Hall of Fame outfielder Reggie Jackson can’t seem to shake Tyler Soderstrom from his company.
With another multi-home run game in Tuesday’s 12-3 win over the White Sox in Chicago, the former Turlock High standout joined another list alongside the A’s legend, while also passing New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge for most home runs in all of Major League Baseball.
At Chicago’s Rate Field, Soderstrom blasted his seventh and eighth home runs of the year to take the league-wide lead over Judge, the reigning American League MVP. The two Central Valley natives had been tied at six apiece since April 7.
The man many teammates and fans refer to as “Sodey” blasted a pair of three-run shots to right field to push himself above “The Judge.”
The first came in the first inning against Sox starter Sean Burke, lining a curveball hanging over the plate a distance of 388 feet at a speed of 107.2 mph. It gave the A’s a 3-0 lead. The second was in the sixth inning, sending a hanging sweeper from reliever Penn Murfee 423 feet to right, landing near the outfield concourse of the ballpark. He slipped in a defiant bat flip before rounding the bases.
The outing was also Soderstrom’s third multi-homer game of the season. No other player in all of baseball has more than one. In fact, he's the first player in MLB history to have three in a season before the midway point of April, per OptaSTATS. Prior to Soderstrom’s breakout, the earliest date for a player to have his third multi-HR game of a season was April 20, done by Carlos Delgado in 2001. Coincidentally, Athletics assistant GM compared the two sluggers to each other back at the 2022 Winter Meetings.
The first of the season happened to be the first of his young career, coming on Opening Day against the Seattle Mariners on March 27. The other coming on that aforementioned April 7 game against the San Diego Padres.
According to the Athletics’ Baseball Information Department, the 23-year-old Soderstrom joined Jackson as the only other player in A's history with three multi-home run games in the first 17 games of the season. Jackson did so in 1974, his age-28 season in which he was fresh off his first career MVP and the first two of what would be three straight World Series titles for Oakland.
Jackson and Soderstrom share space on two other lists in the franchise record books.
His power surge against the Padres at West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park made him just the third player in the Athletics' storied franchise history to have two multi-homer games through the team’s first 11 games of the season, joining Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson in that same ‘74 season and Joe Hauser in 1928, according to the MLB research team.
In mid-June of the 2024 campaign, the Turlocker joined Jackson, fellow Hall of Fame inductees Jimmie Foxx and Mickey Cochrane, and bash brother Jose Canseco as the only players in team history age 22 or younger to hit four home runs in a seven-game span.
At this rate, a signature candy bar may not be out of the question.
“To watch (Soderstrom) have the success over these first 17 games has been fun,” manager Mark Kotsay said in his postgame media availability. “He put a lot of work in this offseason. You know, he came to spring training with a great mindset. The at-bats in spring training didn't really have results, but we really liked the approach and it’s started to pay off.”
Soderstrom went 12-for-54 with a home run and four RBI over 20 Cactus League games, and now leads the league in home runs (8) and the team in OPS (1.137) and RBI (17).
The youthful Athletics are still finding their footing within the league and the American League West. They sport a 7-10 record heading into Wednesday. Though they are in last place in the division, they are just three games back of the Texas Rangers, who are 10-7.
