20-year Marliniversary: Ross homers 3 times in Marlins' rout of Mets

In more than 5,200 games as a franchise, only four members of the Florida/Miami Marlins ever managed to hit three home runs in one game. The first one to do it at home accomplished the feat on this day 20 years ago.

In the Florida Marlins’ 16-5 rout of the New York Mets, Cody Ross left the yard three times. He finished the day with four hits and tied a franchise single-game record with seven RBIs.

Ross wasted little time making his presence felt at Dolphins Stadium on Sept. 11, 2006. After Aníbal Sánchez worked a 1-2-3 top of the first for Florida, Miguel Cabrera singled home the first run for the Marlins against New York starter David Williams in the bottom of the inning. With the Marlins leading 1-0, two on and two out, Ross worked a seven-pitch at-bat before taking the Mets’ lefty deep for a three-run bomb to extend the lead to 4-0.

The Mets managed to cut the lead in half in the second on a two-run home run by former Marlins All-Star Cliff Floyd, but New York would get no closer. After Cabrera doubled home a pair in the bottom of the second, Sánchez helped himself with an RBI single in the third – an inning that Ross also singled in.

With the Marlins leading 7-2 through three innings, New York’s Carlos Beltrán and Florida’s Dan Uggla traded solo blasts in the fourth inning. After Ross flied out in the fourth, Miguel Olivo singled home Cabrera to give Florida a 9-3 lead after four.

That score would remain until the bottom of the sixth when Josh Willingham took Heath Bell deep for a solo shot to lead off the inning and extend the advantage to 10-3. After a Wes Helms double, Ross took Bell’s 2-0 pitch over the wall in left field for a two-run home run.

After a scoreless seventh, Sánchez’s day was done; he allowed three runs on just four hits and one walk while striking out eight. Not done, however, was the Florida offense.

Following a Jason Wood double and an error that scored a run in the bottom of the seventh, Helms plated the Marlins’ 14th run with an RBI fielder’s choice. Facing Royce Ring with one on and two outs, Ross worked another full count before going yard once again – and again to left field.

That capped the scoring for Florida and put the exclamation point on a monster day for Ross. Trailing 16-3, the Mets were able to push across two runs against Florida’s José García, who was making his big-league debut, in the eighth. García bounced back to toss a 1-2-3 ninth to end the game.

With the three home runs, Ross joined Mike Lowell as the only Marlins ever to homer three times in a game and became the first to do so in a contest that didn’t go to extra innings. Since then, Brian Anderson (Sept. 18, 2020) and Kyle Stowers (July 13, 2025) have since accomplished the feat for the Fish. Ross, however, is the only member of the club ever to hit three home runs in a game in the Marlins’ original ballpark. Those blasts came on this day two decades ago.