It's safe to say the Nationals felt pretty good at the plate during Thursday afternoon's win over the Brewers (WAS 15, MIL 2).
After Bryce Harper extended his MLB best hitting streak to 19 games with a two-run home run in the first inning, the Nats connected for back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs in the third to break the game open. Brian Goodwin, Wilmer Difo, Harper, and Ryan Zimmerman did the honors in that order.
Here's video of the four consecutive home runs:
And because back-to-back-to-back-to-back shots were not enough, Anthony Rendon swatted yet another home run later in the inning. Daniel Murphy sandwiched a fly ball to shallow center field between the four straight homers and Rendon's homer, and heard some light-hearted boos from the Nationals Park crowd.
Amazingly, Brewers righty Michael Blazek was on the mound for all five home runs allowed in that third inning. He's the first pitcher in baseball history to allow five home runs in an inning. Many have allowed four homers in one inning -- Jason Grilli did it last month with the Blue Jays, most recently -- but never before has a pitcher allowed five homers in an inning. Not until Blazek.
All told Blazek allowed six home runs in 2 1/3 innings. He's only the ninth pitcher in history to allow six home runs in a game, and only the second to do it in 2 1/3 innings or fewer. Here's the list:
| Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Shields | 2010-08-07 | TBR | TOR | L 11-17 | 4.0 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| R.A. Dickey | 2006-04-06 | TEX | DET | L 6-10 | 3.1 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Tim Wakefield | 2004-08-08 | BOS | DET | W 11-9 | 5.0 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| George Caster | 1940-09-24 (1) | PHA | BOS | L 8-16 | 2.1 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Bill Kirksieck | 1939-08-13 (1) | PHI | NYG | L 2-11 | 4.0 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| Tommy Thomas | 1936-06-27 | SLB | NYY | L 6-10 | 9.0 | 16 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 6 |
| Sloppy Thurston | 1932-08-13 (1) | BRO | NYG | W 18-9 | 9.0 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Larry Benton | 1930-05-12 | NYG | CHC | W 14-12 | 6.2 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
Blazek, by the way, was making his first big-league start Thursday afternoon. He's made 108 relief appearances with Milwaukee over the years, but Thursday was his first start. That's one to wipe from memory.
The Nationals finished the game with eight home runs total: two each by Harper and Zimmerman, and one each by Goodwin, Difo, Rendon, and Jose Lobaton. The eight home runs are a new franchise record. Washington is only the 24th team in history to hit as many as eight homers in a single game. The last team to do that was the Mets in 2015.
The all-time single-game home run record is 10 by the Blue Jays, who did it on September 14, 1987. Only one other team, the Reds in September 1999, has hit as many as nine home runs in a game