The Pirates lost to the Brewers, 7-3, on Wednesday night, but something fun happened for the hometown fans in Pittsburgh’s beautiful PNC Park. Pirates rookie Rodolfo Castro had accounted for the Pirates’ only run when it was 7-1 in the ninth inning and he came to the plate with a runner on. He did it again.
This was only Castro’s ninth career game. He came up for very short stints earlier but was sent back down to the minors both times. A few days ago, he was called back up 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 home run came two days earlier. So that’s five homers in nine games. Not too shabby. Oh, he doesn’t have any other hits.
How about that, huh? Pirates fans in attendance probably didn’t know about this, but they witnessed history. Castro is the first player whose first five career hits were also home runs.
As one might imagine, this means his triple-slash line is pretty funny with the separation in batting average and slugging (isolated power). It is! He’s hitting .238/.304/.952. Fun fact: The only players ever to post a .500-plus isolated power in seasons in which they had at least 100 plate appearances are Josh Gibson (.558 in 39 games in 1937) and Barry Bonds (.536 in his ridiculous 2001 season). Castro’s sitting on a robust .714. Small sample? Of course! Sustainable? Absolutely not. It’s still fun.
Castro has also played 53 games for Double-A Altoona this season, where he hit .300/.349/.527 with 11 homers, so we know the power is real.
