On Sunday, September 3, a relative rarity occurred in Major League Baseball.  Two players hit 3 homers each in their games.

                          

Phillies 1st baseman Ryan Howard hit homers #50-52 as the Phillies edged the Atlanta Braves 8-7 in the 1st game of a doubleheader.

                                        

St. Louis Cardinals 1st baseman  Albert Pujols also hit 3 dingers, #40-42 as the Cards defeated Pittsburgh by a 6-3 score.

                         

The 2 players paralleled each other; Howard hit his 3 homers off of Atlanta starting pitcher Tim Hudson (11-10).  Pujols hit his 3 against Pirates starter Ian Snell (12-9).  They each hit their 3 homeruns in their first 3 plate appearances.

Yahoo’s post on the Howard/Pujols feat states;

It was the first time two players homered three times on the same day since Pujols and Cleveland’s Travis Hafner did it on July 20, 2004, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. It was also the first time a pair did it in the first three plate appearances since Cincinnati’s Johnny Bench and Atlanta’s Orlando Cepeda — a pair of Hall of Famers — on July 26, 1970.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 5:53 am and is filed under All Time Baseball Highlights, All Time Hitting Highlights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.