A few hours after donning the Dodgers uniform, Adrian Gonzales hit a homerun on his very first at-bat as a member of the Los Angeles baseball team. He was one of four players that were acquired through a blockbuster deal between the Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox that involved a total of nine players. Gonzales, along with John Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Nick Punto were sent to LA. In return, Boston got James Loney, Allen Webster, Ivan DeJesus Jr. and two other still unnamed players.
In his first at-bat with the Dodgers, Gonzales set off a three-run homerun by sending the ball straight into the lower seats along the corner of the right-field. The homerun allowed the Dodgers to lead the Miami Marlins 4-1 in the very first inning of the game.
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The homerun was the sixteenth for Gonzales in the season and came off a pitch by John Johnson of Miami. This allowed Matt Kemp and Luis Cruz to score as well.
Following the homerun, Gonzales struck out in the next two at-bat opportunities. Gonzales is current at .300 for the season with 86 RBIs. He flew in from Boston to LA together with Becket and Punto following the recent completion of the trade last Saturday. Boston was able to get rid of around $261 million worth of salaries until 2018 due to the deal that was finalized on the same day.
Gonzales had six years left in his contract with the Red Sox which would give him $127 million while Crawford was supposed to receive $102.5 million in the next five years.
The Twitter feed of the LA Dodgers showed that Gonzales became the sixth Dodger to hit a homerun on his very first at-bat with the Dodgers. Among the most recent players who accomplished this rare feat were Juan Rivera, who did it last year, and Ronnie Belliard who accomplished the feat in 2009.
