July 28, 1987: Barry Bonds hits first career inside-the-park home run in Pirates’ loss to Phillies

Barry Bonds’ home runs typically identified themselves at impact, soared dismissively over outfield fences, and culminated in ceremonially paced processions around the bases.1 But one Bonds homer, hit in his second big-league season of 1987, broke from the norm, bounding past the glove of a diving infielder, taxing the full capacity of his game-changing footspeed, and climaxing in a mouthful of home-plate dirt. The inside-the-park home run – Bonds’ first of three as a major leaguer – punctured Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Shane Rawley’s shutout in the eighth inning of a 5-2 win over Bonds’ Pittsburgh Pirates on July 28 at Three Rivers Stadium.

Bonds reached the majors in May 1986, nearly a year after Pittsburgh selected him sixth overall in the June 1985 amateur draft.2 He hit 16 home runs during the last four months of the 1986 season. Fifteen more followed by the end of the Pirates’ July 1987 California road trip, pushing his career count to 31 in 206 games.

The 23-year-old Bonds had connected against frontline starters like Ron Darling of the New York Mets and Orel Hershiser of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as well as younger pitchers like the Mets’ David Cone and the Chicago Cubs’ Greg Maddux and Jamie Moyer. Five of his homers were leadoff shots; he also had a two-run, ninth-inning, come-from-behind walk-off against Philadelphia relief ace Steve Bedrosian on September 23 of his rookie year.3

All had been fence-clearers, but Bonds’ speed – good for 57 stolen bases and 10 triples to that point – had nearly yielded at least one inside-the-park home run, shortly after his 1986 call-up. On June 11, Bonds drove a pitch from the Cubs’ Jay Baller off the center-field wall at Three Rivers Stadium and continued home when left fielder Thad Bosley dropped the carom while preparing to make a throw.4 The official scorer ruled it a triple and an error on Bosley. “Many in the crowd were unaware of the error and thought Bonds had hit an inside-the-park home run,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.5

Bonds concluded the July ’87 California swing with homers in back-to-back games against the San Diego Padres, but the Pirates returned to Pittsburgh at 45-53, the only losing record in the six-team National League East Division. They had finished last three seasons in a row. The fifth-place Phillies led Pittsburgh by 4½ games, boosted by eight wins in the teams’ previous nine meetings.6

Pirates right-hander Rick Reuschel had thrown three shutouts in five starts leading into Tuesday night’s series opener. Selected as NL Player of the Week for a 91-pitch blanking of the San Francisco Giants on July 22,7 he led the league with a 2.19 ERA. Earlier in July, the 38-year-old Reuschel had contributed 1⅓ scoreless innings to the NL’s 13-inning shutout in the All-Star Game.8

But the modest crowd of 16,270 saw Philadelphia go ahead in the first inning. Juan Samuel led off with a single to center and Milt Thompson’s triple to right center scored Samuel. Mike Schmidt – who had beaten the Pirates in April with his dramatic 500th career home run – drove in Thompson with a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 Phillies lead.

Rawley took the mound almost a year to the day after a fractured bone in his left shoulder had ended his 1986 season prematurely, weeks after making the All-Star team for the first time in his 10-season career.9 Back in action by Opening Day 1987, Rawley had won all four of his July decisions and 12 games on the season.

His first pitch of the game got away and struck Bonds on the earflap of his batting helmet. A full-count walk to rookie shortstop Al Pedrique put two runners on for Bobby Bonilla,10 batting .329 with a .532 slugging percentage in 50 games since May 30. The 24-year-old Bonilla’s July swings at Three Rivers Stadium had generated the first-ever switch-hit home runs in a game in the franchise’s 106-season history and only the seventh upper-deck homer in the ballpark’s 18-season history.11

Bonilla smashed a grounder up the middle, but second baseman Samuel made a backhanded grab and flipped to shortstop Steve Jeltz from his knees.12 Jeltz’s relay to first completed the double play. Bonds was stranded at third, and the Pirates did not reach scoring position again until the fifth inning.

By then, the Phillies had taken a 5-0 lead. Right fielder Glenn Wilson led off the fourth by striking out on a pitch in the dirt, but it bounced past catcher Junior Ortiz and Wilson reached first on the wild pitch. Chris James hit a smash that first baseman Mike Diaz missed for a two-base error, and Darren Daulton’s groundout scored Wilson.

In the Philadelphia fifth, Thompson singled. First baseman Von Hayes waited out Reuschel’s low-and-away offerings, then connected with an up-and-in 2-and-1 fastball, pulling it over the right-field fence for his 15th homer of the season.13

Rawley frustrated Pittsburgh’s righty-heavy lineup,14 striking out Bonds and getting Pedrique to ground out after Reuschel’s single in the third and turning Diaz’s comebacker into a double play in the fourth. In the fifth, Johnny Ray singled with one out and Ortiz hit a line drive to center that fell in for a hit; Thompson grabbed it before it reached the gap, holding Ortiz to a long single.15 Pittsburgh manager Jim Leyland sent up Terry Harper to bat for Reuschel, but Jeltz turned Harper’s grounder into another double play.

The game moved through the middle innings with Rawley and Philadelphia seemingly in control. Leyland brought in Don Robinson, transitioning from closer to the starting rotation,16 for a tune-up in relief. Robinson set down eight straight Phillies before allowing an eighth-inning single to James and leaving the game because of a sprained back.17

Ray’s lineout to begin the bottom of the eighth made it eight Pirates retired in a row, including Bonds’ fly out in the sixth. Ortiz broke the string with a single, but Rawley fanned pinch-hitter John Cangelosi for the second out.

Bonds batted for the fourth time in the game. In front of an off-speed pitch, he grounded it toward first.18 Hayes dove, but the ball split the gap between his glove and the bag. It skipped down the right-field line, headed for the fence separating the home-team bullpen from foul territory.19

Wilson attempted to cut off the ball, but it hit a pole on the metal bullpen fence and caromed at a right angle into fair territory.20 Surprised by the bounce, Wilson slipped and fell down.

“It didn’t stay along the fence like it usually would,” he said.21

Wilson chased after the ball for about 40 feet while Ortiz and Bonds dashed around the bases. Wilson threw to Samuel between first and second. Bonds beat the relay home with a head-first, mouth-open slide under Daulton’s tag.

Aided by Ortiz on the way to the dugout, Bonds stopped several times and doubled over, seeking to disgorge dirt from his windpipe.

“Every so often, he had to clear his throat, which was scratched and dry from the mouthful of dirt he had swallowed,” the Pittsburgh Press observed.22

Rawley retired the next four batters for the complete-game win, a day after his 32nd birthday. He went on to win a career-high 17 games in 1987, second to the Cubs’ Rick Sutcliffe among NL pitchers.

Philadelphia swept the three-game series from the Pirates.23 On July 31, the day after the Phillies left town, Pittsburgh traded Robinson – the final remaining member of its 1979 World Series champions – to the Giants.24 Several more trades of veterans for younger players or minor leaguers followed. Reuschel went to San Francisco three weeks after Robinson.25 Ray went to the California Angels.26 Infielder Jim Morrison went to the Detroit Tigers.27

The reconstituted Pirates ended the season with a surge of 27 wins in 38 games. When Bonds caught Phillies pinch-hitter Jeff Stone’s fly ball to left for the final out of the season’s final game on October 4, Pittsburgh had tied Philadelphia for fourth place in the NL East with an 80-82 record.28 Bonds slugged nine more homers – all fence-clearing – after his July 28 inside-the-park shot, giving him the team lead with 25. His .261 batting average was nearly 40 points better than his rookie-season mark.

Bonds hit 176 home runs in seven seasons with Pittsburgh. He signed as a free agent with the Giants in December 1992 and hit 235 homers during the next six seasons. He began using steroids in 1999 and hit 351 more home runs through 2007, his final big-league season, for a major-league record total of 762 homers.

Only two more were inside-the-parkers. Both were in 1997, with San Francisco.29

Author’s Note

The author celebrated his birthday by attending the game with his father. Earlier in July 1987, on Camera Day at Three Rivers Stadium, the author and his friend Darryl were photographed with Barry Bonds.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin. SABR members Gary Belleville and Kurt Blumenau provided insightful comments on an earlier version of this article. The author was inspired to write about this game after reviewing Mike Huber’s Games Project article on Henry Aaron’s only career inside-the-park home run, hit in May 1967.

Photo credit: Barry Bonds, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. He also reviewed game coverage in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Press, Philadelphia Daily News, and Philadelphia Inquirer newspapers; and Andrew Vargha’s YouTube video compilation of Barry Bonds home runs.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT198707280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1987/B07280PIT1987.htm

Notes

1 “539 Barry Bonds Home Runs (updated),” YouTube video (Andrew Vargha), 1:22:39, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KfqkAwANyQ. Accessed August 22, 2024.

2 After the Pirates promoted Bonds from the Triple-A Hawaii Islanders, he appeared in his first major-league game on May 30, 1986. At that time, Pittsburgh’s April 20 game with the Chicago Cubs, suspended on account of darkness with the score tied in the 14th inning, was pending resolution. When the suspended game was resumed on August 11, Bonds pinch-hit in the 17th inning and singled to drive in the eventual winning run. As a result, Bonds’ batting and fielding log pages on Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org include the April 20 game, even though he was still in Triple-A on that date. Bob Hertzel, “Pirates’ Spree Hits 5½ with Standoff,” Pittsburgh Press, April 21, 1986: C1; Steve Halvonik, “Bonds Gets Pirates Baptism,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 31, 1986: 9; Bob Hertzel, “Morrison, Diaz Make Pirates King for a Day,” Pittsburgh Press, August 12, 1986: C1.

3 Bob Hertzel, “Dream Chaser: Bonds Aiming to Become Hit,” Pittsburgh Press, September 24, 1986: D-1.

4 Bob Hertzel, “Pirates Receiving No Relief in Victory,” Pittsburgh Press, June 12, 1986: D1.

5 Charley Feeney, “Pirates Top Cubs, 5-3, for Sweep: Ortiz Leads Way With Three Hits,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 12, 1986: 24; Mike DeCourcy, “The Crowd Is Simply Wild About Bonds,” Pittsburgh Press, June 12, 1986: D1.

6 Gene Collier, “Pirates Getting More Than Their Share of Phillies,” Pittsburgh Press, July 29, 1987: C1.

7 Bob Hertzel, “It’s a Day at the Beach Catching Reuschel,” Pittsburgh Press, July 23, 1987: D1; Associated Press, “Reuschel Selected NL Player of Week,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 28, 1987: 26.

8 Gene Collier, “Game’s Hometown Hero Gave Reuschel a Big Surprise,” Pittsburgh Press, July 15, 1987: C1.

9 Jayson Stark, “Injury Will Bench Rawley for Six Weeks – at Least,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 31, 1986: 1-D; Peter Pascarelli, “Complete Recovery Expected for Rawley,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 5, 1986: 4-D.

10 Phil Axelrod, “One Bad Pitch Didn’t Spoil Rawley’s Night,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 29, 1987: 11.

11 Shelly Anderson, “Here’s a Switch: Bonilla Hits Record Home Runs Righty, Lefty,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 4, 1987: 17; Phil Axelrod, “Bonilla’s Upper Deck Shot Beats Padres: Two-Run Homer Keys 4-2 Victory,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 13, 1987: 19.

12 Sam Carchidi, “Rawley Wins Five-Hitter As Bucs Fall, 5-2,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 29, 1987: 1-F.

13 Carchidi, “Rawley Wins Five-Hitter As Bucs Fall, 5-2.”

14 Pittsburgh’s lineup included five right-handed batters (Ortiz, Diaz, Pedrique, third baseman Jim Morrison, and Reuschel), two switch-hitters (Bonilla, second baseman Johnny Ray), and two left-handers (Bonds, center fielder Andy Van Slyke).

15 Jay Greenberg, “Thompson Smoking; Phils Try to Catch Fire,” Philadelphia Daily News, July 29, 1987: 86.

16 Robinson began his career with the Pirates in 1978 as a starting pitcher but had worked mostly in relief since 1984. He was scheduled to start the Pirates’ August 1 game against the St. Louis Cardinals, which was to be his first major-league start since August 18, 1985. Bob Hertzel, “Backache Won’t Keep Robinson out of Rotation,” Pittsburgh Press, July 29, 1987: C1.

17 Hipólito Peña recorded the final out of the eighth for the Pirates.

18 “Barry Bonds Highlights, 1986-1992,” X.com (MLB), August 24, 2024, https://x.com/MLB/status/1827370331260010769.

19 “539 Barry Bonds Home Runs (updated).”

20 Bob Fulton, “Rawley Gives Bucs Cold Shoulder in 5-2 Win,” Indiana (Pennsylvania) Gazette, July 29, 1987: 19.

21 Fulton, “Rawley Gives Bucs Cold Shoulder in 5-2 Win.”

22 Bob Hertzel, “Bonds Gets His Man And Eases Headache,” Pittsburgh Press, July 29, 1987: C1.

23 Bob Hertzel, “Bedrosian Rewrites the Script for Bonds, Act II,” Pittsburgh Press, July 30, 1987: D1; Bob Hertzel, “Pirates Waste a Strong Pitching Effort,” Pittsburgh Press, July 31, 1987: B1.

24 Robinson was traded for catcher Mackey Sasser, with pitcher Jim Gott joining the Pirates in a waiver transaction on August 3 to complete the deal. Bob Hertzel, “‘There’s Nobody Left’: Robinson Traded to Giants,” Pittsburgh Press, August 1, 1987: C1; Bob Hertzel, “Gott Bids Giants Good Riddance,” Pittsburgh Press, August 4, 1987: C1.

25 Reuschel was traded for reliever Jeff Robinson and minor-league pitcher Scott Medvin on August 21. Paul Meyer, “Pirates Trade Reuschel for Relief Help,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 22, 1987: 11.

26 Ray was traded for minor-league infielder Bill Merrifield on August 29, with minor-league pitcher Miguel García joining the Pirates as the player to be named later on September 3. Bob Hertzel, “Thrift Shop Ships Ray to Angels,” Pittsburgh Press, August 30, 1987: D1.

27 Morrison was traded for third baseman-outfielder Darnell Coles on August 7, with minor-league pitcher Morris Madden joining Pittsburgh’s organization as the player to be named later on August 12. Paul Meyer, “Pirates Grant Morrison’s Wish, Make Deal for Detroit’s Coles,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 8, 1987: 23.

28 Bob Hertzel, “Pirates Say Goodbye with Love,” Pittsburgh Press, October 5, 1987: D1.

29 The first was against Tom Glavine of the Atlanta Braves on April 23. The second was against Sterling Hitchcock of the San Diego Padres on September 21. Henry Schulman, “One for Bonds’ Highlight Film,” San Francisco Examiner, April 24, 1997: D-5; John Shea, “Giants Best in West by 2 Games: Javier Hits Triple in 9th to Seal Win,” Oakland Tribune, September 22, 1997: D-2.