DENVER – Many of the most memorable and beautiful moments in our lives are first experiences with something new.
A first true love. A first day in a new home or a new job. The first day of school. Your first baseball game.
For Yonathan Daza, his first career hit in Major League Baseball wasn’t just a payoff for countless hours of hard work and dedication and the beginning of a rally that ultimately led to a walk-off win for his team, it was, he told BSN Denver, “The best moment of (his) life.”
Called up for his second stint in MLB on the morning of May 27, to replaced the injured Charlie Blackmon, there is no way Daza could have known that his day would end up containing this moment that will forever be seared into his mind.
He almost managed that first hit earlier in the game, getting thrown out trying to leg out an infield single.
But perhaps it was fate that held the occasion for a more dramatic time. He strode to the plate with the Rockies down by two in the bottom of the seventh with one away and slashed a looping liner to right that fell in for a solid single.
Some in the crowd immediately rose to their feet. You could hear smatterings of the information passing along and by the time a graphic showed up on the big screen at Coors the entire crowd was in an uproar out of appreciation for his accomplishment.
The cheers would maintain and grow when Nolan Arenado punctuated the inning with a game-tying single to left, plating the young Daza.
“That felt amazing,” he said reflecting the next day. “My mom called today in the morning. She was crying, she’s so happy. I’m so happy for that.”
He even got to follow that up by playing a pivotal role in the postgame celebration.
“(German) Marquez, he tried to get Tapia and he gave the baby powder all to me, he said. “I was so happy to be hitting and to see my first walk-off in the big leagues. I had just water, but I didn’t want to throw it on him because of his hair. So, he was pouring it on me. Best moment of my life for sure.”
This was his real debut.
He had only played in four games above the Double-A level before being rushed to the Bigs after a rash of injuries slammed the Rockies in the early season.
He looked a bit overwhelmed and overmatched at times. But he returned to Triple-A with determination.
Daza responded to his brutal introduction to MLB by hitting .377 with 22 extra-base hits in 34 games.
It helps, he remarks, that he has been alongside his “good luck charm” Brendan Rodgers. His fellow rookie pulled up to his locker, located next to Daza’s, during our conversation to add, “that’s my baby.”
But it wasn’t just luck, Daza has clearly emerged a more confident and capable ballplayer.
“Forget about my first time here,” he says with a smile. “Now, I’m here, I’ve got confidence. My manager in Triple-A told me ‘you’ve got a lot of talent. The way you’ve hit really well in the minor leagues, you go there and you’re going to hit.’ I try to compete over there (in ABQ) and he helped me a lot.”
Now, he has a piece of his own memorabilia to place on the mantle. And there are plans for the baseball, the tangible embodiment of all the hard work he has done, he says, to make his mother proud after all her support throughout his life.
“I have it,” he says of the ball. “It’s here in the clubhouse, but Tiny is doing something special for me. It goes back home, for sure. I’ll give it to my mom. It’s a special gift for her. Finally, I got my hit. This is my dream. Now I’m a big leaguer.”
