Last July, Nick Kurtz was selected fourth overall by the Athletics in the 2024 MLB Draft.
On Friday, he became the 20th player, and the first rookie, in MLB history to post a four-homer game, leading the A’s to a 15-3 win over the Houston Astros. Here are all four homers, featuring an increasingly jubilant A’s broadcast:
Somehow, that wasn’t the end of Kurtz’s accomplishments, as he also went 6-for-6 and tied Shawn Green for the most total bases in a single game with 19.
He also ties Green (and others) for modern era records with six runs scored and five extra base hits. He posted eight RBI, one more than Green’s historic game in 2002. It’s not hyperbolic to call it the best offensive game in the history of baseball, all accomplished by a player who was in college at the start of the 2024 season.
The punchline to all this was Kurtz’s double in the fourth inning. Had it traveled perhaps two feet farther, we would be talking about the first five-homer game baseball has ever seen.
Kurtz did all that against the first-place Astros, with each homer off a different pitcher. They weren’t exactly the staff aces, though, with starting pitcher Ryan Gusto (4.46 ERA entering Friday), relievers Nick Hernandez (9.00 in one inning), Kaleb Ort (5.40) and Robbie Hummel (position player) all feeling the damage.
That performance adds to what was already a breakout campaign for Kurtz, who entered Friday as the AL Rookie of the Year favorite at BetMGM and most certainly exited it that way. He has been the best hitter in baseball — not rookie, just hitter — over the past nine weeks or so and has now put his mark on history.
It has been only 368 days since Kurtz signed his first contract with the A’s, joining the club after back-to-back All-American seasons at Wake Forest. He proceeded to dominate the minor leagues much like he did in the ACC, posting a 1.283 OPS between Single-A and Double-A in 2024, then a 1.040 OPS in Triple-A before his call-up in late April.
Kurtz actually got off to a slow start, slashing .208/.259/.299 with only one homer through May 19, the last day of an 0-for-21 skid.
Since then, well, he’s slashed .352/.427/.870 with 24 homers in 43 games. That’s a 90.4-homer pace when extrapolated over 162 games. Major league or minor league park, that will play.
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