Triston Casas’ first major league home run was always going to be memorable.
Throw in the Ryan Brasier lookalike and incognito White Sox fan who only caught it because he dropped his phone in the middle of a battle with a basket of chicken wings, then had to negotiate with a series of officials as well as DJ Kitty, the Rays’ bizarre cat mascot, and ended up getting a series of autographs, including from Casas, who he had never heard of, and Rafael Devers, who he was unable to identify, in exchange for the ball, and you have quite the story.
Sure, read that first paragraph again if you missed something. It’s not a MadLib. It’s the story of Jordan Blatner, the 23-year-old Orlando native who was in the right place at the right time when Casas’ first big league dinger landed in the right-field seats at Tropicana Field on Tuesday night.
NESN cameras showed Blatner, decked out in a blue Rays jersey with a White Sox shirt underneath, talking with security officials, police offers, Red Sox clubhouse manager Tommy McLaughlin and even DJ Kitty in the wake of Casas’ first homer. There was thought to be a prolonged — and intense — negotiation. But Blatner says that once he learned it was Casas’ first home run, he knew the ball should end up in the first baseman’s hands..
“I was notified that it was his first home run so I was told to walk it over to the dugout,” Blatner told Jahmai Webster on the NESN broadcast. “As I’m walking, police and security come up to me, ‘Where you going?’ ‘To the dugout. I’m giving him his ball back.’ They’re like, ‘No, they’ll come up to you. So I just waited and they came up.”
Blatner scored a bat and ball signed by Casas as well as baseballs signed by Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts (who was seen signing one in the dugout during the game). Talk about right place, right time.
“I’m going to be viral in Boston — I was eating my chicken wings and my phone fell,” Blatner told Webster. “So I walked over to go down to get my phone and I look up because everybody’s yelling, and the ball literally comes right at me.”
Blatner didn’t catch it on the fly. He said it deflected off his arm after bouncing. That’s probably a good thing because it left Casas’ bat with an exit velocity of 96 mph. The 371-foot shot, which came on a 3-2 fastball from Rays opener J.T. Chargois, was Casas’ second career hit in the majors. He didn’t think he got all of it.
“I still can’t believe it happened, that way, that pitch in that park,” Casas said (via NESN’s postgame show). “I’ve never hit a home run at a 96 mph exit (velocity) so I didn’t think it was going to go. But it felt awesome just to get us back in the game.”
Once Casas retrieved the ball, he made sure to give it to his father, Jose, who was at the ballpark after traveling from the Miami area. It was a happy ending after all.
“I did hear that there was a little miscommunication with getting the ball back but I was able to give him a bat, give him a ball and thankfully, I got it back,” Casas said.
“It was a really special moment. Something we have been thinking about for a really long time. Growing up, I obviously wanted to be a major league baseball player. Hitting your first major league home run, I shared that moment with him, gave him a hug. He got pretty emotional after I gave it to him. Hopefully this is the first of many.”
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