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Padres Fans Provided Goosebump-Worthy Moment Ahead of Gavin Sheets’s Walk-Off Homer

“Holy Sheets” is right.
Madison Williams|
Padres outfielder Gavin Sheets hit a walk off home run to electrify Petco Park on Friday night.
Padres outfielder Gavin Sheets hit a walk off home run to electrify Petco Park on Friday night. | Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

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San Diego Padres

The Padres debuted their new City Connect uniforms on Friday night (which Sports Illustrated’s Tom Dierberger ranked third out of the eight new releases this week) in an exciting fashion thanks to outfielder Gavin Sheets.

Sheets put San Diego on the board in the fifth inning against the Rockies when he hit a 416-foot home run. Petco Park came alive as fans became Sheets’s biggest fan on Friday night.

Eventually, the Rockies tied the game up 2–2. The Padres needed something to happen in the bottom of the ninth to win and avoid extra innings. Jackson Merrill hit a single to start the inning, followed by Manny Machado being walked at the next at-bat. Xander Bogaerts had a sacrifice fly, but this put Merrill on third and in scoring position. That’s when Sheets showed up.

The Petco Park crowd chanted, very loudly, “Holy Sheets!” while the outfielder was at the plate. It was a goosebump-worthy moment, that’s for sure. The support seemed to give Sheets exactly the boost he needed—on the second pitch, he blasted a 434-foot walk-off three-run homer to win the game.

Holy Sheets is right.

He rounded the bases with an electric Padres home crowd jumping up and down in their seats celebrating the win.

In the clip above, you can hear Padres announcer Don Orsillo giving an incredible call on the awesome moment. “Holy Sheets!” he yelled at one point.

Sheets’s two homers on Friday night were his first home runs so far this season.

This was the second night in a row in which the Padres won on a walk-off home run. Bogaerts hit a walk-off grand slam on Thursday night against the Rockies. Petco Park erupted in loud cheers with Bogaerts’s walk-off, too. This explains why the fans may have been anticipating another walk-off on Friday night from Sheets. What an incredible start to the weekend of baseball in San Diego.

Sheets wasn’t the only NL West player to record a walk-off home run on Friday night. The Padres’ rivals, the Dodgers, also won on one thanks to Max Muncy’s solo shot in the ninth inning to give his team the win over the Rangers. Muncy hit three home runs on Friday night, just barely upping Sheets’s total on the night. The reigning World Series champs became the first MLB team to record 10 wins this season.

MLB reported that Friday marked just the fourth day in recorded MLB history in which multiple players hit multiple homers in a game that also included a walk-off. This last occurred in 2017.

Baseball is off to a thrilling start this season.

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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University.

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