The Padres needed 194 at-bats and five-plus games to collect their first home run at Petco Park. Their first walk-off job arrived in short order after that, as Ryan Klesko delivered on this date — April 18 — in 2004 to secure a winning inaugural homestand in the Padres’ new downtown venue.
“Like anyone would imagine, it’s exciting,” Klesko said after collecting what he described his most significant hit to that point in four-plus years with the Padres. “It’s nice to get the game over and get a hit like that.”
His first homer of the season, Klesko’s ninth-inning laser just cleared the 7-foot-6 inch fence near the left field line and struck the brick façade near the 334-foot marker.