MLB rookie Nick Kurtz has baseball's 'best game ever' as 22-year-old stuns rivals with historic performance

Athletics rookie Nick Kurtz stunned the Houston Astros with what has been branded 'the best game ever' in baseball Friday night. 

With his parents and godparents in attendance at Daikin Park, the 22-year-old didn't make an out all night as he made MLB history. 

The slugger 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, to help the A's thrash the Astros 15-3.

He also matched the MLB record for total bases with 19, doubling and singling on his 6-for-6 night to equal Shawn Green, who had four homers, six hits and 19 total bases for the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 23, 2002 at Milwaukee.

It was the 20th four-homer game in major league history and second this season after Arizona's Eugenio Suarez also managed the feat on April 26 against Atlanta. Kurtz and Green are the only players with six hits in a four-homer game.  

And at 22, Kurtz is the youngest player with a four-homer game. Pat Seerey of the Chicago White Sox was 25 when he hit four longballs on July 18, 1948. 

'It's arguably the best game I've ever watched from a single player,' Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. 'This kid continues to have jaw-dropping moments.' 

ESPN's famed MLB reporter Jeff Passan hailed the historic performance as one of the best the game has witnessed. 

'Never in baseball's 150-year history has a player finished a game with at least six hits, six runs and eight RBIs until Nick Kurtz tonight,' Passan wrote on X. 'His 19 total bases tie Shawn Green's single-game record -- and Kurtz had one more RBI. There's a genuine argument it is the best game ever.'

'Nick Kurtz just had one of the greatest games in baseball history,' he added. '6 for 6 with four home runs, six runs and eight RBIs. He is a 22-year-old rookie.' 

Kurtz homered off each of the Astros' four pitchers: Ryan Gusto, Nick Hernandez, Kaleb Ort and Cooper Hummel, who worked the ninth with the game out of hand. 

Having already blasted three homers as he stepped up to the plate at his final at-bat of the game, Kurtz admitted that making history wasn't on his mind. Instead, he just didn't want to embarrass himself against Hummel, a position player. 

'Position player on the mound, I'm just trying to move the ball forward,' Kurtz said. 'You don't want to be the guy who strikes out.'

He didn't embarrass himself. Not at all. Instead, Kurtz fired a 77 mph, 2-0 pitch from the outfielder into the seats left of field. 

He almost had a fifth too. Kurtz's double in the fourth inning hit just below the yellow line over the visitors' bullpen, narrowly missing what would have been a fifth homer.

'Everybody was just like, laughing,' A's shortstop Jacob Wilson said. 'How is he doing it? This is not normal. He's playing a different sport than us right now. It's not baseball, it's just tee ball what he's doing right now.'

Kurtz's longest drive was his third, a 414-foot solo shot off Ort in the eighth. His fourth homer landed in the Crawford Boxes in left field at Daikin Park. 

The 6-foot-5 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 on April 23 and hit his first homer on May 13.

Kurtz has been the best hitter in the majors in July, ranking first in batting average (.425), on-base percentage (.494), slugging percentage (1.082), runs (22), doubles (13), homers (11) and RBIs (27).

With the baseballs from his last two homers inside a plastic bag at his locker, Kurtz signed scorecards from all four A's broadcasters and a lineup card. One of the scorecards and a bat were bound for the Baseball Hall of Fame.