Sam Antonacci did not have any time for a celebratory trot around the bases for his first home run. The Chicago White Sox rookie had to earn it the hard way on Tuesday night.
Antonnaci suited up for just the sixth MLB game of his career on Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix, Ariz. He came up to the plate in the top of the 9th inning with a man on first and nobody out against D-Backs reliever Ryan Thompson.
The White Sox left fielder smacked a 1-1 sinker down the left-field line for what was guaranteed to be extra bases. Antonnaci got more than that, recording an inside-the-park home run as the first home run of his career.
This play was WILD 🤯
— White Sox on CHSN (@CHSN_WhiteSox) April 22, 2026
Sam Antonacci's first career home run is INSIDE THE PARK after the ball made contact with the ball boy and Diamondbacks LF Lourdes Gurriel Jr. gave up on the play pic.twitter.com/aSK681KvXF
The fair ball got touched by the ball boy, who assumed it had gone foul, leading to left-fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to take the play off. Antonacci did no such thing as he flew through the bases and slid home for a four-bagger that never left the playing field.
Fortunately for Antonacci, umpires reviewed the play and upheld it as an inside-the-park home run. It would have been downright cruel to have him run across the diamond only to have his first-ever homer wiped away.
Antonnaci did quite a bit of running in the White Sox’s 11-5 win. His other hit of the contest came on an RBI triple in the first inning that was just a few feet short of clearing the fence in center field.
