Baseball History: 1961 Braves Hit 4 HRs in a Row

One swing was all that was needed for history.

There have been eight teams that have hit four consecutive home runs in a inning.

Cincinnati was one homer from joining the list that includes the Milwaukee Braves (1961), Cleveland Indians (1963), Minnesota Twins (1964), Los Angeles Dodgers (2006), Boston Red Sox (2007), Chicago White Sox (2008), Arizona Diamondbacks (2010) and the Washington Nationals (2017).

During Cincinnati’s 14-0 win over the Miami Marlins on April 9, the Reds got homers from Matt Kemp, Eugenio Suarez and Scott Schebler off Wei-Yin Chen. Former Marlin Derek Dietrich popped out to end the run.

The last time the Reds had three straight long balls in an inning was in 2012 when Mike Leake, Zack Cozart and Drew Stubbs did it against the Atlanta Braves.

The First Time

Of the eight times that teams have hit four homers in a row, the Reds were the victims of the first occurrence on June 8, 1961.

Milwaukee’s Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron along with former Reds Joe Adcock and Frank Thomas blasted their long balls in the seventh inning at Crosley Field. The first two were off Reds starter Jim Maloney, while Marshall Bridges surrendered the other two.

The Victory

From the Cincinnati perspective, the homers didn’t really hurt the cause of the future 1961 National League pennant winners as the Reds won the game 10-8 thanks to a big lead before the home run barrage.

Cincinnati built a 10-2 advantage after Gene Freese hit a three-run homer and Gordy Coleman added a solo shot in the sixth off Milwaukee’s Moe Drabowsky.

The Braves five-run seventh closed the gap, but even after another Mathews homer in the eighth the Reds were able to hang on for the win as Jim Brosnan slammed the door by getting the final four outs.

Maloney, who was just 21 at the time, picked up the win to go to 4-2 on the season. He would finish 6-7 that year, but would go on to win over 20 games twice for the Reds and have 134-81 overall mark in 11 seasons.

The Braves hit six homers that day against the Reds adding to the previously mentioned five, Braves starting pitcher Warren Spahn hit one in the third off Maloney.

The Best Duo

The Aaron and Mathews homers against the Reds were one of 75 times that the players had round-trippers in the same game.

During their time together with the Braves in Milwaukee and Atlanta from 1954 to 1966, they hit an all-time best 863 home runs as teammates.

New York Yankees legends Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig combined for 859 in their time together from 1923 to 1934.

Aaron is currently second on the all-time homer list with 755 and Mathews is tied for the 23rd spot with Ernie Banks at 512.