It's long been said that the beauty of baseball is the chance to see something you've never seen before in any given game. Friday night's entry involves Astros first baseman Jon Singleton.
The 31-year-old Singleton got the nod at first for the Astros. It was just his second start of the year for the defending champs. He entered the game with 14 career major-league home runs, with the most recent coming July 29, 2015.
He went deep Friday. And then did it again. For real. Here they are.
Singleton had gone eight years and 13 days between major-league home runs. And then he went yard in back-to-back innings. That's amazing. Not only that, but he also drove home five runs with those two homers. He previously had never compiled a multi-homer game nor had he ever had five RBI in a game.
As such, Singleton had a career game in the second and third innings Friday night.
We have previously covered the story of Singleton and his journey back to the majors. As a prospect, he went to the Astros in the trade that sent Hunter Pence to the Phillies. He was considered a top prospect and signed an extension when he was promoted to the majors in 2014. Things didn't work out and fizzled, seemingly for good, in 2017 when he was suspended for a third positive test for a drug of abuse. He returned to professional baseball in the Mexican League in 2021. He then signed with the Brewers organization in 2022. He made his MLB return earlier this year with the Brewers and appeared in 11 games before being released. The Astros picked him back up on June 24 on a minor-league deal and he recently got the call back to the majors.
Friday night, he had the best game of his life.
