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Grand slam record falls again
Posted: Monday May 22, 2000 04:12 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- It was a grand day to be hitter with the bases loaded. For the first time in baseball history, there were six grand slams hit in a single day. Anaheim's Garret Anderson hit the record-breaker Sunday with two outs in the third inning off Kansas City's Chris Fussell. Just like you can't hit a grand slam without help from your teammates, Anderson's blast wouldn't have been historic if not for some work earlier in the day by other sluggers. J.T. Snow of San Francisco, Brian Hunter of Philadelphia, Jason Giambi of Oakland, and Los Angeles' Adrian Beltre and Shawn Green connected with the bases loaded before Anderson, bettering the record set last Aug. 9. There were 56 homers in the majors Sunday, one off the record set April 7. "It is exciting to be a part of history," Green said. "Especially with the Dodgers and their illustrious past." It was the first time the Dodgers had two grand slams in a game since Aug. 23, 1985, when Pedro Guerrero and Mariano Duncan did it against Montreal. Joe Kelley and Samuel Sheckard did it for the Brooklyn Dodgers on Sept. 23, 1908, at Cincinnati.
Beltre hit his first career slam in the fifth inning off Jesus Sanchez in Los Angeles' 12-3 win over the Florida Marlins. "It was a great feeling to get my first grand slam and I hope they'll be coming a lot," Beltre said. "I had a lot of emotion after the grand slam, but I didn't show it." Green capped the Dodgers' grand day with a bases-loaded shot in a seven-run ninth inning off Antonio Alfonseca. Slams were part of an even bigger inning in Milwaukee, when Snow capped an 11-run sixth inning with his shot off Valerio De Los Santos. The Giants beat the Brewers 16-10. "It's been that kind of year. I feel honored," said Snow, who was disappointed to find out his wasn't the record-breaker. Hunter, who entered the game in a 3-for-24 slump, hit his third career grand slam in the third inning off Colorado's Masato Yoshii, accounting for all of Philadelphia's runs in a 4-3 victory. "I've been struggling so any hit was going to be a big one for me," he said. "But a grand slam, that's pretty big at any time." Giambi connected in the second inning off Minnesota's Sean Bergman for the other slam, giving Oakland a 13-4 win.
"You've got to have guys on to drive them in," Giambi said. With the season only a quarter over, there have already been 58 grand slams hit. There were 139 slams hit last season, two short of the record sent in 1996. "I don't believe the ball is flying out, or is really jumping," Anderson said. "If it was, those two balls I hit to the warning track (in the second and fifth innings) would've been gone." The grand slam hitters on the previous record-setting day were Fernando Tatis of St. Louis, Jose Vidro of Montreal, Mike Lowell of Florida, Bernie Williams of the New York Yankees and Jay Buhner of Seattle. The four slams in the NL set a record.
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