Baseball is an unpredictable sport. In the last 20 years, only three players had hit four home runs in a single Major League game, but this has already happened three times in 2025 alone. Eugenio Suarez, Nick Kurtz and Kyle Schwarber have been the protagonists of such a display of power this season.
Schwarber massacred Atlanta on Thursday in Philadelphia, where he hit four balls out of the park and drove in nine runs in the Phillies’ 19-4 thrashing of the Braves. The slugger broke the franchise record for most RBIs in a game, set by Gavy Cravath in 1915 and later equaled by Willie Jones (1958), Mike Schmidt (1976) and Jayson Werth (2008).
The Phillies’ designated hitter reached 49 home runs this season, the National League leader ahead of Shohei Ohtani and the main pursuer of Cal Raleigh (50) for the Major League crown.
“It was great to go out and do that,” said Schwarber, who had the only chance to hit a fifth home run, as in his last plate appearance he faced Vidal Brujan, a Braves position player.
This makeshift pitcher threw him a slow 57.4-mile pitch, as if it were a home run derby, but the Phillies left-hander hit a weak pop-up to the infield. “I shouldn’t have even asked, but I was in the cage and I thought, ‘How many players have hit five?’ Nobody said anything, so I thought that answered my question,” said Schwarber, who said he doesn’t hit very well against position players.
According to MLB, the slugger has only two hits, no home runs, in 14 at-bats against position players.
Who has hit four home runs in a MLB game?
For the first time in MLB history, three different hitters have four-homer games in the same season. Previously, in 2002 and 2017, two players had four-homer games, a rare occurrence if we look at the records.
In the Live Ball Era, only 19 batters had achieved this feat and if we go back a little further the figure rises to 21. What is curious is that in this list there is only one of the ten players with the most home runs in the history of the Major Leagues. True power hitters such as Aaron Judge, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez, Hank Aaron, Albert Pujols, Ken Griffey Jr., Jim Thome, Sammy Sosa, Frank Robinson and Mark McGwire do not appear.
Players with four-homer games (in chronological order):
- Bobby Lowe (Beaneaters) vs. Reds in 1894
- Ed Delanhty (Phillies) vs. Colts in 1896
- Lou Gehrig (Yankees) vs. Philadelphia Athletics in 1932
- Chuck Klein (Phillies) vs. Pirates in 1936
- Pat Seerey (White Sox) vs. Philadelphia Athletics in 1948
- Gil Hodges (Brooklyn Dodgers) vs. Boston Braves in 1950
- Joe Adcock (Milwaukee Braves) vs. Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954
- Rocky Colavito (Cleveland) vs. Baltimore in 1959
- Willie Mays (Giants) vs. Milwaukee Braves in 1961
- Mike Schmidt (Phillies) vs. Cubs in 1976
- Bob Horner (Atlanta Braves) vs. Montreal in 1986
- Mark Whiten (Cardinals) vs. Reds in 1993
- Mike Cameron (Mariners) vs. White Sox in 2002
- Shawn Green (Los Ángeles Dodgers) vs. Brewers in 2002
- Carlos Delgado (Blue Jays) vs. Rays in 2003
- Josh Hamilton (Rangers) vs. Baltimore in 2012
- Scooter Gennett (Reds) vs. Cardinals in 2017
- JD Martínez (Arizona) vs. Cardinals in 2017
- Eugenio Suárez (Arizona) vs. Braves in 2025
- Nick Kurtz (Athletics) vs. Astros in 2025
- Kyle Schwarber (Phillies) vs. Braves in 2025
Read the full article here
