HOUSTON — Nick Kurtz of the Athletics became the first rookie in major league history to hit four home runs in a game, going deep in the second, sixth, eighth and ninth innings at Houston on Friday night.
Kurtz also singled and doubled for 19 total bases on a 6-for-6 night, becoming the second player to have four homers and six hits in a game. The other was Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 23, 2002, at Milwaukee. Kurtz drove in eight runs and scored six as the Athletics beat the Astros, 15-3.
The 6-foot-5, 23-year-old slugger has 23 homers in 66 games this season. The fourth overall pick in last year’s amateur draft out of Wake Forest, he made his major league debut April 23 and hit his first homer May 13.
On Friday, Kurtz homered off each of the Astros’ four pitchers: Ryan Gusto, Nick Hernandez, Kaleb Ort and Cooper Hummel. His longest drive was his third, a 414-foot solo shot off Ort in the eighth.
For his fourth homer, he hit an opposite-field line drive against Hummel to the Crawford boxes in left field. The three-run shot made it 15-2.
