Over the past few months, Daniel Nava has proven he was worth the $1 fee that the Red Sox spent to pick him up from the Chico Outlaws in the independent Gold Baseball League.
Nava made this week’s edition of “The Starting 9” — ESPN.com’s list of nine memorable moments in the 2010 Major League Baseball season — for the grand slam he smacked on the first pitch Philadelphia righty Joe Blanton threw him back in June. Coming in at eighth on the list, the grand slam added to Red Sox history in a few ways.
He became the fourth player in MLB history to hit a grand slam in his first plate appearance, joining Kevin Kouzmanoff, Jeremy Hermida and Bill Duggleby of the 1898 Phillies. Only one other Red Sox player has ever hit a slam in his first at-bat for the team, and that was back in 1960 when Rip Repulski hit one against the White Sox. Nava and Kouzmanoff are the only two players in the history of the MLB to hit a grand slam on the first pitch of their careers.
Nava’s homer proved to be even rarer, as he has yet to hit No. 2 on the season.
Topping ESPN.com’s list was the graceful way that both Armando Gallaraga and Jim Joyce handled the umpire’s perfect-game mistake, while Rocco Baldelli‘s comeback also made the list.
