There are times where I have to wait until the last minute possible to write up the winner, because it is not clear who it is going to be. This was not one of those times. The victor always seemed likely, though I do have to feel for Brandon Pfaadt, whose “incomplete game shutout” would have been a worthy winner in just about any other season. However, you will not be shocked to hear that with a clear, filibuster proof majority, Eugenio Suarez’s four home-run game has followed in the footsteps of J.D.
Martinez’s four home-run game back in 2017, and become this year’s Single Game Performance winner. This, obviously, is my unsurprised face.
It was all the more surprising, because as in 2024, Suarez had got off to a slow start out of the gates. Two days prior, after 25 games, he was batting just .159 with a .658 OPS. But there were indications he was heating up. The previous night, in the series opener against Atlanta, Suarez had reached base safely four times, on two hits and a pair of walks – his first multi-hit game in almost a month. We saw in the second half of last year, what Geno could do when he got on one of his hot streaks, and it felt like he was on the edge of breaking out again here. But nobody could have foreseen what he would do on this evening.
He wasted no time. The very first offering he saw from Atlanta starter Grant Holmes left the park, Suarez dispatching a low-middle four-seam fastball 418 feet to left-center. Two innings later, he was more patient, working the count full before tagging another fastball, this one up in the zone, slightly to the left of homer #1, and just a little shorter (411 feet). He returned to the ambush style in the sixth for Geno’s biggest blow of the evening, which sent Holmes to the showers. The pitcher tossed a first pitch cement-mixer slider, which hung up there and was crushed onto the walkway just to the left of the batter’s eye, a distance estimated at 443 feet.
He wouldn’t have had another AB, had the bullpen not blown a 6-4 lead. But when Suarez came to the plate to lead off the ninth, with the D-backs trailing 7-6, all of Chase Field was paying attention as he faced Braves’ closer Raisel Iglesias. After a called strike, he took a pitch well outside, then took a hack at an offering on the outside edge, but came up empty. Iglesias threw two more balls, both well off the plate away, and I wondered if he was going to put Suarez on base, even if he did represent the tying run. Instead, the pitch was a high fastball, outer third. Geno connected, the left-fielder jogged a couple of steps before abandoning hope, and Eugenio Suarez’s name was indelibly etched into the record books.
“I didn’t hear anybody. I was just ready for that at-bat. I knew it was going to be tough for me against Iglesias, who for me is one of the best relievers in the game. I was just looking for one pitch in the strike zone and put my best swing on it. I never thought I would hit a homer against him.” — Eugenio Suarez
“I kept shaking my head. I couldn’t believe it. … It’s pretty remarkable. So no, I was not thinking he was going to hit a fourth home run. I was kind of begging that he would, and when it left his bat, the dugout erupted.’’ — Torey Lovullo
Unfortunately, the historic night was not enough to make a winner of the D-backs. The D-backs lost 8-7 in ten innings, with Geno three spots away from getting a crack at becoming the first ever player with a five homer night. Only two other players – Bob Horner in 1986 and Ed Delahanty in 1896(!) – had hit four HR in a losing cause. While a quartet of home-runs is among the rarest achievements in baseball, doing it in a game with just four trips to the plate is rarer still: that had previously been achieved only by Carlos Delgado in 2003. It also made Torey Lovullo the first ever major-league manager to be in the dugout for two such contests.
“I was left feeling the same way that I feel right now. It’s awesome. You don’t see it very often, and you’ve got to appreciate it. You’ve got to really embrace this moment that you’re watching something special.” — Torey Lovullo
“I mean that’s unbelievable what the guy did. To hit four homers, my God. And he was all over all of them, too. You just kind of feel like after a couple, it’s like, well, he’s due to make an out. I mean, hats off to him, man. He didn’t miss them. We’re just lucky that we were able to overcome that great performance that he had.” — Atlanta manager Brian Snitker
“I never thought in my life that I’d be able to do that — hit four home runs in a game. To be honest, it feels great. I just want to thank God for this opportunity. It’s very special for me to be able to do that here in Arizona and do it for my team, do it for my family. They watch me every single day. They support me, my teammates and that’s awesome.”— Eugenio Suarez
Previous winners
- 2024: 9/8 – Pavin Smith goes off
- 2023: 9/8 – Zac Gallen complete game versus Cubs + Merrill Kelly’s dominant World Series Game 2 start
- 2022: 9/22 – Zac Gallen dominates Dodgers
- 2021: 8/14 – Tyler Gilbert’s no-hitter
- 2020: 9/2 – Zac Gallen one-hits the Dodgers
- 2019: 9/7 – Alex Young’s rookie record
- 2018: 4/17 – Patrick Corbin one-hits the Giants
- 2017: 9/4 – J.D Martinez, 4 HR vs. LAD
- 2016: 7/16 – Jake Lamb is clutch
- 2015: 4/17 – Josh Collmenter, complete-game shutout + three hits
- 2014: 5/29 – Josh Collmenter’s imperfect game
- 2013: 8/13 – Paul Goldschmidt, tying HR in 9th, walk-off HR in 11th, +79.8% WP
- 2012: 6/29 – Aaron Hill’s cycle #2 vs. Milwaukee
- 2011: 4/25 – Ian Kennedy complete-game
- 2010: 6/25 – Edwin Jackson, no-hitter vs. Tampa Bay
- 2009: 6/7 – B-bullpen no-hits the Padres for nine innings
- 2008: 4/18 – Conor Jackson, runs through the cycle
- 2007: 8/18 – Micah Owings, two-way threat
