Posted: Tuesday May 8, 2012 11:50PM
Updated: Wednesday May 9, 2012 1:45AM
Josh Hamilton took over the lead in all three MLB triple crown categories.
When Josh Hamilton hit four home runs against the Orioles on Tuesday, he became just the 16th man in baseball history to accomplish the feat. More men (21) have thrown perfect games. Hamilton's performance was even more impressive than that, however. When you factor in the fact that Hamilton went 5-for-5 on the night, mixing a double in among his four homers, it could be argued that his was one of the handful of best single-game hitting performances in major league history.
The two most important things a hitter can do, independent of his teammates, is avoid outs and hit for extra bases. Four home runs add up to 16 total bases. Since 1918, just five men have totaled 16 total bases in a game. Hamilton is one of them. Nineteenth-century four-homer men Bobby Lowe and Ed Delahanty can be added to that list, but both fell short of Hamilton at 17 total bases. Only one man has ever hit for more total bases in a single game than Hamilton's 18. That was Shawn Green, who collected 19 for the Dodgers in 2002. Meanwhile, of the 17 men to have produced 16 or more total bases in a single game since 1918, plus Lowe and Delahanty, just eight did so without making an out. Hamilton is one of those eight as well.
That alone puts Hamilton's performance above the four-homer games of Lou Gehrig (4-for-6), Chuck Klein (4-for-5), Pat Seerey (4-for-6, BB), Willie Mays (4-for-5), Bob Horner (4-for-5), Mark Whiten (4-for-5) and Mike Cameron (4-for-5, HBP), all of whom had additional at-bats without collecting hits. It's also pretty easy to put Hamilton's game ahead of those of Lowe, Gil Hodges and Mike Schmidt, all of whom went 5-for-6 with four homers and a single, because Hamilton's extra hit was a double and he didn't make an out. Delahanty didn't make an out, going 5-for-5, but his extra hit was also a single, so Hamilton has him beat as well.
That alone puts Hamilton in the top