Josh Hamilton's historic night ranks among best four-home run games

Josh Hamilton's historic 2012 night ranks among best four-home run games.

Cliff Corcoran | May 8, 2012

Josh Hamilton's historic night ranks among best four-home run games /

When Josh Hamilton hit four home runs against the Orioles on Tuesday, he became just the 16th man in baseball history to accomplish the feat. More men (21) have thrown perfect games. Hamilton's performance was even more impressive than that, however. When you factor in the fact that Hamilton went 5-for-5 on the night, mixing a double in among his four homers, it could be argued that his was one of the handful of best single-game hitting performances in major league history.

The two most important things a hitter can do, independent of his teammates, is avoid outs and hit for extra bases. Four home runs add up to 16 total bases. Since 1918, just five men have had more than 16 total bases in a game. Hamilton is one of them. Nineteenth-century four-homer men Bobby Lowe and Ed Delahanty can be added to that list, but both fell short of Hamilton at 17 total bases. Only one man has ever hit for more total bases in a single game than Hamilton's 18. That was Shawn Green, who collected 19 for the Dodgers in 2002. Meanwhile, of the 17 men to have produced 16 or more total bases in a single game since 1918, plus Lowe and Delahanty, just eight did so without making an out. Hamilton is one of those eight as well.

That alone puts Hamilton's performance above the four-homer games of Lou Gehrig (4-for-6), Chuck Klein (4-for-5), Pat Seerey (4-for-6, BB), Willie Mays (4-for-5), Bob Horner (4-for-5), Mark Whiten (4-for-5) and Mike Cameron (4-for-5, HBP), all of whom had additional at-bats without collecting hits. It's also pretty easy to put Hamilton's game ahead of those of Lowe, Gil Hodges and Mike Schmidt, all of whom went 5-for-6 with four homers and a single, because Hamilton's extra hit was a double and he didn't make an out. Delahanty didn't make an out, going 5-for-5, but his extra hit was also a single, so Hamilton has him beat as well.

That alone puts Hamilton in the top five. Here's a quick look at his competition:

Rocky Colavito, Indians, June 10, 1959

Colavito drew a walk in the first inning, which coincidentally also came against the Orioles in Baltimore, then homered in his final four trips. That made him a perfect 4-for-4 with 16 totals bases, but a double is better than a walk.

Carlos Delgado, Blue Jays, Sept. 25, 2003

Delgado, the last man to hit four homers in a game before Hamilton, is also the only man to hit a home run in his only four plate appearances in a game. Facing the Devil Rays at home, Delgado homered in the first, fourth, sixth, and eighth innings and would have been the fourth man due up in the bottom of the ninth had his Blue Jays not taken the lead in the eighth on his game-tying leadoff homer and Mike Bordick's subsequent two-run blast. The argument can be made that Delgado's performance was actually the greatest of all time, as he remains the only man ever to play a full nine-inning game and homer in every one of his plate appearances. I'll take 5-for-5 over 4-for-4, however, even if that 4-for-4 was, technically, the only truly perfect game a hitter has ever had.

PHOTOS: MLB’s Four Home-Run Games

Four-Home Run Games

J.D. Martinez, Arizona Diamondbacks

Martinez hit home runs off four different Dodgers pitchers and hit a longball in each of the last three innings as part of a 4-for-5 day with six RBIs in Arizona's 13-0 win.

Scooter Gennett — June 6, 2017

Gennett's 5-for-5 night didn't begin with a power surge. His first at-bat ended in an RBI single, but he followed that with four dingers, including a grand slam. Gennett finished with 10 RBIs and 17 total bases.

Josh Hamilton — May 9, 2012

Hamilton went 5-for-5 with four home runs and a double, recording a career-high eight RBI and an American League record 18 total bases in the Texas Rangers' 10-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Carlos Delgado — Sept. 25, 2003

Delgado is the only man to hit a home run in his only four plate appearances in a game, doing so in the Toronto Blue Jays' 10-8 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Some call it the only perfect hitting game in MLB history.

Shawn Green — May 23, 2002

Green went 6-for-6 with an MLB record 19 total bases in the Los Angeles Dodgers' 16-3 rout of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Mike Cameron — May 2, 2002

Cameron went 4-for-5 with a hit by pitch and made extra history in a 10-run Seattle Mariners first inning against the Chicago White Sox. He and Bret Boone became the first teammates to each hit two home runs in the same inning. Seattle won the game 15-4.

Mark Whiten — Sept. 7, 1993

Whiten's performance came in game two of a doubleheader, a 15-2 Cardinals win over the Cincinnati Reds. But Whiten was a big reason why St. Louis lost the opener, misplaying a Reggie Sanders ninth-inning line drive in a 14-13 game. Whiten matched Jim Bottomley for the most RBI in one game — 12.

Bob Horner — July 6, 1986

Ronald C. Modra/Sports Imagery/Getty Images

The Atlanta Braves lost 11-8 to the Montreal Expos despite Horner's four home runs. "I had a good week today," Horner told the Associated Press.

Mike Schmidt — April 17, 1976

The Philadelphia Phillies needed all of Schmidt's four home runs. They rallied from an 11-run deficit to beat the Chicago Cubs 18-16 in 10 innings. Schmidt homered off brothers Rick and Paul Reuschel.

Willie Mays — April 30, 1961

Mays outslugged Hank Aaron, who had two homers of his own, in the San Francisco Giants' 14-4 win over the Milwaukee Braves.

Rocky Colavito — June 10, 1959

Colavito, seen here giving hitting instructions to nuns attending a game, went a perfect 4-for-4 with a walk in the Cleveland Indians' 11-8 victory. Like Josh Hamilton, his game came against the Orioles in Baltimore.

Joe Adcock — July 31, 1954

Adcock's 5-for-5 day went homer-double-homer-homer-homer in the Milwaukee Braves' 15-7 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Don Newcombe was the opposing starter.

Gil Hodges — Aug. 31, 1950

Hodges went 5-for-6 with a single in the Brooklyn Dodgers' 19-3 beating of the Milwaukee Braves.

Pat Seerey — July 18, 1948

Seerey kisses the bat that brought him No. 4. The Chicago White Sox outfielder got his four homers in a 12-11, 11-inning win over the Philadelphia A's, the first game of a doubleheader. The second game was halted by the 7 p.m. Sunday curfew rule, the A's winning 6-1 after five innings.

Chuck Klein — July 10, 1936

Klein was past his heyday when he happened upon his historic game. The Hall of Famer led the National League in home runs in 1929, 1931, 1932 and 1933. He was dealt from the Chicago Cubs to the Philadelphia Phillies on May 21, 1936 and hit his four home runs for the Phillies 50 days later in a 9-6 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Lou Gehrig — June 3, 1932

Seen here with Bobby Lowe, the first player to hit four homers in a game, Gehrig almost had five home runs in the New York Yankees' 20-13 win over the Philadelphia A's. His 450-plus foot shot to center field of Shibe Park was nabbed by Al Simmons in his last at-bat. He went 4-for-6.

Ed Delahanty — July 13, 1896

The Philadlephia Phillies' Delahanty went 5-for-5 with a single in a 9-8 loss to the Chicago Colts. He only hit 101 home runs for his career, but Delahanty made the Hall of Fame in 1945.

Bobby Lowe — May 30, 1894

Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images

The Boston Beaneaters second baseman was the first player to hit four home runs in a major league game, every one of which proved necessary in Boston's 12-11 win over the Cincinnati Reds.

Joe Adcock, Braves, July 31, 1954

Adcock is the only man ever to do exactly what Hamilton did Tuesday night, go 5-for-5 with four homers and a double, doing so against the Dodgers at Ebbets Field. Adcock's day went homer-double-homer-homer-homer. Hamilton went homer-homer-double-homer-homer.

Context could push Adcock ahead of Hamilton, as his outburst came later in the season against the team his Braves were directly below in the standings, whereas Hamilton's came early against a team from another division that is more pretender than contender. The Braves were in third place, nine games out of first place and six games behind the Dodgers coming into Adcock's big game, and the opposing starter was a 28-year-old Don Newcombe, who had been the National League Rookie of the Year in 1949 and would go 47-12 for the Dodgers over the next two seasons.

In 1954, however, Newcombe was just back from military duty, in the middle of arguably his worst season, and only lasted long enough in this game to give up one hit to Adcock. One could also argue that the game is tilted more toward the pitchers in May 2012 than it was in July 1954, and that Tuesday night's Orioles starter, Jake Arrieta, though he did give up six runs in 6 1/3 innings, five of them coming on home runs by Hamilton (twice) and Adrian Beltre (a solo shot immediately following Hamilton's second of the night), was pitching better than Newcombe in the Adcock game.

Shawn Green, Dodgers, May 23, 2002

Green is the only man to turn in a single-game performance clearly better than Hamilton's. Facing Glendon Rusch and the Brewers on a Thursday afternoon in Milwaukee's Miller Park, Green went 6-for-6 with four home runs, a double, a single, and a major league record 19 total bases. In sequence, Green's game went double-homer-homer-homer-single-homer. (For an in-depth breakdown of Green's hitting mechanics leading up to that game and his six at-bats in the game from the man himself, see his 2011 book The Way of Baseball: Finding Stillness at 95 MPH.) For my money, Green's was the greatest single-game hitting performance. The next best 6-for-6 performance in major league history saw the author hit three home runs, a double and two singles (16 total bases). Ty Cobb did that on May 5, 1925. The Mets' Edgardo Alfonzo matched it on Aug. 30, 1999. Two men have gone 7-for-7. The Tigers' Cesar Gutierrez had six singles and a double on June 21, 1970. The Pirates' Rennie Stennett had four singles, two doubles and a triple on Sept. 16, 1975. Stennett's performance accumulated just 11 total bases.

Some might argue that Delgado's perfect game was the greatest of all time, but Green's is the only performance that is inarguably superior to what Hamilton did on Tuesday night. That means Hamilton's performance was at worst one of the four greatest in major league history. I'd put it in the top three, ahead of Delgado's, and those who want to split hairs might even find a way to put it ahead of Adcock's as the second-greatest single-game hitting performance of all time.

Published May 8, 2012

CLIFF CORCORAN

Cliff Corcoran is a contributing writer for SI.com. He has also edited or contributed chapters to 13 books about baseball, including seven Baseball Prospectus annuals.