HOUSTON - Game 1 of the 2022 World Series was the Astros' 21st World Series game in the past six seasons. They've hit a lot of home runs in that time, but no one had previously gone deep twice in the same game.
Kyle Tucker did so in the first three innings of Game 1 Friday night in a raucous Minute Maid Park.
He started off the scoring with a solo shot in the second. It was actually the first hit of the game.
He then came up with two runners on base in the third inning and broke the game wide open.
This was the 56th time in World Series history that a player had a two-homer game. The most recent players to pull it off were Brandon Lowe of the Rays (Game 2 in 2020), Steve Pearce (Game 5 of 2018) and Roberto Pérez (Game 1 of 2016). He became the 30th to have at least two homers and four RBI in a World Series game and the first since Pérez.
Tucker becomes the fourth player in history to homer in his first two plate appearances of a World Series (via ESPN Stats and Info), joining Gene Tenace (1972), Andruw Jones (1996) and Pablo Sandoval (2012).
This was the first time in Astros history a player went deep twice in the Fall Classic.
This was also a rarity for Tucker. It was the seventh postseason home run of his career, but this was his first two-homer game in the playoffs. In regular season play, he has just two career two-home run games. They both came this season, actually, on April 8 and May 17.
Unfortunately for the Astros, Tucker's heroics weren't enough: the Phillies came storming back and hung onto a 6-5 win through 10 to take Game 1.