September 25, 2003: Carlos Delgado hits four home runs in one game

With the 2003 regular season just days away from being over, Tampa Bay was trying to reach 63 wins. For the Devil Rays, attaining that mild milestone would prevent their third consecutive 100-loss season.

They took a positive step in that direction by beating Roy Halladay (who was headed for the American League Cy Young Award that year) in the opening game of a four-game series in Toronto on September 22. But they fell back with losses to the Blue Jays in next two games. With their record at 61-97 and four games remaining, the Devil Rays could not afford many more defeats.

Toronto entered Thursday night’s series finale with an 83-75 record. They were mired in third place in the American League Eastern Division for the fifth season in a row, 15 games behind the division-leading New York Yankees. One of the bright spots for the Blue Jays had been Carlos Delgado. The left-handed slugger was leading the American League in RBIs with 135, to go with a .298 batting average and 37 home runs. His .424 on-base percentage also led the league. Although Toronto was not in a pennant chase, Delgado still had a chance to get the MVP award.

Delgado was feeling under the weather. “I’m on antibiotics for a little cold. I took a little nap before the game. I felt pretty crappy before the game,” he said afterward.1 But it would not stop him from one of the greatest accomplishments of his long career.

Right-hander Pete Walker started for Toronto. Walker had missed more than two months of the season due to an injury. After returning in August, he had mostly come out of the bullpen. It was just his third start since he returned to action. Although Julio Lugo singled with one out, Walker got through the first unscored on.

Tampa Bay sent Jorge Sosa to the mound. The right-hander had struggled in his second season in the majors. He entered the game with a 5-12 record and a 4.51 ERA. After striking out leadoff batter Reed Johnson in the first, Sosa surrendered a single to Frank Catalanotto and walked Vernon Wells. This brought up Delgado.

After taking a strike from Sosa, the Toronto slugger hit a fastball that bounced off the front of the second deck in right field. Delgado’s 38th home run gave the Blue Jays a three-run lead. It was the 300th home run of his career; he was the 98th major leaguer to reach that milestone.

The Devil Rays got a run on the board in the second when Travis Lee hit a leadoff double and came home on two successive groundouts. The score remained 3-1 over the next two innings.

In the fourth, Delgado led off. He hit Sosa’s second pitch, a changeup, over the right-field bullpen. The solo home run gave Toronto a three-run lead again. Sosa then walked Eric Hinske, who reached third on a passed ball and fielder’s choice. Orlando Hudson’s ground-rule double brought him home and Toronto’s lead was 5-1.

Neither team scored in the fifth. In the top of the sixth, Lugo started Tampa Bay’s comeback with a solo shot over the left-field fence. It was his 15th round tripper of the season.

When Aubrey Huff followed with a triple, Blue Jays manager Carlos Tosca decided it was time for a pitching change. Rookie right-hander Vinnie Chulk replaced Walker. It was Chulk’s third appearance since he was called up earlier in September.

Chulk got Rocco Baldelli to fly out for the first out. But he walked the next two batters to load the bases. Marlon Anderson’s triple brought all three runners home, and the score was tied. After Toby Hall singled to score Anderson and put Tampa Bay in the lead, Tosca replaced Chulk with Dan Reichert, who recorded the final two outs. But the Devil Rays now led, 6-5.

Their lead lasted only until Delgado led off the bottom of the sixth. Joe Kennedy had taken over from Sosa, but the change did not slow Delgado. He tied the game with his third home run of the night. It was his 40th home run of 2003 and the third time he had hit at least 40 in a season. It also the marked the fifth time in 11 major-league seasons that Delgado had hit at least three homers in a game.

The Devil Rays went ahead again in the top of the seventh. Huff led off with a solo shot over the right-field wall for his 34th round-tripper of the season.

But Toronto wasted no time in tying the game in its half of the frame. Travis Harper had taken over for Kennedy. He hit leadoff batter Hudson, who was sacrificed to second. Johnson’s single brought him home.

Tampa Bay took the lead for the third inning in a row in the eighth. Carl Crawford singled and stole second. He came home on Baldelli’s two-out single to push the Devil Rays back in front by a run, 8-7.

Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella went back to his bullpen, replacing the southpaw Harper with right-hander Lance Carter. Carter was the team leader in saves with 24; Piniella was looking for him to hold the Rays’ narrow lead.

But Carter first had to get past Delgado, who was leading off an inning for the third time. Afteward Delgado told reporters, “I was just trying to get on. I know this guy has a pretty good changeup. He’s one of those crafty guys. The moment I start thinking I want to hit this guy too hard, I get in trouble. I was just trying to make contact and be a baserunner.”2

With the count 2-and-2, Carter threw a changeup. Delgado swung and the ball “cracked off his bat, producing a startling noise. Delgado poised for a moment, knowing he was about to step into history. He flipped his bat and raised his fist as the ball zoomed through the air, not stopping until it crashed into the windows of the restaurant that overlooks center field, some 450 feet from home plate.”3

“I was pretty fired up, I’m not going to lie to you,” Delgado said. “You could tell by the bat flip. I didn’t know what I was doing out there. I was on cloud nine out there.”4  Wells commented, “Unbelievable. It’s something that I’ll never forget. He’s a professional and a great hitter. He always tells me little things just so I’m in the right frame of mind when I go up to the plate.”5

The home run put Delgado in the record books as just the 15th player to hit four home runs in a game and only the fifth American Leaguer to accomplish that feat. He also did it in just four at-bats, something only five other players had accomplished.

Delgado’s 41st homer not only tied his previous mark for home runs in a season but it also tied the game for a fifth time. The tie did not last long. Hinske followed with a triple to deep center field. He scored on a sacrifice fly to put the Blue Jays ahead. Mike Bordick’s solo home run moments later gave Toronto an insurance run.

With the score 10-8, Trever Miller quickly retired the Devil Rays in the ninth to secure the Blue Jays’ win and cap Delgado’s big evening at the plate.

Piniella, despite the loss, saluted Delgado, saying, “That was a herculean effort. I don’t know that feeling, but I do know that it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Pretty amazing.”6 Tosca was even more ebullient, declaring, “That’s the best feat I’ve ever witnessed on a baseball field.”7 Delgado, for his part, said, “I do take pride on coming through in clutch situations. It’s a responsibility that comes to me. You don’t ask for it. For some reason, it’s given to you.”8

Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi said Delgado’s performance put him in the forefront for the MVP. “If something magical happens in the last three or four games of the season, that separates someone,” Ricciardi said. “I think that tonight was something magical, so it definitely separated someone.”9

Delgado was a bit humbler about his award prospects. “If they call me in the offseason and say you won it, I’ll be really happy,” he said. “If they don’t, I’m gonna be happy as well because I went out and played my ass off.”10 He ended up finishing second in the MVP voting behind Álex Rodríguez.

As for the Devil Rays, they returned home and lost to Boston in the first game of their final series. But they bounced back and won the final two games to finish 63-99, perhaps giving them a bit of satisfaction since “99 is so much more pleasant to look at than 100.”11

Acknowledgments

This game was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, I used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for the box scores and other material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR200309250.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2003/B09250TOR2003.htm

Notes

1 John Lott, “Delgado Makes History,” National Post (Toronto), September 26, 2003: S1.

2 Lott.

3 Tom Jones, “1, 2, 3, 4—Count ’Em Out,” Tampa Bay Times, September 26, 2003: C1.

4 Lott.

5 Lott.

6 Jones.

7 “Delgado Has Four-Homer Game,” Ottawa Citizen, September 26, 2003: B5.

8 Lott.

9 Lott.

10 Lott.

11 Jones.