Athletics’ Nick Kurtz becomes first MLB rookie to hit four home runs in a game
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HOUSTON — Nick Kurtz of the Athletics became the first rookie in Major League Baseball history to hit four home runs in a game and matched the MLB record with 19 total bases against the Houston Astros on Friday night.
Kurtz went deep in the second, sixth, eighth and ninth innings. He also doubled and singled on his six-for-six night to equal Shawn Green, who had four homers, six hits and 19 total bases for the Dodgers on May 23, 2002, at Milwaukee.
“It’s hard to think about this day being kind of real, it still feels like a dream,” Kurtz said in a postgame television interview. “So it’s pretty remarkable. I’m kind of speechless. Don’t really know what to say.”
It was the 20th four-homer game in major league history and second this season. Arizona’s Eugenio Suárez did it on April 26 against Atlanta. Kurtz and Green are the only players with six hits in a four-homer game.
Kurtz finished with eight RBIs and six runs scored as the Athletics beat the Astros 15-3.
The 6-foot-5, 23-year-old slugger has 23 homers in 66 games this season. The fourth overall pick in last year’s amateur draft out of Wake Forest, he made his major league debut on April 23 and hit his first homer on May 13.
On Friday, Kurtz homered off each of the Astros’ four pitchers: Ryan Gusto, Nick Hernandez, Kaleb Ort and outfielder Cooper Hummel, who worked the ninth with the game out of hand. His longest drive was his third, a 414-foot solo shot off Ort in the eighth.
For his fourth homer, he hit an opposite-field line drive to the Crawford boxes in left field on a 77-mph, 2-0 pitch from Hummel. The three-run shot made it 15-2.
Kurtz has been the best hitter in the majors in July, ranking first in batting average (.425), on-base percentage (.494), slugging percentage (1.082), runs (22), doubles (13), homers (11) and RBIs (27).
As the Dodgers continue to ponder their trade deadline options, Teoscar Hernández helps power a resurgent Dodger offense to a 5-2 win over the Boston Red Sox.
