The ball boy reached down and touched the ball near the third baseline in left field.
Except that umpires never called interference, and Sam Antonacci kept chugging around the bases. The Chicago White Sox rookie reached home in 15.36 seconds for his first career home run, inside-the-park no less.
“I’m feeling like it kind of exemplifies who I am as a player,” Antonacci said following the 11-5 win over the host Arizona Diamondbacks, according to MLB.com. “It was 8-2, and I feel like a normal player would just cruise in, standing up at second. Just take their double, and I just wanted the extra base. I wasn’t going to say anything. I was just going to take it.”
Arizona’s Lourdes Gurriel Jr. assumed the play was dead, and the ball largely rested in left field until Antonacci slid home in the ninth inning to tally a bizarre two-run homer that carried 266 feet. A challenge wasn’t granted because no interference was called.
According to MLB.com, Wyatt Langford was the last MLB player to cash in an inside-the-park homer as his first career homer just over two years ago.
“Just knew it was a for-sure double,” said Antonacci, who’s playing left field himself. “Then, I saw no one was putting their hands up, so I just kept running.”
The Sacred Heart-Griffin graduate opened the game with an RBI triple to center field to build a 4-0 lead. He ended 2-for-5 with three RBIs and a run, with seven total bases in his sixth MLB appearance.
In his previous outing, he registered a hit in one plate appearance. Antonacci delivered a hit in his first-ever MLB at-bat on April 15.
Antonacci, The State Journal-Register’s Large School Baseball Player of the Year in 2021, was selected by the White Sox in the 2024 draft.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: What Sam Antonacci had to say after first MLB (inside-the-park) home run
Reporting by Bill Welt, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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