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This Day In Sports…June 10, 2019, five years ago today:
The Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies combine to hit 13 home runs, the most in a single game in major league history, in a 13-8 D-backs victory. Arizona, in fact, smacked three consecutive homers to begin the game and finished with a team-record eight. Among the highlights—Eduardo Escobar became the first Diamondback ever to homer from different sides of the plate in consecutive innings, while Scott Kingery hit two of the Phils’ five home runs.
Escobar was known more for triples than home runs that year—he led the majors with 10 triples in 2019. Meanwhile, it was Phils starter Jerad Eickhoff who set the ominous tone by serving up the three homers to start the game. Eickhoff was chased in the fourth inning after allowing two more dingers. All five of the hits he allowed that night were home runs.
The previous mark of 12 home runs by two teams combined had been set in 1995 by the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers in 1995 and was tied the same two teams in 2002. The Cincinnati Reds hold the NL record for homers in a game with nine versus the Phillies in 1999, and the Toronto Blue Jays hit 10 in a game against the Baltimore Orioles in 1987 to establish the overall MLB standard.
The individual record for home runs in a game is four, as it has been forever. It hasn’t happened since 2017, when J.D. Martinez of the Diamondbacks and Scooter Gennett of the Reds both accomplished the feat. Sixteen players have clubbed four homers in a game in MLB history. But it’s a quirky record. Of baseball’s top 10 career home run hitters, only Willie Mays ever hit four in one game.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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