Bogaerts' walk‑off grand slam

Xander Bogaerts came up in the bottom of the 12th inning with the score tied 3-3, one out, and the bases loaded, then ended the night with a grand slam into the left-field seats at Petco Park for a 7-3 Padres win over the Colorado Rockies on Thursday, April 9. The pitch was a 1-0 offering from Rockies reliever Valente Bellozo, and it was Bogaerts’ ninth career grand slam. (mlb.com) The inning got strange before it got loud. Fernando Tatis Jr. opened the 12th with a sacrifice bunt that moved automatic runner Jake Cronenworth to third, then Colorado intentionally walked Luis Arraez and Manny Machado to load the bases for Bogaerts. (espn.com) That choice told you what the Rockies feared most in that moment. With the winning run already 90 feet away, Colorado set up a force play at every base, but it also gave Bogaerts one swing to turn a one-run problem into a four-run loss. (nbcsandiego.com) The game had been dragging for nearly four hours before that. Major League Baseball’s automatic-runner rule put a runner on second base at the start of each extra inning, but neither team broke through until San Diego’s last swing in the 12th. (mlb.com) San Diego had to survive the top of the 12th first. The Padres escaped that half with a defensive play that kept Colorado from taking the lead, which is why Bogaerts got to bat in a tie game instead of a deficit. (msn.com) For the Padres, the blast felt familiar because “Slam Diego” is not just a slogan from nowhere. San Diego became known for a run of grand slams in 2020, and MLB’s own recap called this one a return of that late-inning grand-slam style. (mlb.com) For Bogaerts personally, it was his second grand slam as a Padre and one of the cleanest snapshots yet of why San Diego signed him to be more than a steady shortstop. He had gone hitless earlier in the game, then finished it with the only swing anyone in the park would remember. (espn.com) The win also changed the Padres’ early-season math. San Diego moved to 7-6, climbed above.500 for the first time in 2026, and snapped Colorado’s four-game winning streak in one shot. (si.com)