Athletics designated hitter Nick Kurtz hit four home runs in his team’s 15-3 road win over the Houston Astros on Friday night, becoming the first rookie in major league history to accomplish the feat.
Kurtz, 22, also matched the major league record for total bases with 19, originally set by Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 23, 2002, in Milwaukee. Green also homered four times in that game.
Kurtz is the 20th player in big-league history to hit four home runs in a game. The Arizona Diamondbacks’ Eugenio Suarez hit four home runs against the Atlanta Braves on April 26 — three days after Kurtz made his major league debut.
“It still really hasn’t set in that it actually just happened,” Kurtz said. “A game like that is stuff that you don’t even dream about, because it doesn’t really happen. It’s just an unbelievable feeling. Glad we got the win, obviously. That performance was awesome.”
Kurtz’s fourth homer came in the ninth inning, a three-run shot off Astros outfielder Cooper Hummel that gave him six hits and eight RBIs on the night. He has 23rd long balls in just 66 career games.
In becoming the first player in Athletics history with four home runs in a game, Kurtz ended the game 6-for-6. He singled in the first inning, hit a two-run homer in the second, added an RBI double in the fourth, belted solo shots in the sixth and eighth, then connected again in the ninth.
The fourth overall pick in the 2024 draft out of Wake Forest, Kurtz played just 12 games in the minor leagues last year and 21 this year before arriving in the majors.
He didn’t homer in his first 16 games but has since been on a power tear. Kurtz is now batting .305 with a 1.060 on-base-plus-slugging percentage that would rank second in the majors if he had made enough plate appearances to qualify.
Despite his late start, Kurtz leads all rookies in home runs, RBIs (59) and extra-base hits (43). According to MLB.com, Kurtz is the first player with at least 23 home runs and a 1.060 OPS through his first 66 games since at least 1901.
–Field Level Media
