{"id":399230,"date":"2026-08-06T12:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T12:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/399230\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T12:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T12:06:16","slug":"eddys-leonard-records-first-mlb-hit-but-sf-giants-lose-to-texas-rangers-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/399230\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddys Leonard records first MLB hit but SF Giants lose to Texas Rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Eddys Leonard<\/a> started smiling before he could even round first base. He had waited nine years for this moment, and he wasn\u2019t going to wait a second longer to start celebrating.<\/p>\n

With two outs in the top of the second, the Giants\u2019 utilityman smashed a 106.7 mph line drive to left field. The Texas Rangers\u2019 Wyatt Langford, an excellent defender, turned his back, took several hard steps, leaped and extended his glove, but the ball found grass and one-hopped the wall. Leonard cruised into second, clapped his hands and pointed towards his mom, dad, wife and friend in the stands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was going to catch that ball,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cAs soon as he hit it, I thought, \u2018Oh my God, he\u2019s going to catch it.\u2019 Then, when I saw the ball went over his head, I [thought], \u2018Thank you, God.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard, 25, took more than 3,000 plate appearances in the minors between signing with the Dodgers as an international free agent in July 2017 and collecting his first major-league hit on Wednesday. In an otherwise listless 6-0 loss, Leonard\u2019s milestone was a moment worth celebrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to give [the ball] to my mom and my dad,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cThey deserve it. None of this could be possible without them because of the things they did when I was a little kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s kind of been on a mission to show that he wants to put in work, but also that he wants to be a good teammate,\u201d said manager Tony Vitello. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of crazy, the unfamiliarity, to be honest with you, when a guy arrives, but the first thing you notice during BP, it\u2019s a loud bat. When he gets it on the barrel, he\u2019s obviously got some strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rookie\u2019s first career hit was just about the extent of the positives in a loss that dropped the Giants to 48-67, a season-low 19 games below .500, while concluding a 2-5 road trip.<\/p>\n

Rookie left-hander Carson Whisenhunt failed to complete four innings in a second straight start, surrendering four runs and walking four batters over 3 1\/3 innings. Whisenhunt now has a 7.25 ERA over five starts this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I was throwing the ball pretty well in [Sacramento], and it\u2019s just not translating right now,\u201d Whisenhunt said. \u201cWe\u2019ll figure it out at some point, hopefully, but just have to keep working and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whisenhunt didn\u2019t mix in any sinkers, a pitch he\u2019s been developing, and said he would like to find opportunities to use the two-seamer going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving forward, it\u2019s going to be the fourth pitch,\u201d Whisenhunt said. \u201cEventually, we\u2019ll see kind of where it goes this year. Ideally, find more spots to use it, get more comfortable with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting opposite Whisenhunt was the Rangers\u2019 Cody Bradford, who pitched 4 1\/3 scoreless innings in his first appearance in the majors since Sept. 25, 2024.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Following an off day on Thursday, the Giants will start a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers. Friday\u2019s starter has yet to be announced, but Landen Roupp and Logan Webb will start over the weekend.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Joe Panik and Pablo Sandoval will be inducted into the team\u2019s Wall of Fame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Eddys Leonard started smiling before he could even round first base. He had waited nine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,1816,6456,3267,140158,13597,3607,7677,16407,9970,136280,61104,154],"class_list":["post-399230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-baseball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-giants-hq","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-peninsula","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}