Most 3-homer games since 1957
Posted by Andy on August 4, 2007
The other day, I noted how Joe Carter hit 3 homers in game 5 different times. It made me curious to see who has the most 3+ homer games in his career, since 1957.
Once again, everything's coming up Sosa:
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Sammy Sosa 6 Ind. Games Mark McGwire 5 Ind. Games Dave Kingman 5 Ind. Games Carlos Delgado 5 Ind. Games Joe Carter 5 Ind. Games Willie Stargell 4 Ind. Games Larry Parrish 4 Ind. Games Steve Finley 4 Ind. Games Barry Bonds 4 Ind. Games
What a motley list. In the "little or no surprise" category, we have Sosa, McGwire, Kong, Delgado, Carter, Stargell, and Bonds. But was anybody expecting to see Larry Parrish or Steve Finley on this list? How odd.
Parish's four games are:
Cnt Date Tm Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions +----+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+ 1 1977-05-29 MON @STL W 14-4 5 5 5 5 0 0 3 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8th 3B 2 1978-07-30 MON @ATL W 19-0 6 6 4 4 1 0 3 5 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5th 3B 3 1980-04-25 MON @ATL L 7-8 5 5 3 3 0 0 3 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5th 3B 4 1985-04-29 TEX NYY W 7-5 4 4 3 3 0 0 3 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4th RF
Very nicely spread out over his career, as compared to Finley. In '77, he had only 11 homers in 123 games but managed 3 in one game against the Cardinals.
Taking a closer look at Finley's games:
Cnt Date Tm Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions +----+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+ 1 1997-05-19 SDP @CIN W 13-6 6 5 3 3 0 0 3 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1st CF 2 1997-06-23 SDP @SFG W 11-6 6 5 4 4 0 0 3 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd CF 3 1999-09-08 ARI @MIL W 9-1 5 5 3 3 0 0 3 6 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5th CF 4 2004-04-28 ARI CHC L 3-4 4 4 3 3 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5th CF
First of all, I find it amazing that he hit 3 homers in a game in which his team scored only 3 runs and lost. Finley's had a very strange career. In 6 full seasons before 1996, he never had more than 11 HRs and averaged 7.5. In the 9 full seasons he played from 1996 to 2004, he never hit fewer than 14 and averaged a whopping 26.4. Who knows what the cause is...(but I bet I know what you're thinking...does it start with an 's'?)