Mookie Betts' 3-dinger madness puts him in a class with just one other player in baseball history
Mookie Betts took over the MLB home run lead during Wednesday's Royals-Red Sox game by hitting not one, not two, but three dingers. He now has 11 total.
As you might have guessed, the performance was fairly crucial to Boston's 5-4 win.
Amazingly enough, it was also Betts' second three-homer game of the year -- he did the same against the Angels back on April 17. Doing it twice in one season places Mookie in a class of 21 mostly Hall of Fame to near-Hall of Fame greats: Ted Williams, Albert Pujols, Willie Stargell, Willie Mays, Johnny Mize, Cecil Fielder, Jeff Bagwell and Barry Bonds have all accomplished the feat. Bonds hit one of his trios at Coors Field:
Fielder did part of his damage at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium:
Sammy Sosa is the only player with three games of three homers in one season. He did that in 2001.
Even crazier, Betts now has two different seasons of two games with three homers -- he did the same thing in 2016. That puts him in a class with just one other person all-time: Mize. The former slugging first baseman made his dinger marks in 1938 and 1940.
Edwin Encarnacion, who somehow also homered three times on Wednesday, may join this vaunted list soon.
