Hitting four home runs in a game is a display of power that has rarely happened in MLB history. On this day in 2002, Shawn Green became the 14th person to accomplish that feat.
Shawn Green was a solid power hitter during his fifteen year Major League career. He hit 3248 home runs, and hit over forty homers in a season three times, placing in the top five in the league each of those seasons. Yet, in regards to a true power display, Green would never top what he did on this day in 2002.
Facing off against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park, Green annihilated the Brewers pitching staff in the Dodgers 16-3 victory. He took starter Glendon Rusch deep in the second, homered against Brian Mallette in the fourth and fifth innings, and capped off his day with a solo shot off of Jose Cabrera in the ninth.
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That was not the only milestone for Green that day. He went 6-6 with a double and a single, giving him a Major League record of 19 total bases. Of those home runs, his second homer off of Mallette was his 200th career long ball. Green also became the only player since 1954 to score at least six runs and have at least six RBI in the same game.
Green’s impressive game was not all he did that week. He would set a record with seven home runs in three games, and set a National League record when he hit nine homers that week, a mark only surpassed by Frank Howard, who had ten in one week. Green certainly was on fire that week, and used the Brewers pitching staff to send notice of his hot hitting ways.
The 14th player in Major League history to hit four home runs in a single game, Shawn Green and the Dodgers annihilated the Brewers on this day in 2002.