July 23, 2002: Nomar Garciaparra homers three times and drives in eight runs on his birthday

Shortstop Nomar Garciaparra was in his eighth season with the Boston Red Sox in 2002, with the 1999 and 2000 American League batting titles to his credit, and he was as big a fan favorite as the Red Sox had enjoyed for years. His jersey number 5 was worn on the T-shirts and jerseys of many who flocked to Fenway Park.

On July 23, he celebrated his 29th birthday with a feat that as of 2025 was unique among all players in American or National League history.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays were in Boston and played two games, a Tuesday day-night doubleheader.1 The day before, a Red Sox offday, Fenway Park had hosted a tribute to Ted Williams, who had died on July 5. More than 12,000 were present, including former teammates such as Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio; Williams’ squadron mate from the Korean War, former astronaut and US Senator John Glenn; and many more.2

The Red Sox were just back from an 11-game road trip in which they won five and lost six. They were four games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East Division; they had dropped the last two games at Yankee Stadium over the weekend. Tampa Bay was last in the AL East, 31 games behind New York. The Devil Rays had lost their last nine games against Boston, dating to 2001.

Garciaparra had bumped up his batting average to .301 on Sunday against the Yankees. He had homered twice and driven in three runs, but Boston lost on a bases-loaded walk to Jorge Posada in the bottom of the ninth.

Starting for manager Grady Little’s Red Sox was 35-year-old knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who’d been with the team since 1995. He was 3-3, and due to face Tampa Bay manager Hal McRae’s starter Tanyon Sturtze, whose record was 1-9 despite a better-than-league-average 4.39 ERA.3

The Devil Rays jumped ahead in their first two times up against Wakefield. First baseman Steve Cox’s two-run homer, his 12th, followed second baseman Brent Abernathy’s one-out hit-by-pitch in the first inning. The Devil Rays added two more runs in the second to take a 4-0 lead. A single, walk, passed ball, and sacrifice fly by Jared Sandberg produced their third run. Randy Winn’s 30th double of the season drove in the fourth.

The Red Sox exploded for 10 runs in the bottom of the third. Johnny Damon led off with a homer to right, his seventh of the season. Lou Merloni singled. The birthday boy, Garciaparra, homered to left on a 3-and-0 pitch, hit completely over the screen atop the left-field wall. His 14th home run of the season cut the deficit to 4-3.

Manny Ramírez followed with a homer of his own, tying the game. A walk, error, and groundout were followed by Trot Nixon’s RBI double to left and knuckleball-specialist catcher Doug Mirabelli’s two-RBI double to center.  Damon singled, driving in Mirabelli with Boston’s eighth run of the inning, and McRae had finally seen enough. Twenty-four-year-old Brandon Backe, appearing in his second major-league game, relieved Sturtze.

Merloni swung at the first pitch and popped up to third. Garciaparra came to bat for the second time in the inning. He also swung at the first pitch and slugged his second two-run homer of the inning, this one hit high into the screen in left-center. Ramírez struck out, but it was 10-4, Red Sox.

Wakefield struck out two and got a fly out in the fourth, then watched his teammates turn a bases-empty, two-out situation into six more runs. José Offerman singled and scored when Nixon doubled down the left-field line. Mirabelli singled to left-center and drove in Nixon. Damon doubled to left, Mirabelli holding at third. Merloni walked, loading the bases.

Garciaparra strode in from the on-deck circle, worked the count to 2-and-2, and then hit a grand slam, again into the screen above the left-field wall. The score was now 16-4, and Garciaparra had homered in three consecutive at-bats, driving in eight runs.

Nobody else in AL or NL history had ever homered three times on their birthday. He was also reported to have been the first major-leaguer to hit three home runs in back-to-back innings.4

Another rookie, Steve Kent, replaced Backe and struck out Ramírez for the final out.

By the time Garciaparra came to bat again, it was the sixth inning. With two outs and Mirabelli on first after a walk, Merloni hit a line drive to right, which Jason Conti misplayed. Merloni got to third on the error, Mirabelli scoring in front of him. A five-pitch walk denied Garciaparra’s bid for another home run. Ramírez doubled to left; Merloni scored easily to make it 18-4.

After five innings, Willie Banks took over from Wakefield. He retired the side in order in the sixth and seventh. The Red Sox scored their 19th run when Nixon got to Tampa Bay’s fourth pitcher, Travis Phelps, for a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh.

Winn singled off Banks to lead off the eighth, but after a fly out to right, was erased on a 4-6-3 double play.

In the bottom of the eighth, Garciaparra batted for the sixth time in the game, this time facing Phelps. There were runners on first and second with nobody out on Damon’s single and Merloni’s walk. Garciaparra hit a fly ball to center, deep enough that Damon tagged and took third base, but short of a potential fourth home run.

Instead, Ramírez then hit a three-run homer to deep left field. It was Ramírez’s second homer of the game, 16th of the season, and 293rd of his career.

He had driven in five, and the Red Sox had a seven-homer day. It had been more than 25 years since a team had driven in 22 unanswered runs in a game.5 Banks closed out the 22-4 win by pitching around Conti’s two-out infield single in the ninth.

Several fans had come to the game with handmade signs wishing Garciaparra happy birthday. After the eighth inning, many in the crowd of 33,190 sang “Happy Birthday” to the Red Sox shortstop, “which Garciaparra acknowledged with a wave.”6

After the game, Garciaparra modestly offered, “The wind was blowing the ball pretty good today…did you guys see that, it was blowing out. That’s nice for a change. You just try to do what the situation asks…You try to drive in runs. If they happen to go out of the ballpark, sometimes they hit the wall…a lot of times.”7

“The roof caved in. Twenty-two is a big number,” McRae said.8 He laid blame on the pitchers: “We didn’t pitch inside. This is a ballpark where you have to pitch left-handers and right-handers inside.”9

A St. Petersburg, Florida newspaper reported a between-games clubhouse tirade from injured veteran Devil Rays outfielder Greg Vaughn, directed at his teammates.

“You get beat 22-2 [sic] and guys are sitting in here watching a movie…Please, fake it that it bothers you…We’ve got guys that think they’re big leaguers who don’t even know what it’s like to be half a big leaguer…We’re the center of every joke from late-night to daytime….At some point it should bother some people.”10

The Devil Rays did salvage some respectability in the night game. Boston took a 2-0 lead in the first and added two more in the fourth, but Tampa Bay rallied for five runs in the top of the ninth and booked a win. Garciaparra was 1-for-5, with a single. Taking the July 21 game into account, he had homered in a stretch of five of six at-bats.11 

It wasn’t the first time Garciaparra had homered three times in one game. On May 10, 1999, he hit two grand slams and a two-run shot at Fenway against the Seattle Mariners, driving in 10 of Boston’s 12 runs.12 Through 2025, the Red Sox had 36 three-homer games, by 27 different players. Mookie Betts did it five times in a four-year stretch (2016-2019). Williams did it three times.

And Garciaparra remained the only player in AL or NL history with a three-homer game on his birthday.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Harrison Golden and copy-edited by Kurt Blumenau. Thanks to Wes Singletary for providing access to Tampa Bay newspapers.

Photo credit: Nomar Garciaparra, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and Stathead.com. The three home runs can be seen on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxgSDxeMD98

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200207231.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2002/B07231BOS2002.htm

Notes

1 The afternoon game was a makeup of a rainout from April.

2 Gordon Edes, “Splendid Tribute,” Boston Globe, July 23, 2022: 63.

3 The average AL ERA in 2002 was 4.46.

4 Marc Topkin, “Boston Massacre,” St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, July 24, 2022: 1C, 3C.

5 The Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres on May 17, 1977, 23-6. The last such game in the American League was the 22-1 win by the Yankees over the Washington Nationals on August 12, 1953.

6 Gordon Edes, “Birthday Bash,” Boston Globe, July 24, 2022: D1.

7 Edes, “Birthday Bash.”

8 Scott Carter, “Happy Ending To A Dismal Day For Rays,” Tampa Tribune, July 24, 2022: 21.

9 Topkin, “Boston Massacre.”

10 Topkin. Vaughn was on the disabled list and unable to play in the game. Indeed, he was unable to return until 2003.

11 The Red Sox finished the 2002 season at 93-69 and in second place in the AL East, 10½ games behind the Yankees. The Devil Rays were last at 55-106, 48 games back. Garciaparra hit .310 with 24 homers, 120 RBIs, and a majors-best 56 doubles.

12 “Nomar Garciaparra Hits Two Grand Slams, Drives in 10,” YouTube video (MLB.com), 2:26, accessed January 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKzVCJBmvmQ. Garciaparra’s 10 RBIs in the 1999 game tied him for the lead among Red Sox players. Rudy York (1946), Norm Zauchin (1955), and Fred Lynn (1975) each had 10-RBI games. Four had nine-RBI games, and there were six other games in which a Red Sox player drove in eight.