The 98th grand slam of the baseball season, the most recent one, came off the bat of Red Sox Xander Bogaerts Monday night, as the Red Sox faced off against the Rays in the opening game of Boston’s last homestand of 2015.
Coincidentally, the first grand slam in baseball this season was also off the bat of a Red Sox player. It was on that hopeful Opening Day of April 6, when Hanley Ramírez introduced himself to Red Sox Nation with a towering, 9th inning blast off Phillies pitcher Jake Diekman.
Fast forward to Red Sox game #149 of the season Monday and, well, hope has been replaced with the once all-too-popular season summary, “we’ll get ’em next year.”
Still, the Sox managed to keep us entertained, coming from behind (twice) to beat the Rays and officially end Tampa Bay’s campaign for the AL East. The win bumped the Red Sox out of last place in the division. Boston had been last or tied for last every day since June 9.
Bogaerts’ grand slam, his first ever and the Sox’ only one since Day One, put Boston on top 8-6. The Sox had five slams last year and an MLB-best nine in 2013.
44 of the 98 grand slams in 2015, like Bogaerts on Monday, put the batters team in the lead. Three of those were walk-offs.
This season, Toronto’s powerful Edwin Encarnacion has had three slams, the most in baseball. The Indians’ Jacobs Field has been site of the most slams in 2015 (7).