It’s never too late to change.
San Diego Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth played in his 900th career MLB game on Sunday, counting both the regular season and postseason.
In the first 899 of those, Cronenworth had failed to hit an opposite field home run.
That changed at Petco Park against New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole.
Cronenworth, after Fernando Tatis Jr. had led off the bottom of the first with a home run, made it back-to-back blasts.
He tucked a fly ball inside the left-field foul pole, going quite opposite field for a left-handed hitter.
Shoutout to Danny Barand on X for keeping track of this. He notes that it had been 3,668 career plate appearances for Cronenworth without an oppo homer until this.
After 6 years of service time, 3,668 plate appearances, 899 games, and 86 homers
He finally left the Cronezone. pic.twitter.com/f2g2kQRrnL https://t.co/K5UJvgpn4S
— Danny (@dannybarrand_) September 6, 2026
What’s The Cronezone?
Cronenworth hits so many of his home runs to a similar spot in right field at Petco Park that they refer to it as the “Cronezone,” obviously shortening his last name to its first syllable to create a fun rhyme.
In some ways, Cronenworth is the epitome of the modern hitter in this regard. Many of MLB’s top sluggers realized that the best way to hit for power is to hit the ball in the air to the pull side. It’s simply a more achievable swing than blasting the ball deep the other way.
Some hitters have taken this to a major extreme. Houston Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes, a right-handed hitter, seems to make half of his contact turn into foul balls in the third-base stands because he’s always so pull-happy.
It’s part of the reason infield shifts became so popular before MLB started to limit their usage. Hitters want to pull the ball because it’s the best way to access power.
Cronenworth wants that, too. He’s not going to suddenly start hitting all of his homers the other way.
Sometimes, though, you’re facing an ace pitcher like Cole, and you don’t have much of a choice but to go with what he throws you. Cronenworth got a pitch out over the plate and drove it that way. It was a thing of beauty.
Quite the Padres Start
Cronenworth’s homer was part of quite the start for the Padres on Sunday.
Tatis hit a homer leading off the game, and Cronenworth followed immediately with his opposite field round-tripper.
In the 3-spot, Manny Machado wasn’t outdone. He homered, too.
It was back-to-back-to-back off of Cole, and the Padres only scored one more run the rest of the way in a 4-3 win.
You probably won’t ever see Cole give up three homers to start a game again, so for anyone who was watching, it’s something to keep as a cool memory — at least if you’re a Padres fan. Yankees fans will likely want to forget about it immediately.
Padres’ Jake Cronenworth Achieves Career 1st in 900th Game