This was becoming clear even before the four homer game. His OPS was .982, for crying out loud. He had homered seven times in his previous 16 games. The gasps and whispers had already started.

Kurtz is the first player in the long, storied history of the Athletics franchise to hit four homers in a game and the first rookie ever to accomplish the feat. The 2024 first-round draft pick now is the 20th player in MLB history to go deep four times in a game and the youngest by nearly three years.

Athletics slugger Nick Kurtz sent Houston Astros outfielder Cooper Hummel a kind gift after his four-homer game.