Mark Whicker: With “good vibes only,” Suarez becomes latest to belt four homers in MLB game
On Saturday, Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez became the 19th MLB player to belt home runs in a game. Photo: Arizona Diamondbacks/Facebook
May 1, 2025
By Mark Whicker
Canadian Baseball Network
Perhaps you’ve been preoccupied with the ghosting of Shedeur Sanders or the octagon that’s become the Montreal Canadiens’ bench area. Understandable, but Eugenio Suarez did something Saturday night that shouldn’t have been swept underneath our brains, but was.
He became only the 19th hitter in the history of Major League Baseball to hit four home runs in the same game. Now with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Suarez went deep three times against Atlanta’s Grant Holmes and added the record-tying longball against Raisel Iglesias. That also tied the game, but Arizona lost it later, 8-7. Suarez raised his home run total to 10 for the year, which, at this writing, leads the majors.
Trotting to touch 16 bases is one of the most unlikely things a ball player can do. There have only been 23 perfect games pitched in MLB, the last one by the Yankees’ Domingo German in 2023, and he probably didn’t get enough flowers for that either.
No-hitters barely bring a second glance these days, primarily because so many pitchers are lifted in the midst of pitching one, and if a no-hitter actually happens, it’s probably a collaborative effort. We all understand that the numbers have steadily drained the romance from the game, but one of the joys of all sports is the execution of extraordinary feats by ordinary people.
At the time of Suarez’s quadruple-quadruple, he had only five singles for the season. But he had also homered 30 times in a 92-game span. He’s in his 12th season and has struck 286 longballs, including 49 in 2019, but has also led his league in strikeouts, with a career-high of 214 in 2023. He has the same bust-or-boom approach to defense at third base, having led his league in errors three times but also stabbing and diving his way to emergency plays that are rarely seen.
Mostly, the 33-year-old Suarez is a happy warrior who is on his fourth team, and few teammates have been happy to see “Geno” leave. He’s famous for his “Good Vibes Only” T-shirts, plus his ability to bring sunshine into the clubhouse on a daily basis. It’s the same quality Kirby Puckett brought, every afternoon, to the Minnesota room, and it’s an essential first shot against the barrage of futility and pain that baseball never stops inflicting. Long after the stats fade away, the guys who made their teammates’ kids laugh, the ones who kept everybody laughing on the bus to the airport, will be most remembered. And now Suarez has something for the back of his baseball card.
He has joined a strange group. Willie Mays, Lou Gehrig, Mike Schmidt, Rocky Colavito, Gil Hodges, J.D. Martinez and Joe Adcock are in. Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Mark McGwire, Jimmie Foxx, Harmon Killebrew and Willie McCovey are not. Among the 19, the average home run count is 303.
Shawn Green of the Dodgers piled up 19 total bases the day he hit four home runs in Milwaukee. That’s the record for the TV league. Mike Cameron, for the Mariners, had four home runs by the end of the fifth inning. He and Bret Boone also collaborated on two back-to-back sets.
Mark Whiten of the Cardinals had only 105 homers in his career, but drove in 12 runs on the night he hit a grand slam and two three-run blasts. That tied Jim Bottomley’s record. Gehrig’s big day came during a 20-13 win by the Yankees over Cleveland, and his bid for a fifth homer died at the centre field fence.
Pat Seerey hit only 86 home runs, but he got four for the White Sox against the Philadelphia A’s in 1948, and also hit three home runs with a triple against the Yankees. At 5-foot-8 and 220, Seerey could have been mistaken for any number of ballpark hot dog vendors, and thus was known as “The People’s Choice,” with his own disproportionate following.
The most aberrational 4-bagger was Scooter Gennett, who was released in spring training of 2017 by Milwaukee. Cincinnati picked him up. Because Scott Schebler had a bad shoulder, Gennett got into the lineup on June 6. He had three home runs for the year when the night began and seven when it ended.
Gennett was the first big-leaguer with 10 RBIs, four home runs and five hits in a game. He wound up with 27 home runs that season. He even got to the All-Star Game in 2018 with a 23-homer season, and ended his career with a .286 batting average over seven years, but only 87 homers.
Still, he knew where he stood when it was time to take the Four Home Run Club picture. Media members gathered around Gennett on the night that no ballpark could hold him.
“You guys weren’t here,” he said, “when I was going 0-for-19.”
There are a lot more 0-for-19s than there are Quadruple-Quadruples. It’s nice that baseball provides room for Geno Suarez, and all the rest who’ve done both.