CNN
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Wilyer Abreu made history Monday night at Fenway Park, joining an elite club after hitting both a rare inside-the-park homer and a grand slam in the Boston Red Sox’s 13-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
Fenway Park erupted into cheers in the bottom of the fifth as Abreu hit his inside-the-park homer – his 15th HR of the season – off a fly ball to right-center field.
The inside-the-park home run – when a player hits a ball in play and manages to run around all four bases to score – was the first by a Red Sox player at Fenway since Jacoby Ellsbury hit one in September 2011 against the Baltimore Orioles, according to MLB.com.
“I knew he hit it to the deepest part, and I was kind of telling him, ‘Hey, let’s go! Let’s go!’ Because you never know what can happen out there in the (triangle),” Boston shortstop Trevor Story said postgame, per MLB.com.
“When I hit the ball, I thought it was a home run. When I saw it heading to the track, I thought the ball might not be gone,” Abreu said after the game, per MLB.com, “so I started running hard and the ball didn’t go out and I was able to hit an inside-the-park homer.”
“To me, it’s one of the most exciting plays in the game. I’m jealous. I’m honestly jealous because I don’t have one yet,” Story added. “Always rooting for it, always watching and seeing the possibility of it.”
Then in the eighth, Abreu added the cherry on top when he hit the first grand slam of his career to put the game out of reach and take the win for Boston in the opener of a three-game series.
The rare feat made him the sixth player to hit an inside-the-park home run and a grand slam separately in a game, and the first since the legendary Roger Maris achieved the feat in 1958 while playing for the Kansas City Athletics.
“He got a fastball that he could handle, down in the zone, for the grand slam. And that’s something we’ve been talking about,” Sox manager Alex Cora said, per ESPN.
“So far, it’s been an outstanding season for him. It’s been great.”
The game also saw Story bag a three-run homer in the bottom of the first and Jarren Duran get a solo shot in the sixth. For the Reds, Austin Hays had a two-run triple and a solo home run to cut the lead to 8-5 at the top of the sixth, but Abreu’s magical evening shut out any chance of a comeback.