There are athletes who can play an entire career and never approach immortality. Joshua Báez did it in one game.
In fact, he did it one at-bat.
Further to the point he did it with just one pitch.
In a 2026 game against the Chicago Cubs, the St. Louis Cardinals’ outfielder hit not one, not two, but three home runs, in his first game in Major League Baseball.
In the first inning he knocked the very first pitch he’d ever faced into the center field bleachers and did it again in the 4th. Only this home run was to left field and on the sixth pitch of the at-bat.
Then, in the 6th inning, he hit his third of the game, on the second pitch of the at-bat and this one cleared the right field wall.
With the first home run he became the 33rd member of a very exclusive club – players who have hit a home run, in their very first plate appearance, on their very first pitch.
With his second home run Báez became just the third player to begin a career with back-to-back homers and, with his third, Báez was alone. The only player to begin a career with three home runs, in one game.
Three home runs in his debut, on a total of nine pitches, and one to each field.
Three home runs on four swings of the bat (he fouled off the first pitch in his second at-bat) and not a single swinging-strike taken.
He could retire tomorrow and still own an impressive piece of the record book. In one game he gained both notoriety and exclusivity, and his position gets even more exclusive when you consider what it would take for the next guy to become a member.
That starts with a player hitting three home runs in his first game in the majors, which, by definition, is a one-time opportunity. Hitting three would do nothing more than match Báez’s feat. It would also require the next guy to hit them consecutively in his first three at-bats. Three home runs in four at-bats would still match the total but not the time frame.
Then comes the matter of the pitch counts. Báez hit his first home run on the first pitch he faced so that record can be tied but never beaten.
Báez took a total of nine pitches to hit three home runs which means anyone matching the three home runs in the first three at-bats of his major league debut would have to accomplish his feat in fewer than nine pitches to own the record outright.
Imagine hitting three home runs in the first 10 pitches you faced yet still be considered second place. The asterisk is a co-record holder’s nemesis.
Báez produced a lifetime of work in a single game that day although he wasn’t alone. He had company. Dubious company at that. Chicago Cubs’ Matthew Boyd became the first pitcher in major league history to surrender three debut homers to the same player in his debut.
As improbable as Báez’s feat may seem, Boyd’s accomplishment is arguably the more unbreakable one because Boyd’s part in the story is the bigger anomaly.
Baseball Almanac lists 698 three-or-more-homer performances from 1923 through Báez’s game on August 15, 2026. In only 81 of them did the batter hit at least three against one pitcher. That works out to approximately 11.6 per cent of three-homer games – roughly one in every 8.6 – was three homers against just one pitcher.
Báez’s three home run record looks improbable to beat certainly but baseball continually creates new opportunities to challenge it. More than 200 players made MLB debuts in 2025 alone, with a new group arriving every season so there’s always another chance looming.
Boyd’s record is protected by the shrinking opportunities available on the pitcher’s side. In 2024, starters averaged only 5.24 innings and 22.1 batters faced – that’s not even three complete cycles through a nine-man lineup – and only 15.4 per cent of starts lasted beyond six innings.
A pitcher who has already surrendered three home runs to a single batter is highly unlikely to remain in long enough to face him a fourth time because of bullpen specialization, managerial tolerance and sobering reality.
Báez’s record could be beaten while leaving Boyd’s achievement intact. Hitting four home runs in a debut – but off of different pitchers – would still eclipse Baez but not Boyd.
Therefore, Báez can lose his record without Boyd losing his, but Boyd cannot lose his record without Báez losing his.
Baseball will keep producing potential Báezes but modern strategy actively works to eliminate the circumstances required to produce another Boyd.
Just not on this day, but you don’t choose immortality, immortality chooses you.
Even when you wish to God it hadn’t.