Austin Wynns has caught parts of seven seasons for five teams in the big leagues, laboring in relative obscurity.
That all changed Sunday afternoon in Baltimore.
Playing against the team that drafted him in the 10th round in 2013, the former Poway High School standout went 6-for-7 with a home run, six RBIs and two runs scored as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Baltimore Orioles 24-2.
Since 1900, only 76 players from the National League and 40 from the American League have had six hits in a game. The six-hit list includes former Padres Tony Gwynn and Adrian Gonzalez in addition to stars Cal Ripken Jr., Kirby Puckett, Christian Yelich and Shohei Ohtani.
Only four players in the last five years — Ohtani, Luis Garcia Jr. and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. — have had six hits in a game. Only four other Reds players — Tony Cuccinello (1931), Ernie Lombardi (1937), Walker Cooper (1949) and Phil Ervin (2019) — have had six-hit games. Wynns is the first Reds catcher since 1947 to do it, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, and the first catcher from any team to get six hits in a game since Paul Lo Duca did it in 2001 for the Dodgers.
Wynns, who played collegiately at Fresno State, had five singles before ripping a three-run homer in the ninth inning.
“It’s a big-league game,” Wynns told reporters after the game. “We took it to them. We knew they were flat and they were deprived of their pitching. And we just kept going.
“We were hurting for pitching, too, but guess what? We took advantage and did what we needed to.”
Wynns’ big day pushed his slash line to .455/.500/.727 over 27 plate appearances. Wynns, who has played in 247 big-league games, is in the big leagues to start the season because Cincinnati’s No. 1 catcher, Tyler Stephenson, is injured.
In addition to Wynns, Poway High School has sent 10 other players to the big leagues: Gwynn, Brett Bochy, Alex Dickerson, Phil Plantier, Connor Joe, Thomas Neal, Tyler Nevin, Kevin Newman, Xavier Scruggs and Dave Smith.
