June 27, 2003: Dave Matranga’s home run, only career hit, ‘affected my entire life’

Dave Matranga progressed through the Houston Astros farm system for five years. His patience and perseverance eventually paid off.

Early in 2003 Matranga, who was in his sixth season in the Houston Astros organization, was called up from Triple-A New Orleans. After a one-day stay, he was returned to New Orleans without appearing in a game.

The disappointment didn’t last long.

Less than two months after his brief visit with the Astros, Matranga, an infielder, was recalled on June 26 when Jeff Kent was sidelined with a wrist injury. Matranga arrived in Houston the next day for the Astros’ game against the Texas Rangers.

With the Astros leading 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning of the game, Matranga was on deck with two outs. He was waiting to pinch-hit for pitcher Kirk Saarloos when Adam Everett grounded out for the final out of the inning.

After waiting nearly 5½ seasons for his first major-league at-bat, he would have to wait one more inning.

In the top of the fifth, the Rangers scored two runs to take a 4-3 lead. In the bottom of the inning, with Astros pitcher Nate Bland, who had relieved Saarloos, scheduled to lead off, Matranga was again sent up to pinch-hit.

Using a bat he brought along from New Orleans – borrowed from New Orleans teammate Alan Zinter – the 26-year-old Matranga stepped into the batter’s box to face Rangers starter Joaquin Benoit.

On a 1-and-1 count, the 6-foot, 170-pounder lined Benoit’s fastball over the left-field fence. Matranga, who had played collegiately at Pepperdine and was the Astros’ sixth-round pick in the 1998 amateur agent draft, had joined the select company of major leaguers who hit a home run in their first at-bat. 

Matranga was just the second Astro – the first since José Sosa in July 1975 – to achieve the feat. He is also in select company: He played in only seven major-league games, and the home run was his only hit. Including Matranga, only 22 players have a home run as their one major-league hit. And only four of those players homered in their first major-league at-bat: Luke Stuart in 1921, Mark Worrell in 2008, Eddy Rodríguez in 2012, and Matranga.

Zinter had made his major-league debut with the Astros the previous season. As a 34-year-old rookie, who had been in the minor leagues since 1989, Zinter hit a two-run home run for his first major-league hit in a 7-5 loss to the Reds in Cincinnati on July 1, 2002. Zinter had gone hitless in his first five major-league at-bats.

Matranga’s home run tied the game 4-4. The Astros had taken a 3-0 lead on a two-run homer by Lance Berkman in the first and a solo home run by Morgan Ensberg in the second. After Matranga’s heroics, the Rangers took the lead again with a run in the sixth inning, and then added three runs in the seventh inning on Rafael Palmeiro’s 508th career home run for an 8-4 lead.

The Rangers scored their final two runs in the ninth inning. After pinch-hitter Juan González walked to load the bases, Einar Díaz singled in two runs. The plate appearance for González was his first in four days since the Rangers had agreed to trade the two-time MVP. González announced before the game that he was exercising the no-trade clause in his contract.

González was in the second year of a two-year, $24 million deal he had signed in January 2002. He demanded the no-trade clause be included after he agreed to defer $4.5 million of his salary in 2003 and accepted less money overall than what he had been offered by the New York Mets. Rangers general manager John Hart said the team wouldn’t have been able to sign González without the clause. The Rangers, who brought a 29-48 record into the game, indicated they had no intention of re-signing González.1

The Rangers’ 10-7 victory ended a 12-game road losing streak. The team was still in last place in the AL West, but improved their record to 30-48, 22 games behind the first-place Seattle Mariners. The loss dropped the Astros to 41-38, a half-game behind the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, who were tied for first place in the NL Central Division.

After his debut, Matranga played in five games over the next two weeks, going 0-for-4. After making an out in his one at-bat in the Astros’ 11-2 victory over Cincinnati on July 10, he was returned to New Orleans, where he spent the rest of the season. Matranga spent the 2004 season with the Astros’ Double-A farm team in Round Rock, Texas. After the season he signed as a free agent with the Anaheim Angels.

Matranga went to spring training with the Angels in 2005 and stayed with the team until the final week of spring training. On April 1 he played in an exhibition game at Anaheim Stadium – just a couple of miles from where he grew up – against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He then was sent to the Angels’ Triple-A Salt Lake farm team.

Matranga was recalled by the Angels on April 28 after Maicer Izturis was sidelined. Matranga joined the team in New York, where the Angels had played the first two games of a nine-game road trip. Matranga didn’t play in a game as the road trip continued in Minnesota and Seattle.

On May 6 the Angels opened a three-game series with the Detroit Tigers at Anaheim Stadium. Matranga finally made his Angels debut in the series finale on May 8. After entering the game as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning, he grounded out to shortstop for the final out of the Tigers’ 10-1 victory. Three days later he was returned to Salt Lake. In early July, he was taken off the Angels’ 40-man roster and designated for assignment. He accepted an assignment to Salt Lake and finished the season there.

Over the next four seasons, Matranga played at the Triple-A level for four different organizations. After hitting .272 in 95 games with New Orleans, a Florida Marlins farm team, in 2009, he considered playing in Japan and talked with the Yomiuri Giants before deciding to retire at age 32.

In his professional career spanning 12 seasons, Matranga batted .254 in 1,097 minor-league games and was 1-for-6 in seven major-league games.

After ending his playing days, Matranga went to work for PSI Sports Management, based in Southern California. The president of PSI, Page Odle, became a player agent – with Matranga as a client – after playing professional baseball for three seasons. Among the players the firm has represented are Kole Calhoun, Aaron Judge, Scott Kingery, and Kolten Wong. Matranga, as of April 2024, was a vice president of PSI.

In 2020, Matranga told a reporter that the home run in his first major-league at-bat had a big impact on his post-playing career.

“Going back to that home run, and what I did in the big leagues, in such a small moment in time – it’s affected my entire life,” Matranga said. “It’s affected how I’ve been able to relate and communicate with people on this side of the game. The respect that you get from doing something like that, from just getting there. Being a minor leaguer versus a guy who got to the big leagues, even if it was for only (six) at-bats, you have a different sort of credibility.2

Sources 

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com, Retrosheet.org, and YouTube.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU200306270.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2003/B06270HOU2003.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXjv6cl2yEE

Photo credit: David Matranga, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 T.R. Sullivan, “Palmeiro Shows Texas Some Glove in Victory,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 28, 2003: D5.

2 Andy McCullough, “Before He Was Aaron Judge’s Agent, David Matranga Was a Literal One-Hit Wonder,” theathletic.com, April 9, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1733815/2020/04/09/before-he-was-aaron-judges-agent-david-matranga-was-a-literal-one-hit-wonder/.