Hitting four home runs in one game is baseball's rarest and greatest single-game feat.
In short: Only twenty-one players in Major League Baseball history have hit four home runs in a single game. While the achievement is celebrated as the pinnacle of offensive performance, it remains remarkably elusive, with no player ever repeating the feat in their career and only three instances resulting in a team loss.
The history of the four-homer game began on May 30, 1894, when Bobby Lowe of the Boston Beaneaters set the standard. The crowd's reaction was so fervent that $160 in silver coins—equivalent to about $6,000 today—was showered onto the field. Interestingly, Lowe finished his career with only 71 home runs, meaning this singular explosion accounted for 5.6% of his entire career output. Following Ed Delahanty’s performance in 1896, the league went nearly 36 years without another player matching the feat, marking the longest drought in its history.
Modern iterations of the record have pushed the boundaries of statistical dominance. In 2002, Shawn Green and Nick Kurtz in 2025 set an MLB record with 19 total bases in a single game, each recording a double and a single alongside their four home runs. Mark Whiten, during his own four-homer game, tied the record for most runs batted in with 12. Furthermore, Carlos Delgado and Eugenio Suárez achieved the rare efficiency of hitting a home run in every one of their four plate appearances during a single game.
Despite the prestige, the feat does not guarantee victory. In 1896, 1986, and 2025, players hit four home runs only to end up on the losing side. As of 2025, while 14 of the 21 players who have accomplished this are eligible for the Hall of Fame, only six have been elected. The rarity of the event is underscored by the fact that ten franchises have never participated in a four-homer game, and no player has ever managed to hit four home runs in a postseason contest.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: List of Major League Baseball single-game home run leaders
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