{"id":570629,"date":"2026-03-28T20:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T20:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570629\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T20:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T20:07:13","slug":"kevin-mcgonigle-jackson-merrill-share-hilarious-moment-after-home-run-robbery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570629\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin McGonigle, Jackson Merrill share hilarious moment after home run robbery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/mlb\/detroit-tigers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Detroit Tigers<\/a> top prospect Kevin McGonigle seems pretty comfortable at the major league level, but one veteran doesn&#8217;t want him too comfortable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">McGonigle made the Tigers&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/mlb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Opening Day<\/a> roster, and he showed why he deserved it by notching four hits in his MLB debut.<\/p>\n<p>McGonigle was back in action on Friday in San Diego against the Padres, and in the top of the second inning, he launched a ball to deep center field that traveled 403 feet. However, Jackson Merrill leaped and robbed McGonigle of his first home run.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/kevin-mcgonigle-pumped-32826.jpg\" alt=\"Kevin McGonigle pumped\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Kevin McGonigle of the Detroit Tigers celebrates after hitting a two-RBI single against the San Diego Padres during the eighth inning at Petco Park on March 27, 2026, in San Diego, California.\u00a0 (Orlando Ramirez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>In the bottom half of the inning, after Merrill doubled, McGonigle appeared to compliment Merrill on his catch, which Merrill thanked him for.<\/p>\n<p>But that did not come before Merrill joked about McGonigle&#8217;s big Opening Day.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You got four yesterday!&#8221; Merrill said to the rookie.<\/p>\n<p>McGonigle became the 21st player in MLB history to have four hits in his MLB debut and the first to do it since J.P. Arancibia in 2010.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/jackson-merrill-32826.jpg\" alt=\"Jackson Merrill home run robbery\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Jackson Merrill of the San Diego Padres makes a jumping catch during the game against the Detroit Tigers at Petco Park on March 27, 2026, in San Diego, California.\u00a0 (Matt Thomas\/San Diego Padres\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/alex-vesia-dodgers-pitcher-who-lost-infant-daughter-gets-standing-ovation-after-scoreless-return-mound\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">ALEX VESIA, DODGERS PITCHER WHO LOST INFANT DAUGHTER, GETS STANDING OVATION AFTER SCORELESS RETURN TO MOUND<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Merrill&#8217;s home run robbery provided a boost early on, but McGonigle got revenge with a game-winning two-run single in a four-run eighth inning for Detroit en route to a 5-2 victory.<\/p>\n<p>The Tigers choked a double-digit AL Central lead last season but still managed to get to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/mlb-postseason\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">American League Division Series<\/a> after defeating the same team who overtook them in the standings in the Cleveland Guardians.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/kevin-mcgonigle-32826.jpg\" alt=\"Kevin McGonigle\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Kevin McGonigle of the Detroit Tigers celebrates after hitting a two-RBI single against the San Diego Padres during the eighth inning at Petco Park on March 27, 2026, in San Diego, California.\u00a0 (Orlando Ramirez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Padres played more October baseball as a wild-card team as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/mlb\/los-angeles-dodgers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> took another NL West title before repeating as World Series Champions.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Fox News Digital\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FoxNewsSports_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sports coverage on X<\/a>,\u00a0and subscribe to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>   <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Detroit Tigers top prospect Kevin McGonigle seems pretty comfortable at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,5260,591,1189,85],"class_list":["post-570629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}