Austin Riley’s wild Wild Card homer resurrected Matt Vasgersian call for first time since legendary Guardians homer

Earlier today, Braves third baseman Austin Riley recorded the first signature moment of this year’s postseason with a go-ahead, eighth inning home run against the Phillies that pushed Atlanta to within a game of the NLDS. 

It also provided baseball fans with another reminder of just how good Matt Vasgersian is on the mic. He may not be every fan's cup of tea, but his passion for the game is evident on every call, and there are few homer calls better than his “Santa Maria” exclamation as a ball sails into the seats. 

Vasgersian brought out a “Santa Maria” on Riley’s opposite field homer, marking the first time he’s used the call on a national postseason broadcast since Francisco Lindor’s grand slam against the Yankees in Game 2 of the ALDS in 2017. 

Austin Riley's homer got the same Matt Vasgersian that Francisco Lindor got in 2017

While Vasgersian has stayed in the MLB zeitgeist since Lindor’s homer (namely via calling games for ESPN and doing work for MLB Network), he’s been on the outside looking in the postseason since MLB Network stopped broadcasting postseason games. 

But that changed this year with NBC and Peacock having all the Wild Card Series games after ESPN had them in years prior. 

Jason Benetti is the main voice for NBC’s baseball coverage, but he’s on the marquee series between the Red Sox and Yankees, which opened up an avenue for an S-tier broadcaster like Vasgersian to get the daytime series. 

Although Riley and Lindor’s homers came with different circumstances in different rounds of the postseason, the one thing connecting both of them is that they came in a big spot.

Lindor’s homer may not have given the Guardians the lead, but it thrust them back into a game they ended up coming from behind to win.

Vasgersian’s call of it was about as perfect of a call as you can get. It had the long “swing and a drive” that barely registered over the crowd pop as the ball sailed toward the foul pole. It was even better thanks to his “Santa Maria” perfectly timing up with Lindor’s salute as he rounded first base. 

Meanwhile, Riley’s homer staked the Braves to the lead in the eighth inning against Phillies closer Johan Duran, who was tasked with getting nine outs and holding the Phillies’ lead. 

He cruised through the seventh inning and got the first two batters out in the eighth inning before surrendering a single and a hit by pitch that set up Riley’s homer. 

It’s one of the biggest moments in recent Braves postseason history, and it came with a great call from Vasgersian. That should ring a ball with Guardians fans.

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