Starting off with a homer

Off The Bill Chuck Files,

What feels better than starting a game with a homer?

It’s happened just 26 times this season, but twice yesterday as Shin-Soo Choo went deep in the Reds 4-2 win over Arizona, and Justin Ruggiano went long in the Marlins 7-2 win over the Giants.

This is the third time this season that the Diamondbacks pitchers gave up a homer to the first batter faced, the most in the bigs. All three times it happened at Chase Field which means one batter equals a 1-0 hole.

Oakland and Seattle have each started their games with a homer three times, the most in the majors.

There have been 20 players who started the game with a homer including Shin-Soo Choo, Desmond Jennings, Franklin Gutierrez, Gerardo Parra, Coco Crisp, and Alejandro De Aza who have done it twice each.

The 26 lead off homers

Yr# Date Batter Tm Opp Pitcher Pit(cnt)
1 2013-04-03 Franklin Gutierrez SEA @OAK Tommy Milone 4 (2-1)
2 2013-04-05 Franklin Gutierrez SEA @CHW Jose Quintana 4 (1-2)
3 2013-04-05 Coco Crisp OAK @HOU Brad Peacock 4 (1-2)
4 2013-04-10 Carl Crawford LAD @SDP Eric Stults 2 (0-1)
5 2013-04-15 Peter Bourjos LAA @MIN Kevin Correia 5 (2-2)
6 2013-04-16 Desmond Jennings TBR @BAL Jake Arrieta 1 (0-0)
7 2013-04-18 Desmond Jennings TBR @BAL Miguel Gonzalez 5 (1-2)
8 2013-04-18 B.J. Upton ATL @PIT Jeff Locke 3 (0-2)
9 2013-04-22 David DeJesus CHC @CIN Mike Leake 3 (1-1)
10 2013-04-29 Dexter Fowler COL @LAD Ted Lilly 6 (2-2)
11 2013-04-30 Nate McLouth BAL @SEA Brandon Maurer 4 (2-1)
12 2013-05-01 Angel Pagan SFG @ARI Brandon McCarthy 2 (0-1)
13 2013-05-03 Adam Rosales OAK @NYY CC Sabathia 1 (0-0)
14 2013-05-04 Shin-Soo Choo CIN @CHC Jeff Samardzija 1 (0-0)
15 2013-05-04 Michael Saunders SEA @TOR R.A. Dickey 2 (1-0)
16 2013-05-08 Alejandro De Aza CHW @NYM Jeremy Hefner 5 (2-2)
17 2013-05-10 Jimmy Rollins PHI @ARI Ian Kennedy 1 (0-0)
18 2013-05-18 Gerardo Parra ARI @MIA Tom Koehler 1 (0-0)
19 2013-05-26 Jurickson Profar TEX @SEA Hisashi Iwakuma 6 (2-2)
20 2013-06-01 Gerardo Parra ARI @CHC Jeff Samardzija 2 (1-0)
21 2013-06-03 Coco Crisp OAK @MIL Marco Estrada 2 (0-1)
22 2013-06-04 Chris Denorfia SDP @LAD Ted Lilly 2 (0-1)
23 2013-06-14 Gregor Blanco SFG @ATL Kris Medlen 4 (2-1)
24 2013-06-19 Alejandro De Aza CHW @MIN Kevin Correia 6 (2-2)
25 2013-06-23 Shin-Soo Choo CIN @ARI Randall Delgado 3 (0-2)
26 2013-06-23 Justin Ruggiano MIA @SFG Matt Cain 2 (1-0)
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/24/2013.

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