{"id":681309,"date":"2026-04-22T20:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681309\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T20:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:51:21","slug":"sam-antonacci-inside-the-park-hr-caps-first-week-in-majors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681309\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Antonacci: Inside-the-park HR caps first week in majors"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX \u2014 Chicago White Sox left fielder Sam Antonacci knew he had at least a double after hitting a fair ball down the left-field line in the ninth inning Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.<\/p>\n

And then things got strange.<\/p>\n

A ball person attempted to field the hit as it came his way, apparently mistakenly believing it was foul. It hit his glove and bounced away. Diamondbacks left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. watched that sequence unfold and initially stopped going for the ball.<\/p>\n

\"HowardHoward Paley, the left-field ball person, reacts after attempting to field an inside-the-park home run hit by the White Sox’s Sam Antonacci during the ninth inning against the Diamondbacks on April 21, 2026 in Phoenix. (Christian Petersen\/Getty)<\/p>\n

But Antonacci noticed none of the umpires put their hands up to indicate the play was over, so he kept running.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted the extra base,\u201d Antonacci said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to say anything. I was just going to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antonacci slid in safely at the plate ahead of a late relay throw, resulting in a unique first career major-league home run.<\/p>\n

The Diamondbacks asked for clarity on the ruling. Antonacci waited to see if the two-run inside-the-park homer<\/a> would stand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was honestly catching my breath,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cI was a little out of shape on that run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since interference wasn\u2019t called on the field, the play was not reviewable, and the home run stood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was cool,\u201d Antonacci said. \u201c(Got to) celebrate with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a good first one to have,\u201d manager Will Venable said after Tuesday\u2019s game. \u201cAn interesting play. Credit to both those guys (Everson Pereira, who was the runner on base, and Antonacci) for continuing to play, and nice for Sammy to get his first one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite Sox left fielder Sam Antonacci slides home safely behind Diamondbacks catcher Adrian Del Castillo for an inside-the-park home run in the ninth inning Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Phoenix. (Rick Scuteri\/AP)<\/p>\n

Antonacci became the first Sox player to record an inside-the-park home run for his first career major-league home run since Kevin Bell on June 22, 1976, in Kansas City, Mo.<\/p>\n

Antonacci had two hits, including an RBI triple in the first inning, in Tuesday\u2019s 11-5 victory<\/a>. It was Antonacci\u2019s first multihit game as the Springfield native continues to adapt to life as a major-leaguer, on and off the field, since being called up from Triple-A Charlotte on April 15.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been fun so far,\u201d Antonacci told the Tribune before Tuesday\u2019s game. \u201cI think I\u2019m finally starting to settle in, from all the flights and everything going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of speeds up a little bit, but now that I\u2019ve gotten my feet under me and just playing baseball now, that\u2019s all I\u2019m worried about and not the extra stuff. That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about now \u2014 I get to play baseball and not worry about anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antonacci, 23, has a .190\/.320\/.429 slash line (4-for-21) with the triple, home run, three RBIs, two walks and two runs in six games.<\/p>\n

\u201cMixed results for Sam here early, but he\u2019s been very consistent in his attitude and how he comes to the field,\u201d Venable said before Tuesday\u2019s game. \u201cThat\u2019s one thing you don\u2019t worry about with him. He\u2019s just always locked in, always prepared and always gives you his best effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antonacci singled in his first major-league at-bat on April 15 against the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> at Rate Field. He went 1-for-3 with a walk that evening but then went 0-for-12 in his next three games with a walk. Antonacci had a pinch-hit single in Sunday\u2019s series finale against the Athletics in West Sacramento, Calif., and carried over the momentum to Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned that it\u2019s, honestly, it\u2019s just the same game,\u201d Antonacci said before Tuesday\u2019s game. \u201cThe pitching is a little better, the stuff is a little better. Pitchers like to nibble around the zone a lot more and they have better control. But it\u2019s a lot of the same stuff from what I\u2019ve been seeing. I\u2019ve been proud of my at-bats \u2014 except for one day I think, I forget what day in Sacramento it was \u2014 other than that, I thought I\u2019ve been putting together really good at-bats, and just not having much to show for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the veterans and a lot of the other guys in the clubhouse have believed in me and keep telling me to keep going. I\u2019m trying to knock my foot through the door and just continue to keep doing what I\u2019ve been doing because I\u2019ve prepared so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The support from his teammates has been very helpful.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaseball\u2019s hard,\u201d Antonacci said. \u201cBut a lot of people have gone through a little bit of a rough stretch. Just to hear that from them and just to keep on going means the world to me. It makes me feel like I\u2019m at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I appreciate that and it\u2019s awesome to hear. Because when you\u2019re comfortable, this game comes a lot easier than when you\u2019re a little anxious and a lot of other stuff. So I appreciate all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 Chicago White Sox left fielder Sam Antonacci knew he had at least a double after hitting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[22,5,138,49,2561,28445,4,17709,396,2562,998],"class_list":{"0":"post-681309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-white-sox","12":"tag-chicagowhitesox","13":"tag-inside-the-park-home-run","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-sam-antonacci","16":"tag-white-sox","17":"tag-whitesox","18":"tag-will-venable"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116450341496795364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}