Jose Bautista joined Major League Baseball's 40+ Home Runs in One Season Club 124 games into the season. He accomplished the feat on Monday, when he hit two long homers against the Yankees in a 3-2 Blue Jays victory. The 40th homer came in the first inning on a 0-2 pitch from Jered Weaver; it was just beyond the right-field fence at Yankee Stadium. The second blast came in the eighth on a 1-0 pitch from Andy Pettitte. It was also past right field.
Bautista is the first player to reach this mark while playing every game of his team's schedule. His teammate, Troy Tulowitzki, has been selected as the winner of the American League Player of the Week Award for the week ending 9/4/2012. (AL MVP)?
Tulo led all hitters with four hits including three doubles and a triple. He scored five times and drove in a pair. The third baseman now has 70 RBI this season, which is the most ever by a shortstop rookie.
The only other player to hit four homers in a single game is Ted Williams, who did so in 1941 while playing for the Boston Bees/Braves. Williams went on to have an incredible year: he finished with 51 homers and 131 RBI, winning the AL MVP Award.
On June 15, 1902, Jay Clarke of the Texas League set the record for most home runs in a single game with eight. Clarke's total is still debated, with some publications reporting three home runs at the time but no surviving box score to corroborate or contradict his achievement. In 1998, Mike Boddicker of the California Angels struck out seven times in a single game.
In 1995, Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals broke the previous record with 62 home runs in a single season. He was later found to have used steroids during this period.
In 1960, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees became the first player to hit number 60 home runs when he hit the sixth ball thrown his way during a double-header game against the Boston Red Sox. The last ball was hit about 400 feet from home plate and it did not carry as far as the others had. Maris finished the day with a home run and a walk (which counted as two bases) - his old school coach Joe DiMaggio thought that was enough for the day. However, baseball has changed since then and so has technology, which has made those days now seem primitive. Today, there are many players who have hit more than six balls in a game.
Pete Alonso established the single-season record for home runs by a big league rookie and a Met, regardless of tenure, in 2019, as he led both the National League and the majors. It's time to go into what that entails—leading the league in home runs as a pitcher.
This is a list of some of the most notable home run records set in big league baseball games. Some major league records, including as the single-season home run record, the evolution of the career home run record, and the members of the 500 home run club, are noteworthy enough to warrant their own page.
Only seven players in Major League Baseball history have homered in at least seven consecutive games, the most recent being Kendrys Morales.
There are four players. Only four players in MLB history have achieved the 40-40 club, and none have done it more than once. Three of these hitters were right-handed, while one was left-handed. Two other players, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, have 600 home runs. They are not included in this list.
The first player to do so was Joe DiMaggio, who had 56 career steals when he retired after the 1951 season. He returned in 1955 at age 37 but only managed another steal because most managers didn't want to use him as a baserunner again after such a short retirement.
DiMaggio is the only player on this list who won an MVP award. In fact, he was the only player nominated for the MVP Award before it was renamed to the "Most Valuable Player Award" in 1959. The winner was always determined by vote of baseball writers rather than any official voting process, so it's not surprising that few people knew about DiMaggio then or know about him now. However, what is surprising is that no one else has even come close since his time.
In 1974, George Foster became the second player to reach 40 stolen bases while playing exclusively at third base. That year, the American League voted him its Rookie of the Year despite having played only 91 games at the position.
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