RetroSimba

(Updated July 26, 2025)

Mark Whiten remains the only Cardinals player to hit four home runs in a game.

On Sept. 7, 1993, in the second game of a doubleheader at Cincinnati, Whiten hit a grand slam, a pair of three-run home runs and a two-run home run, leading the Cardinals to a 15-2 victory over the Reds. Boxscore

“This is the No. 1 achievement I’ve ever witnessed,” Cardinals manager Joe Torre said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Whiten’s 12 RBI tied the big-league single-game record established by Jim Bottomley of the Cardinals on Sept. 16, 1924, against the Dodgers at Brooklyn. In that game, Bottomley produced six hits _ three singles, a double and two home runs. The home runs were a grand slam and a two-run shot. Boxscore

Whiten was the 12th big-league player to hit four home runs in a game and the first since Bob Horner of the Braves did it on July 6, 1986, against the Expos at Atlanta. Boxscore

Eight major-league players have hit four home runs in a game since Whiten did it, bringing the total number of those who have achieved the feat to 20.

Whiten, Gil Hodges and Josh Hamilton are the only major-league players to hit four home runs in a game and have at least one runner on base for each of the four.

Whiten, a switch-hitter, hit each of his four home runs while batting left-handed against Reds right-handers. Whiten said he hit a fastball on each home run.

“Even though they were fastballs down the middle, you still have to know what to do with them,” Cardinals third baseman Todd Zeile said. “You can’t even do what he did in batting practice.”

Here is a look at each of Whiten’s four home runs, including the calls by KMOX broadcasters Jack Buck and Mike Shannon as published by the Post-Dispatch:

Home run No. 1

In the first inning, Whiten hit a 2-and-0 pitch from rookie starter Larry Luebbers 408 feet to left-center for a grand slam.

Jack Buck on KMOX: “Swing and a long one to left-center. That one won’t be caught. At the wall and goodbye.”

Home run No. 2

In the sixth, Mike Anderson, making his major-league debut, relieved Luebbers and walked the first two batters he faced, Zeile and Gerald Perry. Whiten was the next batter and he drilled the first pitch from Anderson 397 feet to right-center for a three-run home run.

Mike Shannon on KMOX: “Swing and a long one into right field. On the move the right fielder (Tim) Costo can’t get it. Over the wall and seven RBI in the second game for Whiten … Have a big evening and Whiten said, ‘I don’t mind if I do.’ ”

Home run No. 3

In the seventh, Whiten hit a 2-and-1 pitch from Anderson 388 feet to right for another three-run home run.

Jack Buck on KMOX: “Here’s another pitch and another home run by Whiten. He walks down to first base as it is over the fence for a three-run homer.”

Home run No. 4

When Whiten came up in the ninth to face the original Nasty Boy closer, Rob Dibble, the Cardinals had a 13-2 lead, a runner on first and one out.

“Do you think Dibble will come after him?” Jack Buck asked on the air, building the drama for his listeners. “Do you think Dibble will let him swing the bat?”

Dibble’s first two pitches to Whiten were outside the strike zone.

Said Whiten: “I felt he was going to try to pitch around me.”

“”I’m not going to walk him,” Dibble told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “That’s not my style. Put it in play, fine.”

With the count at 2-and-0, Whiten swung at Dibble’s next offering and crushed it 441 feet off the facing of the second-deck seats in right-center for a two-run home run.

Jack Buck on KMOX: “Swing and a long one. Looks like he did it. Four home runs for Mark Whiten. He powdered one over the center field fence … Man, what a blast that was! What a blast this is! … Excuse me while I applaud.”

On Cardinals’ television, Jack’s son, Joe Buck, was doing the play-by-play and his call of Whiten’s fourth home run was: “Into center field. Did he? Yes!”

Said Whiten: “It’s like when Michael Jordan gets in the zone. He’s going to score 50 points. That’s kind of the way I felt.”

Here is a video of all four home runs: Video

Ten years later, Whiten told Gabriel Kiley of Cardinals Gameday Magazine, “I was more excited about the third one because I had never hit more than two in a game in my life. The fourth dinger was icing on the cake.”

Whiten didn’t use his bat model to hit any of the four home runs, Rick Hummel of the Post-Dispatch reported, and “word is he has been using Jose Oquendo’s bat.”

Oquendo hit no home runs for the 1993 Cardinals. “There are plenty of home runs left in that bat,” Torre said.

The next night, in his first at-bat of the game leading off the second against the Reds’ Bobby Ayala, Whiten singled.

“What a bum,” Jack Buck said to listeners in his most endearing wise guy tone. “That’s the best he can do?”

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In the home of the Big Red Machine, it was a Cardinal, Ray Lankford, who put on an unprecedented display of jaw-dropping power.

Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium was the venue for Reds teams that won four National League pennants and two World Series championships from 1970 to 1976. Those teams had sluggers such as Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and George Foster.

Yet, it was Lankford who became the first to hit two home runs in one game into the upper-level red seats in the fourth deck of the Cincinnati stadium.

Lankford achieved the feat on July 15, 1997. By then, the stadium had been renamed Cinergy Field.

Sonic boom

Lankford was in the cleanup spot in the St. Louis batting order against Reds starter Brett Tomko, a rookie right-hander.

In the first inning, with Danny Sheaffer on base, Lankford got a fastball on a 2-and-1 count and drove it 448 feet into the empty red seats in right field, becoming the first Cardinals batter to reach the upper deck since the stadium opened in 1970.

“When you hit a ball like that, it’s just a different feel and a different sound,” Lankford said to The Cincinnati Post. “The ball just jumps, like you’re hitting a golf ball with a bat.”

Reds catcher Joe Oliver told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “The crack of the bat was deafening.”

When Lankford came up again in the third inning, three fans scurried into the red seats in right. Batting with the bases empty, Lankford again got a fastball on a 2-and-1 count and propelled it 439 feet into the upper deck.

“Fastballs. Both belt-high. Right down the middle,” Tomko said to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa: “You’ve got a pitcher with good stuff and a hitter with full extension. That makes for some serious distance.”

Exclusive group

Until Lankford, only one player, Foster, had hit two upper-deck home runs at the stadium in one year, but no one, not even the Cardinals’ Mark Whiten, had hit two in one game. Whiten hit four home runs in a game at Riverfront Stadium on Sept. 7, 1993, but none reached the red seats.

Foster hit the most career upper-deck home runs (six) at the stadium.

Lankford became the sixth visiting player to hit a home run into the red seats. The others: the Expos’ Bob Bailey, the Pirates’ Dave Parker, the Phillies’ Greg Luzinski, the Mets’ Darryl Strawberry and the Rockies’ Dante Bichette.

“I don’t know how to pitch to Lankford,” Reds manager Ray Knight said. “I know one thing, you don’t pitch him anywhere he can get the fat part of the bat on it.”

When Lankford came to bat for the third time, in the fifth inning, Oliver turned to him and said, “I knew you were strong, but this is ridiculous.”

About 30 fans went into the red seats in right, hoping Lankford would launch another up there, but reliever Felix Rodriguez issued an intentional walk to him.

In his last two plate appearances that night, Lankford struck out and walked. Boxscore

At the time of Lankford’s feat, bopper Mark McGwire still was with the Athletics. (McGwire would be traded to the Cardinals two weeks later, on July 31, 1997.)

Asked by the Post-Dispatch whether Lankford’s clouts reminded him of McGwire, whom he had managed in Oakland, La Russa replied, “He reminds me of Ray Lankford.”

Previously: Mark Whiten, Josh Hamilton: Same feat, different path

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