Prior to last night, there had been more Perfect Games (twenty-three in total) than four home run games by Major League Baseball batsmen (sixteen) by a margin of seven. However, Scooter Gennett, a middle infielder for the Cincinnati Reds who had 38 career long balls to his name and one multi-home run game became the seventeenth player to accomplish the feat, first completed by Bobby Lowe for the Boston Beaneaters (now the Atlanta Braves) on May 30th in 1894. Between Lowe and Gennett, five Hall of Famers have joined the club including Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, and Lou Gehrig. Gennett, also had a single in his first at-bat and drove in ten runs which is the third most by a player in an MLB contest. Coincidentally the record holders Jim Bottomley and Mark Whiten both played for the St. Louis Cardinals, whose pitchers were terrorized by Gennett last night during the Reds 13-1 victory.
Gennett’s first home run came against former ace Adam Wainwright who was rocked for nine runs in 3 and 2/3 innings, the second and third home runs both came against John Gant and the record tying fourth came against John Brebbia. By RBI count, the first home run was a Grand Slam, the second was a two-run shot, the third a solo blast, and his last was again a two-run shot. No player has ever had a solo, two-run, three-run, and grand slam in the same game but this represents the closest anyone has gotten to that arbitrary benchmark. No other player who has ever got four dingers in game is still active in Major League Baseball but Gennett assuming he ever has swings on pitches like he had yesterday there is a minuscule chance he could be the first two time member of the club. No word on if the Cardinals will throw him another fastball in his career.
