On a sunny afternoon at Oracle Park, the Los Angeles Dodgers not only beat their archrivals the San Francisco Giants 5–2. They also stunned the nation – by announcing they would donate all of their winnings to help flood victims in Texas.
And when Diego Cartaya – a young player wearing the number 72 – roared after his home run put the Dodgers ahead, hundreds of sunflower seeds flew around him, like fireworks celebrating something bigger than a victory.
The game didn’t start easy. The Giants led 2–1 after the fifth inning, leaving Dodgers fans nervous. But in the seventh, when Cartaya took Sean Hjelle’s second pitch and broke the ice with a two-run home run, everything changed.
The Dodgers led 3–2. Two runs later, the score was 5–2 – and it would stay that way for the rest of the game.
The excitement on the field was just the tip of the iceberg. In a press conference, manager Dave Roberts said simply:
“We won the game. Now it’s time to win another game – with the floods, with the loss, with the fear that the people of Texas are going through.”
Less than an hour after the announcement, the Dodgers’ website confirmed:
100% of the player and coaching bonuses for this game will go to the Texas Flood Relief Fund
All ticket sales from the game (estimated at $1.2 million) will go to an emergency fund
A group of players, led by Clayton Kershaw and Freddie Freeman, will auction off game merchandise to raise money
“Texas is my home,” said Kershaw, who was born in Dallas. “And today, my team chose to stand with my hometown.”
The image that brought tears to fans was when Cartaya – a new face on the starting lineup – quietly removed his necklace after the game and placed it on a chair in the clubhouse.
The necklace was nothing special. But attached to it was a piece of dried mud, which Cartaya kept from his flooded home in Venezuela in 2017.
“I lived in floodwaters. I know what it feels like. No electricity. No rice. Nothing but a baseball,” he said.
“Today I have the opportunity to help someone get through that. And I didn’t think twice.”
Fans weren’t the only ones to show their support, with several MLB teams voicing their support. The Astros – a team from Texas, despite being arch-rivals of the Dodgers – also sent their thanks:
“On the field, we compete. But off the field, we are one.”
The hashtag #DodgersForTexas quickly climbed to the top of Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok. Videos of Cartaya screaming amid the sunflower seeds have been shared millions of times.
Many fans wrote:
“It’s not sunflower seeds. It’s a dream, it’s unity, it’s a swing for humanity.”
In the midst of a tense season, the Dodgers haven’t forgotten the deeper reason they play: to connect, to spread hope, to be more than a team.
“We don’t win because we’re better. We win because we know what to do with it.”
— Coach Dave Roberts.
They didn’t just beat the Giants. They made America bow to a home run for someone else.