September 25, 2003 – Carlos Delgado belts four home runs in game

September 25, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

Twenty-one years ago today, Toronto Blue Jays slugger Carlos Delgado became the 15th player in major league history to belt four home runs in a game.

His performance propelled the Blue Jays to a 10-8 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in front of 13,408 fans on a Thursday night at SkyDome.

“Greatest feat I’ve ever seen on a baseball field,” Blue Jays manager Carlos Tosca told the Toronto Star about Delgado’s performance after the game.

Delgado remains the only player in major league history to belt four home runs in a game in four plate appearances (the others had at least five plate appearances).

What makes Delgado’s performance even more remarkable is that he was feeling under the weather before the game.

“Sore throat, runny nose, really bad headache,” Delgado told Shi Davidi for his excellent 2016 book, The Big 50: The Men and Moments that Made the Toronto Blue Jays, about how he felt before his historic power display.

After a couple of rounds of batting practice, Delgado laid on the trainer’s table and told the trainer to wake him up at 6:50 p.m. – 10 minutes before game time. When he woke up, Delgado felt ready to play.

And boy was he.

Facing Rays starter Jorge Sosa in the first inning, Delgado belted a three-run home run that travelled 435-feet off Windows restaurant in centre field. This was also the slugger’s 300th big league round-tripper.

He followed that up with a solo shot off Sosa to right field in the third inning.

Then, with the Rays clinging to 6-5 lead in the sixth, manager Lou Piniella didn’t want Sosa to face Delgado again, so he brought in left-hander Joe Kennedy. It seemed like a logical move. After all, Delgado was just 5-for-36 against the southpaw. But on this day, Delgado couldn’t be stopped. He socked a waist-high curveball from Kennedy into the seats in right-centre field to tie the game.

The Rays, however, would retake the lead and two innings later, Delgado came to the plate with the bases empty with the Blue Jays trailing 8-7. The Rays had summoned closer Lance Carter into the game, but it didn’t matter. Delgado promptly clubbed his fourth home run off Window’s restaurant in centre field.

After he hit it, Delgado tossed his bat away before rounding the bases.

“I was pretty fired up. I’m not going to lie to you,” Delgado told the National Post after the game. “You could tell by the bat flip. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was on cloud nine out there.”

So, it seemed was everyone at SkyDome that day. The fans gave Delgado a standing ovation and he made a curtain call from the Blue Jays’ dugout.

Even Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi marveled at Delgado’s performance.

“I’m like everyone else, watching in amazement, seeing something we’ll probably never see again,” Ricciardi told the Toronto Star.

And Ricciardi has been right so far.

No Blue Jays player has hit four home runs in a game since, and just three more major leaguers – Josh Hamilton (Texas Rangers, May 8, 2012), Scooter Gennett (Cincinnati Reds, June 6, 2017) and J.D. Martinez (Arizona Diamondbacks, September 4, 2017) – have done it.

To put into perspective how remarkable and rare a four-home run game is: just 18 players in the history of Major League Baseball have hit four home runs in a single contest. There have been 24 perfect games thrown.

“You can’t predict it,” Delgado told the Toronto Star after his four-homer game. “I felt pretty crappy before the game and it’s definitely the best day in my baseball career. I can’t believe it happened.”