Ryan Waldschmidt crushes 1st major league home run, and it went a long way

PHOENIX — It took 39 games, but former top Arizona Diamondbacks prospect Ryan Waldschmidt is on the home run board.

Waldschmidt smashed his first major league home run during a seven-run barrage of a fifth inning by the Diamondbacks on Wednesday during a 15-5 romp of the Athletics at Chase Field.

It was a no-doubter, as Waldschmidt attacked a 96 mph heater on the inside edge from right-hander Yunior Tur and blasted it 426 feet to left-center field.

His teammates gave him the traditional silent treatment in the dugout before celebrating the rookie’s accomplishment.

“It was great,” Waldschmidt said. “Obviously, it’s been a pretty long time coming waiting for that one. I had a feeling that the day I did get one, I wasn’t gonna get much reaction as soon as I got back to the dugout. And that came true, and it was nice to just see how happy the guys were for me.”

Ryan Waldschmidt's first career homer is a 2-run blast!

He makes it a SEVEN-run inning for the @Dbacks 😳 pic.twitter.com/gYtBlTw4s9

— MLB (@MLB) July 22, 2026

Gabriel Moreno and James McCann had already hit home runs earlier in the inning, with the latter crushing his 100th career home run. Seven runs in an inning set a season high for Arizona.

Waldschmidt stayed hot with a sacrifice fly and a sharply-hit single to round out a strong performance on Wednesday.

The rookie had been scuffling so far during his second stint in the major leagues. He entered the fifth inning at-bat 3-for-17 with 10 strikeouts since getting called back up from Triple-A.

Waldschmidt said he had tried not to think about his first home run, attempting to stick to his approach despite pitchers attacking him low-and-away.

“I’ve been kind of going through a little bit, trying to just get the best pitch to work with,” Waldschmidt said. “They’ve been throwing me some good pitches. Just trying to keep my mind in the right spot, sticking with my plan, keep it throughout the at-bat and just trusting that I’m gonna get the pitch I’m looking for.

“I’ve had pitches going away from me mostly, and just looking for something starting on the inner half. I got the fastball in a hitter’s count and just tried to make the most out of it.”

His manager felt that knocking that first home run out of the way could relieve some pressure.

“We all knew in this room that he was going to eventually hit one,” Torey Lovullo said.

“He’s just too good of a player. There’s a lot of things that are going on with our young players. Our young players have got to figure out how they fit into this ballclub. Part of being a D-back, in my opinion, is not necessarily what you are capable of doing individually, but what can you do to fit into this program and fit into this lineup. I think Waldy is doing that piece-by-piece.”

Waldschmidt has the power and speed to be a threat and showed strong plate discipline skills in the minor leagues, and now he has to put that together to develop into a quality big leaguer.

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