{"id":53580,"date":"2026-07-11T03:07:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/53580\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T03:07:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:07:31","slug":"valencia-thanks-family-honors-venezuela-after-he-homers-in-1st-mlb-at-bat-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/53580\/","title":{"rendered":"Valencia thanks family, honors Venezuela after he homers in 1st MLB at-bat | MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2014 Eduardo Valencia made some history for the Detroit Tigers, got emotional while thanking his family and home country of earthquake-rocked Venezuela<\/a> and then celebrated after the game with a hug from his wife on the field.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old catcher became the 10th Detroit player to homer in his first career plate appearance, helping the Tigers to a 4-1 victory over the Athletics<\/a> on Thursday night that completed a series sweep.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was waiting a lot for this, for my family, for Venezuela and I\u2019m so excited,\u201d Valencia said as his voice cracked and he fought back tears during an on-field interview<\/a> on the Tigers’ broadcast after the game.<\/p>\n

Valencia was called up from Triple-A Toledo earlier in the day with All-Star catcher Dillon Dingler recovering from a bruised right hand. Valencia entered as a pinch-hitter for Kerry Carpenter in the seventh inning against Hogan Harris and sent a 425-foot shot<\/a> to center to cap the scoring for Detroit.<\/p>\n

“I was just thinking, like, I was trying to hit (with) contact,” Valencia said. \u201cGet a good pitch, just be the most calm that I can do it. I was so excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

He’s the first Tigers player to homer in his first big-league at-bat since Akil Baddoo on April 4, 2021.<\/p>\n

The native of Valencia, Venezuela, pointed to the sky and pounded his chest as he rounded the bases with a huge smile, then pointed to his wife in the stands and made a heart symbol with his hands. He later gave her a big hug after the game.<\/p>\n

Valencia’s thoughts were also with his parents, who couldn’t make the trip to see his debut, and the people of Venezuela, who are recovering from a rare double earthquake<\/a> on June 24 that killed at least 920 and injured another 3,360, authorities said. Many more are feared dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is for all Venezuela people,\u201d Valencia said of his big debut, thanking his family and coaches. \u201cThey gave me everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple of Valencia’s happy teammates then dumped a bucket of water on him as the fans remaining in the stands cheered.<\/p>\n

Valencia, who stayed in the game as the Tigers\u2019 designated hitter after his homer, was hit by a pitch from Mark Leiter Jr. in his second plate appearance.<\/p>\n

Valencia was signed by the Tigers in 2018 as an 18-year-old player and he appeared in 439 games over eight-plus seasons in the minors before making his big league debut Thursday night. He didn’t reach the Triple-A level until last year, when he played in 50 games with Toledo, and then appeared in 76 games this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, this is so exciting,\u201d Valencia said. \u201cI’m just trying to help the team to win. … I was waiting a lot (time) for this moment. It’s so exciting. … I can’t talk right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 Eduardo Valencia made some history for the Detroit Tigers, got emotional while thanking his family and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14236,95],"class_list":["post-53580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-valencia","tag-mlb","tag-valencia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}