OK, so the White Sox-Cubs game isn’t even over yet, but I had to write something about this. Cubs backup catcher Dioner Navarro, who’s making a rare start in place of Welington Castillo, has homered three times in three at-bats. Navarro walked in his other plate appearance and has driven in a total of six runs.
Just to put that in some context, Navarro has a lifetime .357 slugging percentage and his career-high is nine homers, which he hit in 2007 while logging 434 plate appearances in 119 games. During the past four seasons he has a total of 11 homers in 476 plate appearances spread over 160 games.
Yet today he took John Danks deep twice from the right side of the plate and then hit a shot off reliever Brian Omogrosso from the left side of the plate. And in doing so Navarro joins John Buck earlier this season and Victor Martinez in 2004 as the only catchers to homer three times in a game during the past decade.
What a world.
