Henry Roldán
As if it were a perfectly scripted script for the moment, Joc Pederson entered the San Francisco Giants’ record books Tuesday night with his childhood idol, Barry Bonds.
In one of the best nights for any hitter in organization history, Pederson guided his team to a 13-12 victory over the New York Mets, going 4-for-4 with three home runs and eight RBIs.
When he was asked after the game about what had changed in the batter’s box that made him come out of a 49-5 slump in his last 19 games, Joc Pederson revealed that it was all thanks to a nearly hour-and-a-half conversation he had with Bonds, in the batting cage, prior to the engagement.
“Just getting knowledge from such a good hitter and the way he thinks about baseball and hitting, it just helped connect some dots to free my mind up at the plate. Thanks to that I was able to put some good swings on pitches today.”
Joc Pederson, to NBCS, about his conversation with Barry Bonds.
With this great performance, Pederson coincidentally became the first Giants’ player to hit three home runs in the same regular-round home game after Bonds, who was the last to do so in the 1994 campaign. It is worth noting that during the first game of the 2012 World Series, Venezuelan Pablo Sandoval also hit three homers in a single game.
More Feats from Joc Pederson’s Big Night
Of course, a production of this caliber must bring with it historical consequences, which is why after the commitment various data and lists began to emerge in which Joc Pederson entered after his game on May 24, 2022.
According to Baseball-Reference, Pederson became just the fourth player in Giants history to record a game of at least three home runs and eight RBIs, the last to do so being Willie Mays, who did so in the 1961. Precisely since that Mays game, no other player in the organization had hit three home runs of at least two runs until Tuesday night.
In addition, it was the first time in Pederson’s career that he had hit three home runs in a game, despite having previously recorded 18 games with at least two homers.
As for RBIs in a single game, the outfielder is now tied for third on the Giants with Brandon Crawford, Willie Mays, and Orlando Cepeda, all behind Irish Meusel, who RBIed nine in one game, and Phil Weintraub, who once brought in 11 runs at the plate.
Don’t miss Joc Pederson’s three home runs!
We could not close the article without leaving the three protagonists of the historic night. Enjoy!
