SAN FRANCISCO — THIS DAY IN SPORTS…October 24, 2012:
San Francisco’s Pablo Sandoval becomes only the fourth player in major league history to hit three home runs in a World Series, leading the Giants past Detroit 8-3 in Game 1. The first two came off American League Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander, and the third was given up by former Boise Hawk Al Alburquerque. Sandoval joined Babe Ruth (who did it twice), Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols on the elite list. The “Panda,” despite his considerable girth, had hit only 12 homers during the regular season. Those were Sandoval’s only three home runs of the Series, but he batted .500 and was named Series MVP as the Giants swept the Tigers.
A year earlier, Pujols had clubbed three homers in consecutive at-bats in Game 3 of the World Series against the Texas Rangers. Ruth’s two three-homer games in the Series came with the Yankees in 1926 and 1928, both times against St. Louis. The most memorable such feat was Jackson’s when he three consecutive home runs, all on the first pitch, in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series versus the L.A. Dodgers. That keyed an 8-4 victory that gave the Yankees the world championship, their first in 15 years. It was on that night that Jackson, who had signed with the Yanks as a free agent in the offseason, earned the nickname “Mr. October.”
Jackson’s round-trippers in the playoffs and World Series over the years are in the news right now. He had held the MLB record for left-handed hitters with 18 career home runs in the postseason—until last Friday, when former Boise Hawk Kyle Schwarber broke it. Schwarber now has 20, and there could be more with Game 7 of the National League Championship Series coming up tonight against Arizona (and the World Series if Philly wins). Schwarber has been a monster in the NLCS for the Phillies, hitting five homers so far. That gives him 10 career dingers in the NLCS, also an MLB record.
Schwarber hit his first five postseason home runs in the 2015 playoffs for the Chicago Cubs, a little more than a year after he made his pro debut with the Hawks. Schwarber collected six postseason homers total for the Cubs from 2015-17, three with the Boston Red Sox in 2021, and six more with the Phils last year.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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