Santana's HRs in 30 active MLB parks feat of a 'baseball lifetime'

SAN FRANCISCO -- Entering the weekend series, Twins veteran first baseman Carlos Santana had hit a home run at every active Major League park except one: Oracle Park.

Santana had already gone deep against all 30 teams, a feat he achieved last Aug. 15 against the Dodgers. That alone put him in an exclusive club, albeit one that has become more populous since the balanced schedule was instituted beginning in the 2023 season.

After breaking through for his first career round-tripper at Oracle Park in Saturday's 4-2 win against the Giants, Santana is in even more rarefied air. He became just the third active player to homer at all 30 current ballparks, joining the Padres' Manny Machado and the Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

"I'm excited," Santana said. "I was trying to [hit] a home run in all the ballparks. Great game. Great game for me and my teammates."

There was some initial doubt that Santana's milestone dinger had stayed fair. Facing a former Twin in left-hander Taylor Rogers with one out in the sixth inning, Santana launched a towering fly ball into the left-field corner. The 38-year-old slugger paused after making contact, waiting to see which side of the foul pole it landed on before beginning his trot around the bases.

The fair call stood following a crew chief review, the third such review of the game, with two would-be homers -- Matt Chapman's smoked liner to left in the first inning and Max Kepler's drive to right immediately after Santana's long ball in the sixth -- being confirmed as foul.

Due to its dimensions and weather conditions, Oracle Park is not an easy place to go yard. The night before, the Twins' run of 28 consecutive games with a homer -- tied with the 2023 Braves for the second-longest such streak in AL/NL history, three shy of the '19 Yankees -- came to an end.

Manager Rocco Baldelli, citing his optimism -- particularly when his team needs to get runs on the board -- said he told bench coach Jayce Tingler that Santana's go-ahead homer was fair all the way.

"The wind was kind of going a little more out to right-center, so you’re hopeful it’s going to push it and not let it hook," Baldelli said. "But the ball stayed true. … Pretty amazing to keep that ball fair with a swing like that. It’s not very easy to do. We know every ball is going to hook, or hook a lot, and that one did not."

When asked to describe what this latest accomplishment means to him, Santana landed on one word: blessed.

"I've played a long time, 14, 15 years in my career," Santana said. "I think it's very important for me and my family. I say, ‘Thank you, God,’ every day, for all the opportunities to be healthy and play hard. It's good for me, my family and my teammates."

The Twins had a commemorative ball for Santana to celebrate the feat. (The fan who caught the home run ball requested Giants season tickets in exchange, but the Twins declined.)

Santana's 15 seasons in the big leagues have seen him play for seven teams and rack up accomplishments by the force of sheer longevity. He's even outlasted a couple of ballparks he's played at along the way: Globe Life Park and Turner Field -- the only place he has played and not homered at in his career.

"These things do not happen overnight," Baldelli said. "They don’t happen over even a decade, you can’t accomplish these things with 10 years of great play. It takes almost a baseball lifetime to accomplish this stuff. So I’m not surprised to see it, and there will be something else probably later on this year that he does that no one else has done."

Beyond the 30-for-30 long ball, Santana reached in all four trips to the plate on Saturday, going 2-for-2 with a single and a pair of walks. He was one of many in the Minnesota lineup who stepped up on an afternoon when the team was without many of its key offensive contributors, with a thin bench to boot as the Twins deal with a growing list of day-to-day ailments.

"It doesn't matter who's on that field," starter Simeon Woods Richardson said. "We trust all of our guys. We have the extreme depth in our lineup to do anything, we're very versatile. So just knowing that, we have faith and have trust in our guys."