In team history, only five players have had at least two three-home-run games: Betts, Williams, Mo Vaughn, Jim Rice, and Nomar Garciaparra, the latter three having done it exactly twice. Famously, Garciaparra had two grand slams and ten RBI in his first game and totaled three slams and 18 RBI over his two games; in comparison, Betts has 19 RBI over his four games. Other Red Sox players who have had at least one grand slam in a three-home-run game include Williams, Norm Zauchin, Jim Tabor (two in his one game), Bill Mueller (two in his one game), and Jack Clark.

Betts also joins some elite company in Major League Baseball as one of only 17 players to have four or more three-home-run games. The current record is six games, which is held by Sammy Sosa and Johnny Mize. Five players have done it five times: Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Dave Kingman, Carlos Delgado, and Joe Carter. After that, tied with Betts with four games each are Willie Stargell, Aramis Ramirez, Albert Pujols, Larry Parrish, Ralph Kiner, Lou Gehrig, Steve Finley, Barry Bonds, and Ernie Banks.

Of these players, only Delgado and Gehrig hit four home runs in a game, a high water mark held collectively by 16 major league players; no Red Sox player has ever accomplished this rare feat.

In team history, 18 other players have hit at least three home runs in a game, including two current teammates, Hanley Ramirez and Dustin Pedroia. Ramirez accomplished the feat on 20 July 2016 against the San Francisco Giants at Fenway Park, while Pedroia hit three in a game back on 24 June 2010 against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Of note: of all MLB players who have had multiple three home run games, not one has done it for Boston and at least one other team.

Outfielder Reggie Smith was another former Red Sox great who later played in Japan, though his move to Japan came ten years after he departed Boston. After playing his final season in the majors with the San Francisco Giants in 1982, Smith was lured to Japan to play for the Yomiuri Giants; however, his personality and demeanor immediately clashed with the expectations of the Japanese fans and the media with regards to the norm for a baseball player. After injuring his knee early in the 1983 season, he was dubbed “Million-Dollar Bench-Warmer” by the Japanese media as he sat for two months nursing the injury; he also earned another less-honorable nickname, the “Giant Human Fan,” for striking out too often. Despite this, in just 263 at-bats, he managed a batting average of .285 with 28 home runs, a .409 on-base percentage, and a .609 slugging percentage.[2]

One other more-recent Boston player who donned spikes in the Land of the Rising Sun was Gabe Kapler who, lured by a lucrative contract offer, departed the Red Sox a month after the team won the World Series in 2004 and joined the Yomiuri club. However, after batting just .153 (17-for-111) with three home runs and six RBI in 38 games with the Giants, the team put the veteran outfielder on waivers and Kapler returned to the Red Sox in June of 2005. In addition, other non-Japanese players who have worn both a Boston uniform as well as one for a Japanese club include: John Wasdin, who played for the Red Sox between 1997 and 2000, then signed for one season with Yomiuri in 2002; Larry Parrish, who played a half-season with the Sox in 1988, then played a season each with the Yakult Swallows (1989) and Hanshin (1990); Kip Gross, who played five seasons in Japan for the Nippon Ham Fighters (1994-1998), then returned to the United States to play for Boston for one season (1999); and Benny Agbayani, who also played 13 games for Boston in 2002 and has played the last four seasons for the Chiba Lotte Marines (2004-2007).