CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - AUGUST 15: Joshua Báez #22 of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrates after hitting a home run during the first inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on August 15, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jessie Alcheh/Getty Images)
St. Louis Cardinals rookie outfielder Joshua Báez etched his name into the MLB record books on Saturday, becoming the first player in league history to hit a home run in each of his first three career at-bats. His historic debut powered the Cardinals to an 8-4 win over the Chicago Cubs.
Báez, 23, wasted no time making an impact. His first career home run came on the very first pitch he saw in the majors, a blast off Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd that landed an estimated 449 feet away in the left-center field bleachers. He wasn’t done there — Báez went on to hit two more home runs later in the game, each on a different pitch and to a different field, completing an unprecedented three-for-three power display in his first big-league appearance.
Before Saturday, only two players had ever homered in each of their first two major league at-bats: Bob Nieman of the St. Louis Browns in 1951 and Keith McDonald, who did it for the Cardinals themselves in 2000. Neither carried the feat into a third at-bat. Báez’s performance surpasses both, giving the Cardinals a second entry in that exclusive club and a new franchise and MLB milestone in the process.
Báez earned his call-up after a standout run in Triple-A, where he led all hitters in the league with 34 home runs, including four separate multi-homer games. That power surge made him one of the most closely watched prospects in the Cardinals’ system heading into his debut, and Saturday’s performance suggests the hype was warranted.
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A three-home-run debut of this magnitude is exceedingly rare in professional sports, let alone baseball, where rookies often need time to adjust to major league pitching. Báez’s instant impact gives the Cardinals a jolt of power in their lineup and signals he could be a fixture in St. Louis for years to come. As the season progresses, all eyes will be on whether he can sustain the kind of production that made his first game an instant piece of baseball history.
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