Nick Kurtz becomes first MLB rookie to hit four home runs in one game
The 22-year-old's performance – one of the greatest in MLB history by any player, rookie or otherwise – also saw him rack up 19 total bases, tying the major league record set by Shawn Green in 2002.
'It still really hasn't sat in that it's actually just happened,' a near-speechless Kurtz told reporters afterward. 'That I had a game like that. It's stuff that you don't even dream about, because it doesn't really happen. So it's an unbelievable feeling.'
Kurtz went six-for-six, going deep off each of the Astros pitchers in the second, sixth, eighth and ninth innings. He also added in a single in the first, as well as a 381-foot, fourth-inning double which would have been a home run in six MLB ballparks, per ESPN. He finished with six runs and eight RBIs.
'It's arguably the best game I've ever watched from a single player,' Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said afterward. 'This kid continues to have jaw-dropping moments.'
Kurtz is just the 20th player in major league history – and the first in franchise history – to go deep four times in a single game.
He did so far earlier in his career than anyone else has ever managed. Before Friday, Mark Whiten's four-homer outing in his 425th MLB game in 1993 was the record, per ESPN. Kurtz achieved the feat in just his 66th appearance.
At the age of 22, he is also by far the youngest player ever to do so, surpassing Pat Seerey who was 25 when he hit four home runs for the Chicago White Sox on July 18, 1948.
Kurtz's historic night came with his parents and godparents watching on from the stands at Daikin Park.
'This is the first time my godparents have been here, so they probably have to come the rest of the year, to every single game,' Kurtz said afterward.
Having been picked fourth overall by the A's in the 2024 Draft, the speed at which Kurtz has become one of the league's top hitters is remarkable.
The Pennsylvania native has 23 home runs this season and is now on a 12-game hitting streak, during which he has racked up 20 extra-base hits.
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