{"id":551877,"date":"2026-03-29T06:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T06:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/551877\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T06:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T06:53:14","slug":"dominic-smith-delivers-emotional-grand-slam-in-braves-win-over-royals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/551877\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominic Smith Delivers Emotional Grand Slam in Braves’ Win Over Royals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Braves<\/a> designated hitter Dominic Smith’s<\/a> mother died less than two weeks ago. He said the team has picked him up the last few weeks, and he returned the favor Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Smith became the first player in MLB<\/a> history to hit a walk-off grand slam in his debut with a new team, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He finished off the Braves’ six-run ninth inning in a 6-2 win over the Kansas City Royals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just amazing,” said Smith, who was one of the last players to make the Braves’ opening day roster. “Played against the Braves for a long time, and being on the other side a lot of these endings kind of hurt, so to be on the right side of it this time was so fun.”<\/p>\n

Dominic Smith crushes walk-off GRAND SLAM as Braves defeat Royals, 6\u20132 \"Dominic<\/a> <\/p>\n

Dominic Smith crushed a walk-off grand slam as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Kansas City Royals, 6\u20132.<\/p>\n

Smith told reporters after the game the Braves had been very supportive during spring training when his mother was ill. She was diagnosed with cancer in September and almost died at the start of camp. Smith said he left the team for a little over a week when she had a “scare,” and returned because he was fighting for a job. He was not with her in California when she passed away.<\/p>\n

“This team is just so awesome,” Smith said. “I\u2019m so blessed because of the love they showed me, the support every day. They\u2019re asking about her, asking about her well-being, my well-being, and that\u2019s all they really cared about. They didn\u2019t care about baseball.”<\/p>\n

Smith was able to show his thanks in the ninth inning off Royals closer Carlos Estevez<\/a>, who led MLB in saves last season with 42. The Braves erased a 2-0 deficit on RBI singles by Mike Yastrzemski<\/a> and Michael Harris II<\/a> and had the bases loaded with one out. On a 3-2 pitch, after calling timeout to gather himself, Smith lifted a fly ball into the right field seats that sent the sold-out crowd into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

Smith said he felt his mom’s presence in the celebration, and he looking forward to the Braves road trip to Anaheim next week where he will be able to see family and “say his goodbyes.”<\/p>\n

“I got choked up a bunch of times, and it\u2019s, you know, I\u2019m trying to hold back tears now,” he said. “I feel her every day. I miss her dearly. It\u2019s not a moment I don\u2019t think about her. And like I said, I\u2019m just so thankful because this team knows what I\u2019m going through. So they really, you know, picked me up the last few weeks.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Braves designated hitter Dominic Smith’s mother died less than two weeks ago. He said the team has picked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2111,4287,230413,2321,13090,29504,40812,363,245427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-551877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-atlanta-braves","9":"tag-dominic-smith","10":"tag-event_recap","11":"tag-kansas-city-royals","12":"tag-major-league-baseball","13":"tag-michael-harris-ii","14":"tag-mike-yastrzemski","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-mlb-kansas-city-royals-vs-atlanta-braves-03-28-2026","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}