BOSTON — Not one, not two, not three, not four. Five.
On Tuesday night at Fenway Park, Nathan Eovaldi made history – and the Red Sox’ No. 1 starter wasn’t on the right side of it. In a sequence that could only be described as shocking, Eovaldi allowed five home runs in the second inning as the Red Sox were rolled over by the Astros in a 13-4 beating.
It was a stunning series of events for any pitcher, let alone an All-Star caliber pitcher of Eovaldi’s quality.
The five home runs by one pitcher in one inning tied a major league record and was the third time it’s happened in history, with all occurrences somehow coming in the last five years. Eovaldi joined Chase Anderson, who served up five homers to the Yankees in the fourth inning of a game in September 2020, and Michael Blazek, who did the same in a 2017 game against the Nationals.
Eovaldi had already been giving up homers at an abnormally high rate prior to Tuesday – with nine in his first seven starts – but the Red Sox weren’t concerned given that he still had a 3.15 ERA and was consistently giving them a chance to win.
But Eovaldi lost Tuesday night’s game on those long balls, as the hard contact he’d been allowing all season caught up to him on one of the warmer nights at Fenway Park early this season.
The second-inning disaster was even more surprising because of how Eovaldi started his outing. He set down the top of Houston’s order – Jose Altuve, Michael Brantley and Alex Bregman – on just five pitches. Rafael Devers followed with a solo homer to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead and everything looked great for the home side, who were coming off one of their best wins of the season Monday night.
Then it all went south, quickly – from five pitches in the first, to five home runs in the second, Eovaldi’s night was over after he recorded just five outs
Yordan Alvarez continued to torture the Red Sox with a leadoff solo homer that snuck over the Monster, and few knew it was only the beginning.
Two batters later, after Yuli Gurriel reached on Franchy Cordero’s error at first base, Kyle Tucker went deep to right, where Jackie Bradley Jr. jumped on top of the wall and stood there as he watched it go out.
It would have been a good view for the rest of the inning.
Jeremy Pena – the Astros rookie from Providence who was making his Fenway Park debut in front of family and friends – followed Tucker by going deep to left for back-to-back homers. With two on later in the inning, the home run derby continued, with increasing disbelief from almost everyone in the park as Michael Brantley hit a three-run jack to right before Gurriel capped batting practice off with a two-run homer that crashed into the Monster seats for a 9-1 Astros lead and mercifully the end of Eovaldi’s night.
When it was all said and done, Eovaldi gave up an absurd 1,970 feet worth of home runs in the second inning, an average of 394 feet per homer. They came on different pitches, too, with the first two coming on fastballs, the next two on cutters and the last one to Gurriel on a curveball.
