Red Sox starter becomes third pitcher in MLB history to allow five home runs in inning
Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi needed just five pitches to retire the Astros in order in the first inning of Tuesday night’s game at Fenway Park.
But in the second inning, five Eovaldi pitches were hit for home runs, and he etched his name in the record book. However, it’s not one he’ll be bragging about.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before,” Astros manager Dusty Baker told the Boston Globe. “It was our day today.”
Indeed it was. Houston won 13-4, and the difference was the Astros’ nine-run second inning.
Yordan Alvarez opened the second with a homer to left-center. After an Astros player reached on an error, Kyle Tucker clubbed a two-run shot to right. Jeremy Peña then hit a solo shot.
After getting an out, Eovaldi allowed a single and then a double. Michael Brantley followed with a three-run dinger. Eovaldi got the second out of the inning, but then allowed a single and Yuli Gurriel hit home run No. 5.
Bob Costas was broadcasting the game which aired on TBS. Here are his calls of the five home runs.
The Astros hit FIVE home runs in ONE inning off of Nathan Eovaldi pic.twitter.com/kIMoq4JxKL
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) May 17, 2022
“If you can believe it,” Costas said after Gurriel’s blast, “that is the fifth home run of this inning.”
Eovaldi couldn’t.
“It’s a little bit of disbelief,” Eovaldi told MLB.com. “You come in with a game plan and a plan of attack — how you’re going to come after them— and you kind of have a backup plan in case. If neither one of them work, and they’re just attacking everything, it’s kind of a helpless feeling out there.”
The Globe story noted Eovaldi tied the Blue Jays’ Chase Anderson (against Yankees, 2020) and Brewers’ Michael Blazek (vs. Nationals, 2017) as the only pitchers to give up five homers in a single inning.
Eovaldi has allowed 14 homers this season in 41 2/3 innings pitched, after giving up 15 in 182 1/3 innings a year ago.
Red Sox catcher Kevin Plawecki told MLB.com: “It shows he’s human, right? We all haven’t seen it. I know he’s frustrated. They didn’t miss anything. It seemed like just, baseball happened.”
It’s baseball that has only happened three times ever.
