SF Giants pitcher hopes wild inside-the-parker breaks ‘home run curse’

After giving up one of the wildest home runs in Oracle Park history — an inside-the-park base-clearer from Tampa Bay’s Luke Raley that careened off the wall in right and hit the top of a wall in center before making its way back over to left field — Giants pitcher Ross Stripling chose to look on the bright side.

“I was just texting with my dad and he was like, ‘Oh, maybe, it’s one like that that ends the home run curse’ that I’ve been going through,” Stripling said during a postgame interview with KNBR. 

Stripling and his father evidently hope the sheer strangeness of the home run will right some karmic wrong the right-hander has been dealing with over the past few weeks. Over his last eight appearances, Stripling has allowed 10 home runs in 39.6 innings. Raley’s inside-the-parker was one of three long balls Stripling surrendered Wednesday. 

The would-be curse-breaking home run came in the top of the sixth inning, with the visiting Rays already leading 5-0. Luke Raley hit a bomb that at first looked like a garden-variety homer. Instead, the ball hit off the bricks in right field, bounced off the very top of the centerfield wall and skipped right past centerfielder Wade Meckler. By the time Meckler tracked down the ball, Raley had already rounded third en route to a stand-up inside-the-park home run.

But if it miraculously means Stripling can put his issues with home runs allowed behind him, the Giants will take it.