White Sox’ Matt Davidson Hits Three Home Runs in Season Opener

The Chicago White Sox are in a rebuilding process and not expected to seriously challenge for the American League Central title, but if their Opening Day performance is any indication, they should be entertaining to watch.

The White Sox opened the 2018 season at Kansas City, and Chicago’s home run bats were in mid season form, particularly designated hitter Matt Davidson. Davidson hit three home runs as the White Sox beat the Royals 14-7. He drove in five runs and scored four himself. Shortstop Tim Anderson hit a pair of home runs, and first baseman Jose Abreu added one more.

Davidson is the fourth player to hit three home runs in an Opening Day game. The first was the Blue Jays’ George Bell, who hit three on April 4th, 1988 in Toronto. Like Davidson, Bell hit his against the Royals, with the Blue Jays winning 5-3. Bell had a pretty decent career with the Blue Jays, Cubs, and White Sox, hitting 265 home runs in a 12 year career, including 47 in 1987 when he was the American League Most Valuable Player.

The next player to hit three homers on opening day was one Tuffy Rhodes, who had his three homer opener for the Cubs at Wrigley Field on April 4th, 1994. Rhodes hit all three off of the Mets’ Dwight Gooden, but somehow the Cubs found a way to lose to New York 12-8. Rhodes, who had a great career in Japan, hitting 464 homers in 13 seasons there, hit a total of 13 in 225 Major League games.

The last player before Davidson to hit three was the Detroit Tigers’ Dmitri Young, who hit his on yet another April 4th, in this case April 4th, 2005. The game, played at Comerica Park in Detroit, was an 11-2 Tiger victory and it came at the expense of, once again, the Kansas City Royals. Young hit 171 home runs in 13 seasons for four big league clubs.