Garrett blasts first career grand slam vs. former team ... and his best friend

WASHINGTON -- Stone Garrett wants to see Tommy Henry, his best friend in baseball, succeed on the mound. Well, there might be one exception -- when Garrett is the one in the batter’s box.

Garrett crushed his first career grand slam off Henry when the pals faced off in the Nationals’ 10-5 loss to the D-backs on Tuesday night at Nationals Park.

“That’s my No. 1 [home run], for sure. That’s not even close,” Garrett said. “Ten years from now when we’re on the golf course, we’ll look back at that -- and I’ve got the ball. So that’s definitely No. 1.

“Sorry, Tommy.”

Left fielder Garrett and southpaw Henry became close pals in the D-backs’ Minor League system. They were roommates in Double-A, Triple-A and the Major Leagues, after both made their big league debuts last August. Henry also introduced Garrett to golf, and they spent time together on the course during the offseason.

But Garrett was designated for assignment by Arizona in November. He signed with Washington two weeks later, and the friends found themselves thousands of miles apart this season.

"We keep in touch,” said Henry. “Stone hates texting, but we throw FaceTimes back and forth, try to keep in touch, stay up to date with each other. There are a lot of changes day to day in professional baseball, so if you can have a constant friendship, whether it’s long-distance or close, that always helps, so we try to stay close."

The duo faced each other for the first time as opponents on May 6 at Chase Field, when Garrett went 1-for-3 with a single and a stolen base.

Garrett was ready to top that performance on Tuesday.

In their first matchup of the game, Garrett saw a changeup low in the zone in a 1-2 count. He sent it soaring a Statcast-projected 389 feet into left-center field to drive in Lane Thomas, Joey Meneses and Jeimer Candelario. With a 98.3 mph exit velocity and a 32-degree launch angle, the slam had a .340 xBA.

“I’ve spent a lot of time on defense behind Tommy,” Garrett said. “I’ve seen him pitch many times, but it all comes down to sticking to my approach, because I’m going to go to my strengths. He’s going to pitch to my weaknesses, but I’m going to play to my strengths.”

Garrett’s grand slam was the 69th in Nationals team history (2005-present) and 36th at home. Of those, Matt Adams (June 16, 2019), Michael A. Taylor (May 13, 2015) and Michael Morse (June 5, 2011) also hit a grand slam against Arizona.

Prior to Garrett, CJ Abrams was the most recent player to achieve the feat on April 27 at Citi Field versus the Mets. The last time a member of the Nats had hit a grand slam at Nationals Park was Yan Gomes on June 15, 2021, against the Pirates.

There were not any knowing glances exchanged between Garrett and Henry as Garrett rounded the bases. At the time of both players’ postgame interviews, they had not texted each other, either. They didn’t need to. Garrett and Henry had plans to meet up the next morning, and it was easy for them to predict how that would go.

“Yeah, we’re still close,” said Henry. “I looked back at the film, it felt like a good pitch. It’s unfortunate in any circumstance -- but unfortunate that it was him, because I probably won’t hear the end of it now."

Garrett described the key to having success against a pitcher and club so closely tied to his baseball journey as “treat it just like another game, just relax, have fun with it, don’t press too hard.” And in doing so, Garrett added a chapter to his story that he will enjoy retelling to Henry.

“It felt freakin’ good,” Garrett said. “My best friend pitching and then your old team -- Keibert [Ruiz] just hit two home runs off his old team [the Dodgers] -- so it feels good. Revenge game.”