Joe Adcock may have had the greatest single game offensive performance in baseball history. On this day in 1954, the Braves slugger hit four home runs, and set a record for the most total bases in a single game.
We often see where, in the course of a game, a player needs to borrow a teammate’s bat for whatever reason. Strangely, it seems to work out for the better more often than not, with that bat having a hit or two left for the person swinging it. For Braves slugger Joe Adcock, borrowing that piece of lumber, had a record setting day.
The fireworks began in the second inning against Dodgers starter Don Newcombe. Leading off the inning, Adcock belted a home run, extending the Braves lead at the time to 2-0. Battered by the Braves lineup, Newcombe lasted three batters into the second before being replaced by Clem Lebine. In the third, Erv Palica took over, and did not fare much better. After a home run for Eddie Matthews, his second of the game, and a fly out, he kept Adcock in the yard with a double off the top of the wall in left, narrowly missing his second homer of the game.
Adcock victimized Palica in the fifth. With two runners on, he took the reliever’s offering deep for a three run homer, giving the Dodgers a 9-1 lead. After the Dodgers got a run back in the sixth, Adcock took another reliever, Pete Wojey, deep for a two run homer, his third of the contest. With Brooklyn holding a 12-2 lead midway through the seventh, the only real drama was whether or not Adcock would get a chance for his fourth home run of the game.
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That opportunity came in the top of the ninth. The Dodgers had battled back to score four runs in the bottom of the eighth, cutting the Braves lead in half. Adcock made sure that the comeback would not materialize, taking Johnny Podres deep to lead off the inning for his fourth homer of the game. If not for a matter of inches in the third, he would have been the first player in baseball history to hit five homers in one game.
As it was, Adcock slammed his way into history. He became the seventh player in baseball history, and the second member of the Braves organization, to hit four homers in a single game. His 18 total bases set a record that stood until Shawn Green bested him in 2002. It was quite the epic performance.
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Joe Adcock was known as a Dodger killer during his playing days. On this day in 1954, Adcock belted four homers against four different pitchers, leading the Braves to victory.