LOS ANGELES — Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo put the Arizona Diamondbacks on the board for the 2026 season, clubbing a two-run shot in the fourth inning of Thursday’s Opening Day matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Perdomo fell behind 0-2 against Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto before ripping a fastball to right field to take a 2-0 lead. Corbin Carroll singled ahead of him to lead off the inning.
Geraldo Perdomo strikes first for the @Dbacks! pic.twitter.com/aCpPJOHV5S
— MLB (@MLB) March 27, 2026
It was a 398-foot shot that left the bat at 102 mph.
Perdomo is coming off a career year in which he reached 20 home runs and 100 RBIs, which had not been done by a Diamondbacks shortstop before.
The Diamondbacks opted to bat him third in the lineup to open the season, behind Ketel Marte and Carroll. Manager Torey Lovullo wanted the pop of Marte atop the lineup with Perdomo’s quality at-bat skills in the three-hole.
“(Marte) can create a very uneven environment for a starting pitcher,” Lovullo said. “Between he and Corbin, I feel like they can be go swingers. And Perdomo’s there at number three to protect them a little bit because he can throw up a five, seven-pitch at-bat as good as anybody we have.”
The switch-hitter had not homered in a Cactus League game or the World Baseball Classic, so perhaps he was due.
He also entered the game 2-for-10 against Yamamoto, but he matched that hit total with a single in the first inning and the long ball.
Perdomo has the rare ability to handle two strikes, as he finished sixth in MLB last season with a .734 OPS in two-strike counts, according to FanGraphs.
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