Hamilton among elite company in four-HR club

So let's swoon a little bit more over Josh Hamilton's amazing night.

We all know he hit four homers Tuesday night in the Texas Rangers' 10-3 win at Baltimore. But here's a few factoids that put his accomplishment into perspective:

• He homered in the first, third, seventh and eighth innings, and he also doubled in the fifth, a ball that flew into the gap in right-center. A little extra commute time and Hamilton would have become the first player to ever hit five homers in a game.
• Hamilton's 18 total bases set an American League record. The major league mark is 19, set by the Dodgers' Shawn Green on May 23, 2002, when he also hit four homers.
• Hamilton homered the night before, in the ninth inning of Texas' 14-3 win over the Orioles. That means that during a span of six at-bats, he had five home runs, 10 RBI and 22 total bases.
• By comparison, Albert Pujols has one home run, nine RBI and 34 total bases in 121 at-bats.
• During that six at-bat burst, Hamilton raised his batting average from .370 to .406. He leads the American League in batting, homers (14) and RBI (36).
• According to Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas.com, Hamilton's last homer Tuesday night was the longest of the four: 425 feet to dead-center field, compared with 404 feet for the first one, 387 feet for the second and 406 feet for the third one.
• Each of his five homers in the two nights was a two-run shot, and each time Elvis Andrus was on base.

Only 15 other players have homered four times in a game, most recently Carlos Delgado for the Blue Jays on Sept. 25, 2003, in a 10-8 win over Tampa Bay. That makes the four-dinger game a rarer event than a perfect game, of which there are 21. Since we've already had one of those this season (the White Sox's Philip Humber, 4-0 over the Mariners on April 21), this could turn out to be some kind of special season.

Click on the photo to learn more about the 16 four-homer performances in MLB history.