Jul 25, 2025, 11:37 PM ET<\/p>\n
Nick Kurtz<\/a> of the Athletics<\/a> became the first rookie in Major League Baseball history to hit four home runs in a game, part of a spectacular Friday night for the 22-year-old that will go down as one of the greatest offensive displays the sport has seen.<\/p>\n Kurtz also matched the MLB record with 19 total bases in the 15-3 triumph<\/a> against the Astros<\/a> in Houston.<\/p>\n “It’s arguably the best game I’ve ever watched from a single player,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. “This kid continues to have jaw-dropping moments.”<\/p>\n Kurtz didn’t make an out all night, going deep in the second, sixth, eighth and ninth innings. He also doubled — a 381-foot drive that would have been out in six major league ballparks — and singled on his 6-for-6 night to equal Shawn Green, who had four homers, six hits and 19 total bases for the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> on May 23, 2002 at Milwaukee<\/a>.<\/p>\n DatePlayerGames To Hit 4 HRsFri.Nick Kurtz661993Mark Whiten4251959Rocky Colavito4341950Gil Hodges437– ESPN Research<\/p>\n Kurtz and Green are the only players with six hits in a four-homer game.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n It was the 20th four-homer game in major league history and second this season. Arizona<\/a>‘s Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/a> did it<\/a> April 26 against Atlanta<\/a>. No player has ever hit five home runs in a game.<\/p>\n Kurtz finished with eight RBIs and six runs scored.<\/p>\n The 6-foot-5 slugger has 23 homers in 66 games this season. The fourth pick in last year’s amateur draft out of Wake Forest, he made his major league debut April 23 and hit his first homer May 13.<\/p>\n He is the youngest player with a four-homer game. Pat Seerey of the Chicago White Sox<\/a> was 25 when he homered four times on July 18, 1948.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n “This is the first time my godparents have been here, so they probably have to come in the rest of the year,” Kurtz said. “My parents flew in today. They’ve been here a bunch, but it was cool to have some family here for that.”<\/p>\n On Friday, Kurtz homered off each of the Astros’ four pitchers: Ryan Gusto<\/a>, Nick Hernandez<\/a>, Kaleb Ort<\/a> and outfielder Cooper Hummel<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n For his fourth homer, Kurtz 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.<\/p>\n “With a positional player on the mound, I’m just trying to move the ball forward,” Kurtz said. “You don’t want to be the guy that strikes out. That’s only my second at-bat ever off a positional player, so I don’t know. Just trying to move the ball forward and get something that I can touch, and I hit another one.”<\/p>\n Kurtz’s double in the fourth inning hit just below the yellow line over the visitors bullpen, narrowly missing what would have been a fifth homer.<\/p>\n