Braves infielder Chase D’Arnaud hit his first career homer on Friday night and promptly got treated to the silent treatment from his teammates.
“I had no idea as I was living in the moment around the bases,” D’Arnaud said. “I got in the dugout and saw they were giving me the silent treatment and I loved it.”
His home run came in the fifth inning off of Miami Marlins pitcher Justin Nicolino. He became the second Braves player to hit his first career homer this year, joining teammate Mallex Smith, who hit his on May 3 against the New York Mets.
“I have been asked the question of ‘have you hit a home run in the bigs yet?’” he said. “Embarrassingly no in parts of five years. I was talking to (pitcher Ian) Krol about it the other day and it is something I try not to think about as inevitably it will happen,” he said. “I guess today was the day.”
Before his two-run blast, D’Arnaud has gone 327 plate appearances without a long ball. The drought spanned a little over five major league seasons.
Ironically, the ball landed with a couple of fans from Huntington Beach, California, a place that was 20 minutes away from where D’Arnaud grew up. He was able to retrieve the ball and met the fans after the game personally.
“I went ahead and signed two balls and gave it to them,” he said. “They insisted to meet me and give the ball to me themselves. So I was happy to oblige and I went out there and hung out for them for a couple of minutes.”
D’Arnaud is batting .279 with one homer and nine RBIs on the year.
