Oh! Geno! Suarez the slugger hits four home runs in a game
An all-or-nothing Arizona Diamondbacks slugger joins an exclusive club
On Saturday night, Eugenio (say it Ae-yu-hen-ee-oh) Suarez of the Arizona Diamondbacks became just the 19th player in the history of Major League Baseball to hit four home runs in one game. Check that shit out.
There have been over 238,500 games in that sample size. That means that this happens once in every 12,552 games played, give or take. It’s kind of a big deal.
Why does this hardly ever happen?
It’s hard to hit a homer. It’s hard to hit a professionally pitched baseball. But it’s particularly hard to hit it over 100mph and at a sufficient launch angle so that it clears a wall about 400 feet away. Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees is the most prolific home run hitter in baseball – he averages one every 11 at bats or so. Suarez was at bat four times and hit a homer every single time.
Not every at bat provides a realistic opportunity to hit a home run. The batter can be hit by a pitch at any time, in which case he automatically takes first base. A pitcher can miss the strike zone wildly with four pitches, giving the batter a free pass – a walk – to first base. And a batter doesn’t average more than four at bats in a single game.
In Suarez’s case, there was another reason the odds were stacked against him writing a little piece of baseball history this weekend.
Despite his personal efforts, the game was close when he stepped up in the bottom of ninth inning, three home runs already under his belt. In fact, his Diamondbacks were down by a run, which means that the opponent, the Atlanta Braves, put their closer on the mound.
Of all relief pitchers, a team’s closer is their most fierce and reliable, generally saved for situations where his team is narrowly ahead in the final inning. This was the case on Saturday, so Raisel Iglesias had the ball in his hand - and Raisel is one mean melon farmer.
The count was full in their contest, three balls and two strikes (3-2, or three-and-two). That means that a ball outside the strike zone would have given Suarez a walk to first base. Suarez was the first batter in the ninth inning, and with nobody else on base, a walk is easier to stomach for a pitcher than when there are runners. But Iglesias wanted the strike out and threw a 97mph fast ball in the zone.
Suarez is a hitter of extremes. He swings for the fences. He doesn’t hit it as often as most other batters in the game, but when he does hit it, it frequently leaves the yard. The perfect kind of hitter for this kind of bid.
But here’s the kicker.
Suarez made history. But lost the game.
His last homer tied the game in the ninth, pushing the game into extra innings.
In the tenth, Atlanta pushed a single run over and Arizona could not find a response in front of home fans who a few minutes earlier had been cheering a historic swing from their slugger.
Oh, Geno.