CHICAGO -- Astros center fielder Jake Meyers is one of the unlikeliest players to produce one of the biggest single offensive games in club history. He had just 30 career homers in 391 games prior to Saturday, including none this season, had a career OPS of .659 and was batting ninth in Houston’s lineup.
A Gold Glove finalist in center field last season, Meyers showed he can do damage with the bat, too, by carrying the Astros to an 8-3 win over the White Sox at Rate Field with a club-record-tying 13 total bases and a single-game career-high seven RBIs.
“Incredible,” Meyers said. “A lot of hard work [is] paying off. Just grateful that it showed up today kind of all together. It was a lot of fun.”
Meyers went 4-for-4 with two homers, a triple and a double -- becoming the first Astros player in history to do that. He’s also the first player in club history with 13 total bases while batting last in the order, and fell one shy of the 14 total bases Jackie Bradley Jr. collected on Aug. 15, 2015, the most in AL/NL history while batting ninth in at least the past 125 seasons.
Among the other Astros players to have 13 total bases are Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Joe Morgan, along with slugger Yordan Alvarez, who did it twice. Pretty heady company. The feat had been done six times previously by five different players.
“That was an awesome day by Jake,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He got some good pitches to hit and he didn’t miss them.”
Prior to Saturday, the only player in the Major Leagues to have two homers, a triple and a double in a game since 2012 was Adam Duvall on April 1, 2023. Meyers is the first Astros player to drive in seven runs in a game since José Abreu on Sept. 6, 2023, at Texas.
“I think he was seeing the ball well,” Espada said. “Jake is always working on something. He’s a hard worker and he goes through stretches where he misses some of his fastballs … He wasn’t missing anything today.”
Meyers led off the third inning with a homer off White Sox starter Davis Martin and tied the game at 3 in the fourth with a two-run triple. He slugged a three-run homer off reliever Penn Murfee in the sixth to put the Astros ahead, 6-3. Meyers polished off his big day with an RBI double off Jared Shuster in the eighth.
“I’m glad he got it done,” Espada said. “We even wanted to get him one more at-bat there. It would have been fun, but what a great day for him.”
Espada called Meyers’ triple the biggest at-bat of the game, considering it tied the game and came on the 10th pitch of the at-bat, during which Meyers fouled off five pitches. Meyers, who was averaging 3.53 pitches per plate appearance coming into the game, saw just five pitches combined in his other three at-bats Saturday.
The hit was also the first for Meyers this season with two strikes. He was 0-for-35 with two strikes prior to that at-bat.
“I thought that at-bat was a critical part of the game,” Espada said. “That was really impressive how he fouled [off] some tough pitches and stayed in the at-bat. I thought that was a key turning point in our game.”
Meyers said he stuck with this process and tried to simply swing at good pitches.
“[Martin] put some good pitches in the zone, on the corners of the zone, and I felt like I fouled them off and got to the next pitch and kind of waited him out and put a good swing on a pitch,” he said.
Astros starter Hunter Brown improved to 5-1 with a 1.67 ERA by striking out nine batters and allowing three runs, three walks and four hits in six innings. Brown allowed three consecutive singles to begin the game and allowed all three to come around and score. He then retired 15 of the final 18 batters he faced.
“When they score three in the first, you kind of look and go, ‘All right, I can still do my job here today, especially with our offense and the way it’s rolling,’” Brown said. “Jake Meyers had an incredible day. Just put us in a position to win, and I could still do that after the first inning. It felt good.”