Pirates rookie Rodolfo Castro becomes first player with homers as his first five hits

The Pirates lost to the Brewers, 7-3, on Wednesday night, but something fun happened for hometown fans in the beautiful PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Pirates rookie Rodolfo Castro had represented the Pirates’ lone run when he was 7-1 in the ninth inning and he came home with a runner. He did it again.

It was only Castro’s ninth career game. He came earlier for very short stays, but was referred to minors each time. A few days ago, he was recalled when the Pirates traded All-Star second baseman Adam Frazier to the Padres.

Believe it or not, this was already Castro’s second career multi-homer game. He also hit two home runs on July 11. His first career homer had come two days earlier. So that’s five home runs in nine games. Not too bad. Oh he doesn’t have any other hits.

And that, eh? The pirate fans in attendance probably didn’t know it, but they did witness the story. Castro is the first player whose first five career hits were homers as well.

As you can imagine, that means his triple slash line is quite fun with the separation between batting average and slugging (isolated power). He is! It reached .238 / .304 / .952. Fun fact: The only players who have ever displayed an isolated power of over 0.500 in the seasons in which they have made at least 100 home plate appearances are Josh Gibson (0.558 in 39 games in 1937) and Barry Bonds (0.536 in 1937) and Barry Bonds (0.536 in 1937). of its ridiculous 2001 season). Castro sits on a sturdy .714. Small sample? Sure! Sustainable? Absolutely not. It’s always fun.

Castro has also played 53 games for Double-A Altoona this season, where he has hit 0.300 / 0.349 0.527 with 11 home runs, so we know the power is real.