List of Major League Baseball single-game home run leaders

Writers of Sporting News described hitting four home runs in a single Major League Baseball (MLB) game as "baseball's greatest single-game accomplishment".[1] Eighteen players have accomplished the feat to date, the most recent being J. D. Martinez with the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 4, 2017. No player has done this more than once in his career and no player has ever hit more than four in a game. No player has ever hit four home runs in a postseason game; that record is three, first accomplished by Babe Ruth in Game 4 of the 1926 World Series.[2]

Bobby Lowe was the first MLB player to hit four home runs in a single game, doing so in 1894.

Bobby Lowe was the first to hit four home runs in a single game, doing so on May 30, 1894.[3] Fans were reportedly so excited that they threw $160 in silver coins ($4,700 today) onto the field after his fourth home run.[1][4] Of all players to achieve the feat, Lowe hit the fewest career home runs, with a total of 71. Two years after Lowe's feat, Ed Delahanty of the Philadelphia Phillies became the second player to hit four home runs in a game. Two other Phillies players have achieved the feat, Chuck Klein in 1932 and Mike Schmidt in 1976.[5] No other team has had multiple players record a four-homer game. Despite Delahanty's achievement on July 13, 1896, the Phillies lost to the Chicago Colts, one of only two occasions when a player hit four home runs but finished on the losing team.[5] The other such occasion took place in 1986, when Bob Horner struck four home runs for the Atlanta Braves but the Montreal Expos emerged victorious.[5] Following Delahanty's four-home run game in 1896, no other player would accomplish the feat for nearly 36 years, the longest gap between such occurrences.[5] The shortest interval took place in 2002,[5] when Mike Cameron hit his four on May 2, 2002,[6] and Shawn Green repeated the feat 21 days later, on May 23.[7] This was the first time two players had achieved a four-homer game in the same season; this would occur again in 2017 when Scooter Gennett and J. D. Martinez achieved the feat in June and September respectively.[8][5] When Martinez struck his four home runs for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Los Angeles Dodgers, he became the first player with a four-home game to hit more homers than his opponents gained base hits.[9]

These games have resulted in other MLB single-game records due to the extreme offensive performance. Mark Whiten tied Jim Bottomley for the most runs batted in in a single game with 12 in his four-homer game.[10] Shawn Green hit a double and a single along with his four home runs for 19 total bases, an MLB record. It surpassed Joe Adcock's mark of 18, which also came from a four-homer game.[11][12] Carlos Delgado is the only player to make four plate appearances in a game and hit a home run each time.[13] Warren Spahn pitched the ball which Gil Hodges hit for the first of his four, the only Hall of Fame pitcher faced during a four-home-run game.[1] Of the 14 players eligible for the Hall of Fame who have hit four home runs in a game, five have been elected. Players are eligible for the Hall of Fame if they have played in at least 10 major league seasons and have been either retired for five seasons or deceased for at least six months.[14] These requirements leave three players ineligible who are living and have played in the past five seasons and one (Seerey) who did not play 10 seasons in MLB.