You really can’t help but feel good for Denard Span, who was traded to his hometown team under circumstances that made it hard for fans to welcome him. The game didn’t start out well for him, when a perfectly-placed bloop between Span and Kevin Kiermaier turned into a hair-raising near collision and an inside-the-park home run.
But it ended well, and you can tell how meaningful that was for Span—he wore it on his sleeve.
Marc Topkin has this storyline covered very well, writing a feature on Span’s experience in the first game, and reheating a previous article on Span’s homecoming.