Nelson Cruz hit three home runs on the 3rd of August, hardly one week after his last three-home run game on the 25th of July. Mookie Betts has also had a three-home run game in the 2019 season, but his 2018 was distinguished with two. Five other hitters have hit three-home runs in this ongoing season, a testament to the juiced balls instituted by Major League Baseball. However, it was an era without juiced balls when the record for three-home run games was accomplished by Sammy Sosa, with six. Sammy Sosa is the greatest three-home run hitter of all time in quantity. As tempting as it might be to applaud Betts and Cruz for their abilities to hit three home runs twice in a single season, it should not be forgotten that Sammy Sosa, in 2001, had 3 three-home run games in a span of 45 days.

 

Skeptics of Sosaology will say the relatively deader balls which Sosa hit for his three-home run games are rendered moot due to the performance enhancing drugs which were more obvious during the time. Without stooping to the dignification of innuendo, SASRmetrics can be used to mathematically prove that Sammy Sosa's 6 three-home run games will always reign supreme, even if Mookie Betts's 5 three-home run games seem to be approaching his rear-view mirror with threatening clarity.

 

Sammy Sosa's Run Expectancy/24 Base-Out States (RE24) statistics during his 6 three-home run games are in a league of their own. By calculating the number of runs created with respect to a value that is considered average for a given combination of out-number and baserunner location, the RE24 statistic shows us how successful a hitter is at converting run-scoring opportunities into runs. Sammy Sosa's RE24 of 7.50 on the 10th of August in 2002 has been unmatched by any other three-home run game in history. In this manner, Sammy Sosa is the greatest three-home run hitter in quality, as well as quantity.