Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton became the 16th player in Major League Baseball to hit four home runs in a single game on Tuesday night. The assault by Hamilton came against the Baltimore Orioles and was a majestic display of his power—similar to his performance in the Home Run Derby a couple seasons ago.
The comparison that a baseball fan could make is that Hamilton did the hitters equivalent to a pitcher throwing a perfect game. Both feats are incredibly rare, as there are just 21 perfect games in MLB history.
That brings up a different question. Which feat is more impressive? A perfect game or hitting four home runs in a single game?
I tend to lean toward the hitter in this argument, and here’s why. In baseball, the pitcher dictates everything before the climax of a sequence. To this, the hitter has no idea what’s coming about 90 percent of the time. That would lead you to believe that the act of hitting one home run is difficult.
There are other factors on top of that. After a hitter has hit his first home run, he waits approximately an hour before taking his next at-bat. During that time, the pitcher has been able to face eight other hitters and may have gotten himself into a groove. That rhythm usually is beneficial to a pitcher.
At the time of the hitter’s second at-bat, the landscape is completely different. In Hamilton’s case, the sun was starting to set in the outfield and there was a different backdrop for him to pick up the ball.
Of course, that doesn’t matter, as he hit home run No. 2 despite the pitcher looking into the same backdrop that he had been delivering to in Hamilton’s first at-bat. (I could even throw in a blue sky, blue eyes joke, but I’m sure the readers have already figured this out.)
That brings us to a hitter’s third at-bat in a four-home-run game. By this time, if the manager has any sense of sanity, the opposing team will decide not to pitch to the hitter who’s burned them with two bombs.
Of course, some teams use the “pitch to contact” philosophy and will bury it into the barrel of the bat, but in most cases the Barry Bonds effect prevails and the hitter finds himself on first base with a free pass.
The Barry Bonds effect is the biggest obstacle for a hitter getting home runs No. 3 and 4, as they won’t be able to see a hittable pitch. If the hitter does make contact, it usually doesn’t leave the ballpark unless they’re a great bad-ball hitter.
Another obstacle at this point is that the hitter may be facing a different pitcher in his third and fourth at-bats. The hitter needs to find his own rhythm at this point against two pitchers he hasn’t seen earlier in the game. To pick up a guy coming out of the pen (who may have the same handedness) is a difficult task for any hitter.
There may even be more obstacles that a hitter faces en route to a four-home-run game, but it’s probably best if I keep it short. Hamilton’s accomplishment is something that deserves a tip of the cap, and with all due respect to Phil Humber, it’s the most difficult accomplishment of the season.
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