the minor leagues than maybe he should have or maybe would have hoped, and not letting it derail him or making it a put-pressure-on-yourself kind of thing. He’s come up, and he’s been chill and throwing well for us the whole time.”
Harris’ grand slam was the Braves’ third this season and second in five days, after Olson had one in his two-homer, six-RBI game Saturday at Colorado. On Wednesday, the Braves also got leadoff homers from Olson in the third inning and Austin Riley in the fifth, and a two-run homer from Sean Murphy in the eighth.
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They needed 10 innings to beat the Giants in each of the first two games of the series, 1-0 and 4-3, but the Braves matched the scoring output of those two games before Ray recorded the second out Wednesday. And the second out would be his last. Ray got the hook after walking No. 8 hitter Murphy.
On a day when Snitker shared more bad news on the medical front before the game, announcing that reliever A.J. Minter will have left-hip surgery next week — likely season-ending, though Snitker said that won’t be known until after surgery — it didn’t take long for the Braves to get back on the good-vibes train, this time via slugging.
After getting seven dominant and scoreless innings from NL Cy Young candidate Chris Sale in the series opener, and a strong six innings from Charlie Morton including his 2,000th career strikeout in Game 2, plus game-winning RBIs from catcher Travis d’Arnaud in the 10th inning of both, the Braves got an offensive outburst Wednesday and another strong start.
“I believe that’s what helped me tonight, see(ing) those guys (Sale and Morton) go out there and compete like they have the last two games,” Holmes said. “It’s kind of given me a little fire, you know. Like I need to go out there and do that and pitch well. Keep the bullpen out of the game as long as possible.”
And then came a big swing from the guy on his first day of school, and Holmes was ready to do his thing.
“Yeah, haven’t thrown a pitch yet and we’re up 5-nothing,” he said. “You’ve got a little room to play with, and it definitely takes a little pressure off your shoulders.”
(Photo: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)
David O'Brien is a senior writer covering the Atlanta Braves for The Athletic. He previously covered the Braves for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and covered the Marlins for eight seasons, including the 1997 World Series championship. He is a two-time winner of the NSMA Georgia Sportswriter of the Year award. Follow David on Twitter @DOBrienATL
