SAN FRANCISCO -- Sunday would have been special for Heliot Ramos no matter how he fared at the plate. The 25-year-old from Humacao, Puerto Rico, got to wear No. 21 on his back and represent Roberto Clemente, his country's biggest star. Before the game, the Giants held a ceremony honoring the late Orlando Cepeda, the second player from Puerto Rico to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
But Ramos wasn't content to just be an observer. With a game-tying homer to right in the ninth, he became the first right-handed hitter in Oracle Park's history to reach McCovey Cove on the fly.
"This is a big organization that has a lot of great legends," Ramos said. "For me to be the first one to do it, it's insane to me."
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Heliot Ramos is humbled to make Oracle Park history after Orlando Cepeda's Celebration of Life on Roberto Clemente Day 🧡 pic.twitter.com/B89nE9EXMv
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 16, 2024
While the Giants keep detailed records of the 104 left-handed Splash Hits, the history of right-handed attempts is a bit hazier and reliant mostly on people passing stories down about which hitter came the closest. There have been 77 right-handers to reach the arcade over 25 years, and the closest to get an actual Splash in recent seasons was certainly Buster Posey. The final homer of his career came in the NLDS in 2021 and would have gotten wet had a water cannon not stood in the way.
The final home run of Buster Posey's career was a memorable one: pic.twitter.com/EVUKdiX73l
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) November 3, 2021
Ramos, incredibly, became the third right-handed hitter to hit a homer the opposite way during just this homestand (the Giants went 1-5 during it, by the way, losing 4-3 on Sunday). When Jerar Encarnación hit a high fly ball that landed in the arcade on Wednesday, Ramos kind of, sort of called his shot.
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"One of my goals is to be the first righty to hit it in the water," he said that night.
It took him just four more games.
It always was going to take the right blend of events to allow it to happen, and while Sunday wasn't perfect, Ramos still found the right ingredients. It was 61 degrees at first pitch, but the wind was blowing out all afternoon. With the Giants trailing 2-1 in the ninth, Ramos hoped to catch a ball out front from San Diego Padres closer Robert Suarez. The right-hander regularly hits triple digits and would provide most of the power.
Ramos has an opposite-field approach. Earlier this season, he hit a pop-up to right against the Atlanta Braves and dropped his head. He thought it was an out, but his natural power helped the ball carry into the seats at Truist Park.
Suarez threw a 100-mph fastball on the outer half, and Ramos went with it.
"I always knew I had the oppo juice, but it looks impossible just by looking at the wall and the weather here," he said later.
Off the bat Sunday, Ramos knew the ball had the proper height and trajectory to reach the water. The wall out there is 24 feet high but just 309 feet from home plate. The marine layer typically knocks down balls that get up in the air, but Ramos had a 30-degree launch angle, hitting the ball high enough to clear the wall and water cannons, but low enough that it couldn't be impacted by the natural elements above McCovey Cove. It splashed down 394 feet from the plate.
Heliot Ramos becomes the first right-handed batter to mash a Splash Hit 🤯 pic.twitter.com/C69BpDBbqw
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 15, 2024
The only question for 33,043 fans and 28 Giants at that point was whether it had hit the portwalk first, a disqualifier. In the clubhouse, rookie Landen Roupp -- who threw five shutout innings -- watched with teammates and tried to break it down. When the camera angle from the right field corner was finally shown, the Splash Hit was confirmed. After the inning, Ramos watched as the board in right field ticked up to 105.
"I am the man."
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 15, 2024
Ramos watching a replay of his historic Splash Hit ... narrated by Kruk 😂 pic.twitter.com/62XRaDjf62
Ramos said he had never even put one in the water during batting practice, but he was always confident he could do it.
"I did want to be the first one ever to do it and I knew no righty has ever done it," he said. "It was always something that would be special if I did it."
Heliot admits he always wanted to be the first right-handed batter to collect a Splash Hit 💪 pic.twitter.com/7CvIs4xsEe
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 16, 2024
The moment was kind of a microcosm of the season for the Giants, who have watched Ramos and other young players keep them from being a complete disappointment but still have been unable to compete. They dropped to six games under .500, but Ramos said he'll remember this as a special day.
He got to wear No. 21 and make Oracle Park history. And in a cool twist, the first Splash Hit by a right-handed hitter was Ramos' 21st of the year.
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