Joshua Báez Homered in Each of His First 3 Career At-Bats — No One Else Ever Has
Called up from Triple-A Memphis. First career pitch: gone, 449 feet. Second at-bat: gone. Third at-bat: gone. At Wrigley Field on Saturday, the Cardinals rookie became the first player in Major League history to homer in each of his first three career at-bats.
Joshua Báez was called up before Saturday's game against the Cubs after hitting 34 home runs in 103 games for Triple-A Memphis. Thirty members of his family were in the stands at Wrigley Field. On the first Major League pitch he ever saw — a fastball from Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd — he hit it 449 feet to center field. He wasn't done: he added a second home run down the left-field line in the third inning, then a third to right field in the sixth. He finished 3-for-4 with 5 RBI as the Cardinals beat the Cubs 8-4.
No player in the history of Major League Baseball had ever homered in each of his first three career at-bats. Báez is the first. He's also just the ninth player ever to homer twice in his first regular-season game, and the first Cardinals position player to go deep on his first Major League pitch since Chris Richard in 2000.
A Debut That Doesn't Repeat
Debuts like this don't happen twice. Most players who reach the majors are grateful for a single hit in their first game. Báez turned his first three trips to the plate into three home runs, in front of family who flew in not knowing what they'd see, at a ballpark that has hosted a century of baseball history. It's the kind of afternoon an organization builds a highlight reel around for years — and the kind of game a fan who was there, or who's rooting for this kid's career from day one, will want the full record of.
The Whole Game, Kept
A stat line tells you Báez went 3-for-4 with three home runs. A scorecard shows you the whole afternoon — every pitch, every at-bat, the full account of the game where a Cardinals rookie did something no one in the sport's history ever had. Field & Ink builds any MLB game from the last 100 years, including this one, as a hand-lettered scorecard.
Cardinals at Cubs — August 15, 2026
Báez's first-pitch home run off Boyd, the third-inning shot down the line, the sixth-inning blast to right, the full 8-4 final at Wrigley Field — reconstructed as a single hand-lettered scorecard. A 300-DPI print-ready digital file, emailed within 24 hours. $29.
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