July 26, 1987: Boston’s Sam Horn homers in his first two major-league games

As of July 2024, only 28 players in American or National League history had hit home runs in each of their first two major-league games.1 The list includes Hall of Famers Earl Averill of the Cleveland Indians in 1929, Todd Helton of the Colorado Rockies in 1997, and home-run king Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees in 2016. Kyle Lewis of the Seattle Mariners began his career with home runs in three straight games in 2019; the Rockies’ Trevor Story hit home runs in his first four games.2

In July 1987 Sam Horn became the first member of the Boston Red Sox – and, as of 2024, the only one – with homers in his first two games.

Horn joined the Red Sox after they released Bill Buckner on July 23. The Boston Herald saw cause and effect – Buckner was “released … to make room for Pawtucket first baseman Sam Horn.”3 With the Pawtucket Red Sox, Horn had already hit 30 homers and driven in 84 runs in just 94 games. The 23-year-old left-handed hitter was a huge fan favorite, had just been named International League Player of the Month, and got a huge ovation in Pawtucket when it was learned he’d be called up.4

Boston needed a boost. The Red Sox had won the AL pennant in 1986 and taken the World Series to a Game Seven before losing to the New York Mets. But at this point in 1987, they were in fifth place in the AL East Division, 14½ games behind the New York Yankees.

Horn was one of several younger players getting opportunities in Boston. Twenty-four-year-old outfielder Mike Greenwell was flirting with a .300 average. Center fielder Ellis Burks (age 22) and outfielder Todd Benzinger (24) were showing promise in their debut seasons.

The Red Sox were hosting Seattle for a weekend series at Fenway Park. The Mariners were likewise in fifth place, in the AL West, but only five games behind the first-place Minnesota Twins.

On Friday night, July 24, the Red Sox had beaten the Mariners, 5-4, the fifth run coming on a sixth-inning leadoff homer by 38-year-old designated hitter Don Baylor, a right-handed batter who’d been used in something of a platoon role.5

For the Saturday afternoon game, Red Sox manager John McNamara had Horn serve as DH. Right-hander Scott Bankhead was Seattle’s pitcher. Horn, batting fifth, struck out and grounded into a double play in his first two times up.

“The fans were really for me,” he said about he how he felt after his first two times at bat. “I wasn’t getting down. It just meant I had to bear down more. I was swinging at the first pitch each time, and I just told myself to relax.”6

The game was tied, 5-5, when Horn came to bat in the fifth inning. Jim Rice had led off with a single to right. Horn stepped into the batter’s box, facing lefty Stan Clarke, who had relieved Bankhead in the fourth. Horn hammered Clarke’s 1-and-2 pitch into the screen in left-center. It was a big moment in the game, and Horn seemed to have immediately captured the hearts of the fans. A curtain call was demanded – “popping out of the dugout to appease the sweaty 32,040.” Horn said, “The fellas had to tell me to do that. I had only seen it done on television. I was thrilled.”7

His two-run homer made it 7-5, Red Sox. In the seventh inning, Horn walked and scored. Boston won, 11-5, and Horn’s homer was the one that had put them ahead to stay.8

On Sunday afternoon, July 26, McNamara’s starting pitcher was Roger Clemens, who had been both the AL’s Cy Young Award winner and MVP in 1986, with a 24-4 record and a league-leading 2.48 ERA. Clemens wasn’t doing as well with wins and losses in 1987, and entered with a 9-7 record (3.56). His last start, though, had been a shutout, 3-0 against the California Angels.

Clemens retired the Mariners in order in the top of the first. Boston scored once in the bottom of the first, against righty Mike Moore. Moore, who had broken into the big leagues in 1982, was having a tough year in 1987. He’d lost his last four decisions and was 3-12 with a 5.08 ERA. Mariners manager Dick Williams, 20 years removed from piloting the Red Sox to their “Impossible Dream” pennant in 1967, hoped Moore could begin to bounce back.

Burks led off the Red Sox first against Moore with a single. Marty Barrett sacrificed Burks to second base. Wade Boggs singled, Burks advancing to third. Then he scored on a single to center by Rice. Batting fifth and playing DH again, Horn grounded into an inning-ending 3-6-1 double play.

Seattle got one run in the top of the second, tying the game, on a leadoff double by Alvin Davis. After Clemens struck out the next two batters, an error by Boggs at third on Mike Kingery’s grounder let Davis score.

Dwight Evans broke the 1-1 tie with a leadoff home run in the Red Sox second, his 20th of the season. Greenwell followed with a double and Spike Owen tripled to center. Rich Gedman hit a fly ball to right, Owen tagged and scored, and Boston had a 4-1 lead.    

In the bottom of the third, Boggs singled to left but was erased when Rice lined into a 5-3 double play. Horn was up again and homered on a 0-and-1 count – “a line shot into the right-field grandstand that took about 2.6 seconds to leave the park.”9

It was a 5-1 game, and Horn had his second home run in as many days. On his trip around the bases, he passed Mariners first baseman Davis, who himself had homered in his first two major-league games in 1984.

The Red Sox made it a rout with five more runs in the fourth. After Rice’s bases-loaded single drove in Burks, Williams brought in Clarke to face Horn. Once again, Horn won the lefty-lefty matchup, bringing home Barrett and Boggs with a single between first and second and into right field. That gave him five RBIs in his first seven at-bats.

Clarke pitched to all of one batter – Horn – and then was relieved himself. It was Clarke’s last game in 1987. Owen, the third batter faced by reliever Steve Shields, singled in Rice and Horn, making it 10-1.

Moore had given up nine runs (seven earned) in 3⅓ innings. He added another loss to his record and became 3-13. His self-assessment after the game? “I stink.”10 Moore ended the year 9-19 (4.71), finishing with more losses than anyone else in the majors.

Boggs, whose 4-for-4 day boosted his league-best batting average to .373, hit his 18th home run of the season off Shields in the fifth. Clemens struck out 14 and coasted to an 11-1 win.

The Red Sox went on a road trip to play the Toronto Blue Jays, Kansas City Royals, and Texas Rangers.

In Horn’s next outing, in Toronto on July 27, he walked and scored in the second inning. He lined out to right in the third and struck out in the sixth. In the seventh, the Red Sox scored two runs and were on top 7-6 with the bases loaded and one out. Blue Jays manager Jimy Williams brought in right-hander Mark Eichhorn – his third pitcher of the inning. McNamara pulled Horn in favor of pinch-hitter Baylor, who struck out. Toronto had rallied for four runs against relievers Bob Stanley and Calvin Schiraldi to win, 10-8.

Horn doubled and scored on July 28, his fourth game, a 5-4 loss to the Blue Jays, and then he homered in his fifth game and sixth games. On July 29, still at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium, Horn singled in a run in the third inning, then hit a two-run homer to right field off José Núñez in the top of the fifth, making it 5-1 in Boston’s favor. The Red Sox won, 6-5.

After a travel day, the Red Sox played in Royals Stadium in Kansas City on Friday, July 31. Clemens shut out the Royals, 4-0. The first batter in the game was Burks, who homered off Bret Saberhagen. Horn led off the fourth with a homer off Saberhagen, “to the left of the 410-foot sign in left-center.”11

At this point, Horn had homered in four of his first six games. He added another homer against the Rangers in his eighth game. In his first 30 big-league at-bats, he had a .433 batting average and a 1.000 slugging percentage.

By the end of the season, Horn had 14 homers, 34 runs batted in, and a .278 batting average. He hit 62 home runs in an eight-season career with the Red Sox, Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, and Cleveland Indians. He had a flair for impressive debuts: In his first game with Baltimore in 1990, he hit two homers and drove in six runs on Opening Day.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Sam Horn, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Almanac.com, Baseball-Reference.com, and Retrosheet.org. Thanks to Luis Blandon Jr., Steve Friedman, Sean Holtz, and Carl Riechers for assistance.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198707260.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1987/B07260BOS1987.htm

Notes

1 According to Sean Holtz of Baseball Almanac, 328 American League or National League players homered in their first game from 1876 to 2023. Thanks to SABR’s Carl Riechers for providing a listing, using Stathead, of all players who homered in two or more of their first major-league games.

2 Story did not homer in his fifth game, but then did again in his sixth. He hit 27 homers in his rookie year.

3 Joe Giuliotti, “Buckner Has the Last Laugh,” Boston Herald, July 25, 1987: 76.  

4 Marvin Pave, “Horn Savors Big Chance,” Boston Globe, July 24, 1987: 49.

5 Kevin Paul Dupont, “Swing That Counts,” Boston Globe, July 25, 1987: 27.

6 Stephen Harris, “Horn Plays HR Tune,” Boston Herald, July 26,1987: 40.

7 Dan Shaughnessy, “Horn: Key Blow,” Boston Globe, July 26, 1987: 47. Rookie lefty Tom Bolton threw five innings of shutout relief and, in his 20th career appearance, earned his first major-league victory.

8 After the game, Horn drove back home to his place in Pawtucket. He had done so after the July 24 game, too, which he’d watched from the bench. Kevin Paul Dupont, “Horn Receives a Curtain Call After Opening Act,” Boston Globe, July 26, 1987: 56. Rich Gedman homered in the game, too, into the Red Sox bullpen in the sixth inning, his first home run of 1987. Steve Fainaru, “Horn Blows Game Open as Red Sox Top Mariners,” Hartford Courant, July 26, 1987: E3.

9 Seth Livingstone, “Horn of Plenty,” Quincy (Massachusetts) Patriot Ledger, July 27, 1987: 23.

10 Bob Finnigan, “Mariners Demand Moore Muscle After Mugging in Boston,” Seattle Times, July 27, 1987: B5.

11 Bob Nightengale, “Clemens Shuts Out Royals; Saberhagen Loses Again,” Kansas City Times, August 1, 1987: D1, D5.