3-Run Home Runs

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Adrian Beltre of the Rangers hit three home runs to lead his team to a series-clinching win over the Tampa Bay Rays today. That’s a rare feat. It’s only been done six other times in post-season play:

Player Date Series Gm# Tm Opp Rslt
1 Adam Kennedy 2002-10-13 ALCS 5 ANA MIN W 13-5
2 George Brett 1978-10-06 ALCS 3 KCR NYY L 5-6
3 Reggie Jackson 1977-10-18 WS 6 NYY LAD W 8-4
4 Bob Robertson 1971-10-03 NLCS 2 PIT SFG W 9-4
5 Babe Ruth 1928-10-09 WS 4 NYY STL W 7-3
6 Babe Ruth 1926-10-06 WS 4 NYY STL W 10-5

Hmm. Robertson only hit 115 HRs in a career which lasted 11 seasons. The real outlier, though, is Adam Kennedy. He’s still playing (35 games for Seattle this season), but he’s only hit 41 HRs in his career. The rest of those guys are famous sluggers.

That’s an indicator of how rare Beltre’s accomplishment was today.

You gotta feel sorry for Brett, too: he hit three HRs and his team still lost.

2 Comments

  1. I was at that game in 1978 when Brett hit the three homers. The Yankees won when Thurman Munson, who had hit six homers all season, blasted one over the 430 foot sign in left center. The place went nuts.

    For some reason, I seem to have attended a number of momentous games that featured George Brett. I was also there for Game 3 of the 1980 ALCS when he hit a mammoth HR off Goose Gossage to win the game and finish the Royals’ sweep. You’ve never heard Yankee Stadium be so quiet.

    And yes, I was there for the infamous Pine Tar game in 1983. That was an utter fluke. I went to many Yankee games as a kid because my dad’s law firm had season tickets, so he’d get to go to a dozen or so games a year. In 1982, he was elected Judge, and left the firm, which meant no more share of the tickets. For that particular game, no one claimed the tickets, so they called my dad to see if he wanted them. It was a weekday day game, during the summer, so I wound up going with a couple of buddies. I held onto the ticket stub (plus one unused ticket; the firm had four seats but only three of us went) for some time afterward but eventually lost them. We figured out what the Yankees were up to when we saw Tim McClelland lay the bat over home plate to measure how high up the pine tar was, but we were still amazed that he called Brett out. And oh my God, did he go ballistic. If YouTube had existed back then, that clip would have gone viral about five seconds after the fact.

    Good times, good times. 🙂

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