Bogaerts' walk‑off grand slam

Xander Bogaerts came up in the bottom of the 12th inning with the score tied 3-3, the bases loaded, and one swing turned a deadlocked game into a 7-3 Padres win over the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park on April 9. The pitch was a 1-0 fastball from Valente Bellozo, and it landed in the left-field seats for a walk-off grand slam. (mlb.com) The setup was almost as dramatic as the homer. Fernando Tatis Jr. bunted automatic runner Jake Cronenworth to third, Colorado intentionally walked Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado, and Bogaerts got the one matchup the Rockies were trying to create. (mlb.com) That choice blew up instantly. Bogaerts’ homer was the ninth grand slam of his Major League Baseball career and only his second with San Diego. (nbcsandiego.com) The game had already stretched into the kind of night that feels longer than a movie. Major League Baseball’s box score shows 12 innings, 10 Rockies hits, 9 Padres hits, and a score that stayed tied after the ninth, the 10th, and the 11th before San Diego scored four in the last half-inning. (espn.com) San Diego had to survive two extra-inning punches before it got that chance. Colorado went up 2-1 in the 10th on a Tyler Freeman run batted in single, San Diego tied it on a Manny Machado sacrifice fly, Colorado made it 3-2 in the 11th on a Brett Sullivan double, and Luis Campusano answered with a two-out double to make it 3-3. (nbcsandiego.com) There was another escape just before the ending. In the top of the 12th, Jake Cronenworth threw out Willi Castro at home plate on a grounder to second base, which kept Colorado from taking the lead and gave the Padres one more swing in the bottom half. (nbcsandiego.com) The win also landed at a useful moment for Bogaerts personally. His 2026 game log shows he went 2 for 6 with 4 runs batted in that night, and through April 9 he had 2 home runs and 6 runs batted in in 12 games after a quiet first two weeks. (statmuse.com) For the Padres, the swing changed more than one box score. The victory moved San Diego to 7-6, which put the club above.500 for the first time in 2026 after an uneven opening stretch. (espn.com) It also revived a phrase San Diego fans know by heart. “Slam Diego” became the Padres’ nickname during their 2020 barrage of grand slams, and Bogaerts’ shot brought that old identity back in one clean flash: bases loaded, one pitch, game over. (mlb.com)