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Kirk Nieuwenhuis belts three home runs in historic game for Mets

Mark Townsend
·Yahoo Sports Contributor

The New York Mets have been looking for answers offensively all season long.

On Sunday afternoon, Kirk Nieuwenhuis at least temporarily changed the questions.

In a historic performance at Citi Field, the Mets outfielder connected for home runs in each of his first three at-bats against Arizona Diamondbacks pitchers Rubby De La Rosa and Randall Delgado. In doing so, Nieuwenhuis became the first Mets player to ever hit three home runs in a single home game.

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That covers a lot of territory — 54 seasons to be exact — and a lot of three home run performances.

Amazingly, none of those games happened at the Polo Grounds, Shea Stadium or Citi Field. It's a bit of an oddity, but this is the same franchise that went 51 years before pitching a no-hitter. They're used to such things.

As for Nieuwenhuis, he got his big afternoon started in the second inning when he launched a solo homer off De La Rosa to left field. One inning later, he connected again, driving a two-run homer to center field to score Lucas Duda. Then in the fifth, he completed the trifecta with a rocket blast off the right-field foul pole off Delgado.

That too was a solo homer, and it was the fourth and final one for the Mets in their 5-3 victory.

[On this week's StewPod: Everything you need to know about the All-Star game.]

Nieuwenhuis would get one opportunity to hit a fourth home run on Sunday — something that's only been done 16 times in MLB history — but ended up striking out against left-hander Andrew Chafin.

Here's another interesting tidbit about Nieuwenhuis' big day.

That will make hitting coaches everywhere smile.

Of course, for Nieuwenhuis, just having the chance to play will make him smile. He entered the game hitting .091/.184/.159 with no homers and two RBIs in 32 games. In fact, earlier this season he was designated for assignment by the Mets in May, played briefly for the Los Angeles Angels, before being let go and claimed again by the Mets in June.

This was only his sixth game since returning, and it's a day he'll never forget.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!