Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson recorded the first three-homer game of his career in Sunday's 9-6 win over the Minnesota Twins, becoming the 16th player in franchise history to go deep three times in a single game, per Sportsnet Stats.
Ten of those 16 players have accomplished the feat in a home game, with Donaldson joined by Edward Encarnacion, John Buck, Frank Thomas, Vernon Wells, Carlos Delgado, Chris Woodward, Joe Carter, Ernie Whitt and Otto Velez, per Sportsnet Stats.
While most of those players enjoyed extended stints hitting in the middle of Toronto's lineup, Woodward never reached 400 plate appearances in his 12 big league seasons, and Buck only played one season (2010) with the Jays, though it did end up as the finest campaign (20 homers) of his 11-year career.
It's a bit surprising that it took so long for Donaldson to homer three times in a game, as the 2015 American League MVP has gone deep at least 24 times in each of the last three seasons, topping out at 41 last year.
He has a reasonable shot to set a new career-best mark, currently boasting 33 home runs with 32 games remaining on Toronto's schedule.
At the very least, Donaldson is right in the middle of the MVP conversation, ranking first in the AL in runs (105), fourth in home runs and sixth in RBI (91), supplemented by a .294 batting average, .407 on-base percentage and .578 slugging percentage.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments