MLB teams
Scott Lauber, ESPN Staff Writer 8y

Mookie Betts matches Ted Williams with second three-homer game

MLB, Boston Red Sox

BOSTON -- For 58 years, Ted Williams stood as the only player in Red Sox history to have more than one three-homer game in a single season.

And then Mookie Betts came along.

Betts belted three home runs and collected a career-high eight RBIs in Sunday's 16-2 rout of the Arizona Diamondbacks at Fenway Park. He went deep in the first and second innings against Diamondbacks starter Zack Greinke and in the fifth against reliever Adam Loewen. Betts matched his three-homer game from May 31 in Baltimore.

All three of Betts' homers cleared the Green Monster in left field. His eight RBIs were the most by a Red Sox player since Bill Mueller drove in nine runs on July 29, 2003, against the Texas Rangers.

"I was just swinging at good pitches to start and was finally able to just swing the bat right," Betts said. "The last couple of days, I hadn't been swinging it right and hadn't been swinging at good pitches and just was late, a whole bunch of things. So, today, I finally came in early and got back in that little groove."

Betts had one hit in his previous eight at-bats after missing Thursday night's game because of tightness in his right calf, likely a byproduct of having fluid drained from his right knee two weeks earlier. Even with his two-game funk, Betts entered the day batting .357 (30-for-84) with 11 doubles, one triple, five homers and a 1.088 OPS in his previous 21 games -- hardly a slump.

He had two chances to hit his fourth home run. But with the crowd chanting "Let's Go Mookie," he lined out to right field in the sixth inning and grounded to third base to end the eighth.

Nevertheless, Betts joined Williams in the Red Sox's multigame three-homer club. Williams hit three homers in two games during the 1957 season, when the Red Sox finished in third place in the American League.

"Any time your name is said with his, you know it means you've done something well," Betts said, referencing Williams. "He had a great career, and mine's just starting."

Dustin Pedroia also made history Sunday, when he notched his fifth career five-hit game, the most ever by a Red Sox player.

The Red Sox set their season high in runs scored, an offensive outburst that came at an appropriate time. After completing a 4-2 homestand, the Sox will embark on a four-city, 11-game road trip beginning with a makeup game Monday afternoon in Cleveland.

^ Back to Top ^