Schwarber Hits 4 HRs, Joins Schmidt, Delgado, Hamilton

Published on August 29th, 2025 11:34 am EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Kyle Schwarber had a night that stamped his name into baseball history. Four swings, four balls over the fence. The Phillies slugger became just the 21st player in Major League Baseball to hit four home runs in a single game, a feat so rare it's happened only a little more than once every decade since the league began.

Schwarber's power display put him in a group that includes some of the biggest names in the sport. From Hall of Famers to one-hit wonders, the list of four-homer players is a strange mix. What ties them together is one night when everything clicked.

The first to do it was Bobby Lowe of the Boston Beaneaters in 1894. Ed Delahanty followed just two years later for the Phillies. The accomplishment went silent for decades until Lou Gehrig in 1932 against the Philadelphia A's, and then Chuck Klein four years later for the Phillies. Pat Seerey hit his four in 1948, Gil Hodges in 1950, Joe Adcock in 1954, Rocky Colavito in 1959, and Willie Mays in 1961.

From there the timeline stretches out. Mike Schmidt hammered four in 1976, Bob Horner did it in 1986, and Mark Whiten matched them in 1993 with a 12-RBI game, still tied for the most in history. The early 2000s produced a sudden rush - Mike Cameron in 2002, Shawn Green in 2002, and Carlos Delgado in 2003. Josh Willingham became the only Washington Nationals player to do it in 2009.

The most famous modern performance came from Josh Hamilton in 2012 with the Texas Rangers. Then came a mini-wave: Scooter Gennett with the Reds in 2017, J.D. Martinez with the Diamondbacks a few months later, and Christian Yelich with the Brewers in 2018. That brought the list to 20. Schwarber just made it 21.

The rarity of the achievement is what stands out. In more than 230,000 MLB games played, only 21 have featured a player going deep four times. Some of the best pure hitters in history never came close. Even for sluggers, it requires the right mix: enough plate appearances, hittable pitches, and the confidence to keep swinging for damage late in the game.

Schwarber is no stranger to streaky power. He has multiple 40-homer seasons and a reputation for getting hot in bursts. But even in today's home run era, four in a single night remains almost untouchable.

The official club of four-homer games now reads: Lowe (1894), Delahanty (1896), Gehrig (1932), Klein (1936), Seerey (1948), Hodges (1950), Adcock (1954), Colavito (1959), Mays (1961), Schmidt (1976), Horner (1986), Whiten (1993), Cameron (2002), Green (2002), Delgado (2003), Willingham (2009), Hamilton (2012), Gennett (2017), Martinez (2017), Yelich (2018), Schwarber (2025).

Twenty-one men. More than a century of baseball. Schwarber now has his place among them.