Losing is never fun and the Atlanta Braves have done a lot of that this season. Thursday night's loss to the Phillies may have been one of the ugliest, however. It hurts to get out to an early lead, only for your starting pitcher to immediately give up the lead.
That will kill morale for any team at any level of competition. Kyle Schwarber and the Phillies took out some recent frustrations on the Braves in an all too familiar fashion. Homers were hit all evening, and Schwarber had four of them. This tied an MLB record for most home runs in a single game.
This is also the third time a player has hit four homers in a game in 2025. Nick Kurtz had a breakout game in July where he became the first MLB rookie to have a four home run night. Eugenio Suarez also accomplished this feat in April against the Braves. It goes to show you just how cursed this season has been for Atlanta.
Such a rare feat is hard to witness, nevertheless twice in the same year. And unfortunately for the Atlanta, they were part of both. This prompted Braves insider Grant McAuley to take a deeper look into the history of these types of performances.
What he found is equally intriguing and infuriating. The Braves have been involved in seven of the 21 four-homer games in MLB history.
In all seriousness, #Braves have been involved in 7 of the 21 four-homer games in MLB history.
— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) August 29, 2025
They're 2-1 all-time when a Braves player hits four home runs in a game – Bobby Lowe (1894), Joe Adcock (1954), Bob Horner (1985).
Kyle Schwarber's four home run game, for better or worse, added to the Braves' long history of being involved with the milestone
This means Atlanta has featured in 33% of all MLB games where a player homered four times. That's a hefty amount over the years. The team has a 1-1 record this year when opposing players have hit four homers. McAuley also found the Braves are 2-1 in these types of games when a player from organization has homered four times.
There are three Braves players who have accomplished this: Bobby Lowe (1894) with the Boston Beaneaters, Joe Adcock (1954) with the Milwaukee Braves, and Bob Horner (1986) with Atlanta.
What Schwarber did is absolutely impressive and incredibly hard for a player to do. However, it is an indictment on how terrible Atlanta's pitching staff has been most of this season. The rotation and bullpen aren't anything special at the moment. That will need to change in the offseason or the team may suffer this fate again.