J.D. Martinez becomes first Diamondback ever with four home-run game

Charlie has already brought you the recap, but I think the feat of J.D. Martinez is absolutely deserving of its own post. The Diamondbacks have had a number of three home-run games before - most recently, of course, the one by Paul Goldschmidt against the Chicago Cubs earlier this season. But they had never had anyone join the elite club of players with a four home-run game: something much rarer than a no-hitter, hitting for the cycle or even a perfect game. Only two National League players had managed it since 1993: Shawn Green of the Dodgers in 2002 and the Reds’ Scooter Gennett, earlier this season

It didn’t seem particularly likely, after Martinez struck out, the first time he came to the plate. But he was clearly just getting warmed up. In the fourth, Martinez went deep off Rich Hill, a two-run shot. But through the end of six innings, that was all he had: you would have got pretty long odds against him even getting three more at-bats. However, he led off the seventh against the Dodgers bullpen with a solo shot, as the D-backs scored four times. That meant Martinez came up with one out in the eighth... and hit a third home-run.

Mrs. SnakePit asked me then, “What’s the most HR ever hit by a batter in a game?” I told her four, and explained that with only five outs left, it seemed unlikely he would even get another shot. But Adam Rosales did his part with a home-run, and when A.J. Pollock singled through the infield, it turned out the D-backs had needed only four outs for Martinez’s turn in the order to come up again. He didn’t miss his pitch. None of the four were cheap shots either. Per ESPN, they all went for at least four hundred feet: Martinez hit for 436, 417, 417 and 401 feet, so I guess he was tiring at the end... That’s a total of 1,671 feet, or 557 yards of home-runs tonight.

He also became the first player in major-league history to hit home-runs off four different pitchers in consecutive plate appearances furing the same game. Martinez has now hit 18 home-runs in only forty games since coming to the Diamondbacks from the Tigers. Only three Arizona batters have ever hit more home-runs in the second half of the season: Chris Young (19, 2007); Mark Reynolds (20, 2009) and Luis Gonzalez (22, 2001). Not bad, considering there are still almost four weeks to go: I certainly wouldn’t bet against Martinez surpassing all three of the men ahead of him.