Durán’s first – Making his big-league debut after an 11-year minor-league climb, Durán finally broke through with a first-pitch home run in the Padres’ 7-4 win over the Mariners. He also launched a second long drive that cleared the wall—only to be robbed by Seattle center fi
When the call finally arrived for Durán, it didn’t feel like a movie ending. It started as a dry spell: he went 0-for-10 across four games after earning his callup on May 7, a move tied to Luis Campusano going on the injured list with a fractured toe.
Then. in the top of the seventh inning of the Padres’ 7-4 win over the Mariners on Saturday. Durán did what he’d been dreaming about for years.. With Seattle starter Logan Gilbert facing him. he pulled a first-pitch fastball into the Padres’ bullpen for his first career hit. his first career home run. and his first two career RBIs. stretching San Diego’s lead to 7-2 at the time.
“It’s amazing,” Durán said. “If you play baseball, if you want to be a Major Leaguer, you always think of that, you have dreams about it. Now that I was able to do it, it’s amazing.”
The numbers came fast.. The 95.1 mph heater left Durán’s bat at 101.2 mph. with a 25-degree launch angle. and traveled with a Statcast-projected distance of 386 feet.. It didn’t bounce off the seats—right-handed relief Jason Adam’s glove caught it as he warmed up to throw the bottom of the seventh for San Diego.
Adam flipped the ball to bullpen coach Ben Fritz. who promised Durán in the clubhouse postgame that he’d get him the souvenir.. No terms of a negotiation were spoken of.. Gavin Sheets. who started the scoring for the Padres with a solo homer in the top of the second. said the moment carried its own kind of weight.
“We were all so excited for him,” Sheets said. “We just wanted to get him that first hit, and to get it as a home run, too, was pretty special. It’s a special moment for anybody. That’s what you dream of as your first hit in the big leagues.”
Durán’s feat also landed him in Padres history. He became the first Padres player to homer for his first career hit since Graham Pauley did so on March 30, 2024.
Two innings later, Durán tried to turn the page with a swing that looked even louder on contact. He drilled a shot 389 feet out to right-center field—this time off a sinker from Domingo Gonzalez—and it cleared the wall again. But the ball didn’t stay gone.
This one also found a glove, just not the one Durán was aiming for. Seattle center fielder Julio Rodríguez brought it back, while Durán described the moment as a split-second gamble.
“In that part of the stadium, I didn’t know if I had it,” Durán said. “But as soon as I saw Julio jump, I said, ‘Maybe.’ But then he got it.”
The night carried a deeper storyline inside the season’s larger picture: the Padres’ offense was clicking. yet it still came with gaps.. Durán’s first homer capped a three-homer day for San Diego against Logan Gilbert. and the overall win arrived despite the second straight game with the top third of the San Diego lineup going hitless.
Nick Castellanos added another swing with impact, drilling a first-pitch slider that traveled a Statcast-projected 401 feet to center field for a three-run homer.
Durán’s path to this day has been long.. He signed with the Phillies in 2015 as a 17-year-old out of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.. Since then. he spent time in the Yankees’ and Royals’ systems before coming to the Padres on a Minor League contract in January 2025.. Before the callup, he had racked up 614 career games in the Minors.
In the past two years, the Padres’ staff had also started noticing him more closely. Catching coach Kevin Plawecki and bench coach Randy Knorr were tied directly to the shift in attention. Manager Craig Stammen pointed to Plawecki first.
“Kevin was talking about how he did in Triple-A last year, how he commanded the staff, commanded the room, just had control of the game every time that he caught,” Stammen said. “And one thing we didn’t expect from him was the offense that he showed in El Paso last year.”
Stammen connected the dots between performance and the timing of his pop.. Durán hit .288 last season with Triple-A El Paso with 16 home runs—his most since 2018—and 16 doubles. along with a career-high 73 RBIs.. As a non-roster invitee to Spring Training, he slugged three more homers while posting a 1.086 OPS in 16 games.. In 23 games with the Chihuahuas this season, he hit .238 with a .785 OPS, 20 RBIs and four home runs.
“He really turned it on at the end of the season and he showed it again in Spring Training,” Stammen said. “We saw some of that pop that he has in his bat today.”
The pattern across the evening was tight: Durán started major-league life going 0-for-10 after his May 7 callup, then answered the slump with a first-inning breakthrough moment in the seventh—followed by another long drive cleared over the wall that was stopped by Julio Rodríguez.
For San Diego, the win still carried the message that the team’s production didn’t rely on one group alone. Stammen summed it up after the late work.
“The big boys can’t carry us the whole season,” Stammen said. “When the other guys pitch in and do their part and carry the load when those guys are figuring their swings out, that’s what makes a great team.”
Durán Padres Mariners Julio Rodríguez Logan Gilbert Domingo González Nick Castellanos Craig Stammen Kevin Plawecki Randy Knorr Jason Adam Ben Fritz Luis Campusano El Paso Chihuahuas