If he wasn't already, Josh Hamilton is now your early front-runner for AL MVP.
The 30-year-old Texas Rangers superstar put not one, not two, not three, but four—yes, four—home runs into the seats at Camden Yards on Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles.
Hamilton's line for the evening: 5-for-5, 4 runs, 4 HR, 8 RBI.
To put that into perspective, New York Yankees superstar second baseman Robinson Cano has less home runs (two) and an equal amount of RBI (eight) for the entire season.
Hamilton compiled that (RBI) and more (HR) in one day's work.
The four home runs is a feat that hasn't been matched since Carlos Delgado of the Toronto Blue Jays whacked four bombs on Sept. 25, 2003. Hamilton's 18 total bases for the game is an American League record and just one base shy of the Major League record.
For the season, Hamilton now sports a .406 average with 14 HR and 36 RBI. No other American League slugger has reached 10 HR so far this year, and the Blue Jays' Edwin Encarnacion is next in line for RBI at 25.
Unless Hamilton breaks his arm again sliding head first into home plate (don't see that happening) or suffers any other type of setback, the AL MVP race may not be as tight as we once thought.
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