Top 10 Impressive Single Game Baseball Feats

Baseball is obsessed with numbers. We argue over WAR, OPS+, FIP, and roughly
seven million other acronyms. But every once in a while, a player has a
night so ridiculous that all the advanced stats melt away and you’re left
with one thought: “Did that really just happen?”

This list dives into ten of the most impressive single game baseball feats
ever recorded monster hitting outbursts, strikeout clinics, once-in-a-lifetime
defensive plays, and a couple of “video game on rookie mode” performances that
somehow happened in real life. These feats are drawn from real MLB history,
backed by official stats and historical write-ups from outlets like MLB.com,
SABR, Baseball-Reference, Baseball Almanac, ESPN, and more.

We’ll count down from #10 to #1, Listverse-style. Feel free to yell about
the order later that’s also part of the game.

#10 – Run Wild: Single Game Stolen Base Carnivals

Home runs get the highlight packages, but a truly wild stolen base game is
chaos in its purest form. Under the looser rules of 19th-century scoring,
George Gore (1881) and “Sliding” Billy Hamilton (1894)
each swiped seven bases in a single game, a record that still sits atop
the single-game steals leaderboard.

In the modern era, when pitchers actually hold runners and catchers own
shin guards that weigh less than a small car, the magic number is six. Hall of
Famer Eddie Collins did it twice in 1912, and later speedsters like
Otis Nixon, Eric Young, and Carl Crawford each recorded
six-steal explosions of their own.

A six- or seven-steal game doesn’t usually come with the fireworks of a
four-homer night, but it can completely break a pitcher’s brain. Every pitch
becomes a small panic attack, every walk feels like giving up a triple, and
the scoreboard operator gets a forearm workout just updating the “SB” column.

#9 – Double-Digit RBI Nights

Driving in a run is hard. Driving in double digits in one game is so
rare that, as of 2024, only 17 players in MLB history have recorded
10 or more RBIs in a single game.

The gold standard: Jim Bottomley (St. Louis Cardinals, 1924) and
Mark Whiten (Cardinals again, 1993), who share the record with
12 RBIs in one game. Bottomley went 6-for-6 with two homers in a 17–3
blowout, while Whiten famously launched four home runs and tied Bottomley’s
RBI mark in the second game of a doubleheader.

More recently, Shohei Ohtani joined the 10-RBI club in 2024 with a
video-game stat line: 10 RBIs, six hits, five extra-base hits, three
home runs, and two stolen bases in a single night a combination no player
had ever put together in one game before.

When a hitter racks up that many RBIs, it’s not just dominance it’s a
full-scale demolition of the opposing pitching staff and maybe the opposing
scoreboard, too.

#8 – Hit Machines: Six Hits and Total-Base Records

A three-hit game is “nice night at the office.” A four-hit game is “call your
parents.” But some players have put together six-hit masterpieces that
completely reset the record books.

On May 23, 2002, Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers delivered one
of the most ridiculous offensive performances ever: he went
6-for-6 with four home runs, a double, and seven RBIs, piling up
19 total bases a single-game MLB record.

That total-bases record stood alone for decades until 2025, when
Oakland rookie Nick Kurtz tied it with a 6-for-6, four-homer, eight-RBI
destruction of the Houston Astros.

Six-hit games are rare by themselves; pairing them with prodigious power is
another level entirely. At that point, the pitcher’s only real strategy is
to gently place the ball on a tee and hope the hitter gets bored.

#7 – The Perfect Day at Both Ends: Rick Wise’s No-Hitter and Two Homers

On June 23, 1971, Rick Wise of the Philadelphia Phillies rolled out of bed
feeling lousy. By the time he went back to bed, he had authored one of the
most absurd all-around performances in MLB history.

Facing the powerhouse Cincinnati Reds, Wise threw a
no-hitter while walking just one batter. Oh, and he also hit
two home runs, personally driving in three of the Phillies’ four runs in a
4–0 victory.

The Baseball Hall of Fame’s write-up of that game notes that out of the
thousands of games played in big-league history, very few come close to that
combination of dominance on the mound and at the plate.

Wise basically played the Reds solo on a night when their lineup included
future Hall of Famers. If you wrote that into a movie script, the studio note
would be: “Dial it back. No one will believe this.”

#6 – Two-Way Chaos: Shohei Ohtani’s Postseason Masterpiece

Fast-forward to the modern era and another two-way unicorn.
In the 2025 National League Championship Series, Shohei Ohtani delivered
a performance that had teammates and opponents calling it the greatest
single-game display they’d ever seen.

In the NLCS clincher, Ohtani pitched six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts
and allowed just two hits. That would already qualify as a postseason gem.
But he also hit three solo home runs, powering the Dodgers to a 5–1 win
and a second straight trip to the World Series.

We’ve seen great pitching performances and great hitting performances, but
doing both at an elite level in a playoff clincher is something else entirely.
It feels less like a baseball game and more like someone accidentally left
“career mode” unlocked for one player.

#5 – The 20-Strikeout Clubs

The line between “dominant” and “downright cruel” is crossed when a pitcher
records 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game. As of 2025, that has happened
only five times in MLB history: twice by Roger Clemens (1986, 1996) and once
each by Kerry Wood (1998), Randy Johnson (2001), and
Max Scherzer (2016).

Wood’s 1998 game for the Cubs is often cited as possibly the greatest single
start ever: one hit, no walks (if you’re feeling generous about one
questionable call), and 20 strikeouts from a 20-year-old rookie. Scherzer’s
2016 outing, meanwhile, came against his former team, the Detroit Tigers,
just to make things more awkward at the next reunion.

A 20-strikeout game is a rare mix of velocity, command, deception, and a
lineup that probably needed a group hug afterward.

#4 – Four Home Runs in One Game

A multi-homer game is a big deal; a three-homer game is legendary. But
four home runs in a single game enters “no, seriously, check the box score
again” territory. As of late 2025, only about twenty players in MLB
history have pulled off the four-homer feat.

The list includes names like Lou Gehrig, Mike Schmidt,
Carlos Delgado, Josh Hamilton, and more recently,
Eugenio Suárez and rookie Nick Kurtz. In many of those games,
the slugger also piled up extra hits or doubles, turning them into some of the
most productive offensive nights in baseball history.

MLB and SABR note that four-homer games are roughly in the same
historical rarity range as perfect games which means if you were in the
ballpark for one, you’ve got a story you’re allowed to tell at every family
gathering for the rest of your life.

#3 – Unassisted Triple Plays

If four-homer games are rare, unassisted triple plays are practically
mythical. Across well over a century of MLB history, there have been only
15 unassisted triple plays.

The play is simple in theory and ridiculous in practice: an infielder catches
a line drive (one out), steps on a base to double off a runner (two outs), and
then tags another runner before he can retreat (three outs) all without
any help. It’s usually the middle infielders who pull this off, because they
live right in the chaos between first and second base.

Baseball historians point out that unassisted triple plays are even rarer than
perfect games, and a few of them have come at dramatic moments, including
Eric Bruntlett’s game-ending unassisted triple play for the Phillies in 2009.

Unlike a perfect game or 20-strikeout outing, there’s not a ton of build-up.
One pitch, three outs, fans staring at the field while the scoreboard operator
frantically confirms nothing broke.

#2 – Perfect Games: 27 Up, 27 Down

Statisticians love to point out that a perfect game requires exactly 27
consecutive outs with no hits, walks, hit batters, or errors by the defense.
Fans usually sum it up more simply: “Nobody. Got. On.”

As of the mid-2020s, MLB has officially recognized just about two dozen
perfect games across its history, making them some of the rarest pitching
achievements in the sport.

Each perfect game comes with its own flavor of drama: last-out diving
catches, borderline calls, and ninth-inning at-bats where everyone in the
stadium forgets how to breathe. Whether it’s Don Larsen’s World Series
perfect game in 1956 or more modern gems like Mark Buehrle or Félix
Hernández, these games are baseball’s answer to a mic drop.

#1 – The All-Around Offensive Explosion

Some single-game feats are about one stat four homers, 20 strikeouts,
seven steals. Others are about doing everything at once.

Players like Shawn Green, Mark Whiten, and recent stars such as
Nick Kurtz and Shohei Ohtani have crafted nights where they stacked up
homers, hits, RBIs, and total bases at levels that would make a Little League
coach suspicious.

When a player finishes a game with multiple home runs, six hits, double-digit
RBIs, or some previously unseen combination of power and speed, it doesn’t
just set a record it forces statisticians to update leaderboards, inspires
fresh debates about “greatest ever,” and gives fans a forever memory.

These are the nights that make baseball’s 162-game grind worth it. You sit
down expecting a regular Tuesday in June and end up watching something that
will get referenced in trivia questions for the next 50 years.

What It’s Like to Witness a Once-in-a-Lifetime Game

Box scores are neat, but they don’t tell you what it feels like to be in
the park for one of these outlandish single-game feats. Talk to anyone who
was there for a four-homer game, a perfect game, or a 20-strikeout performance
and their eyes light up before they even start the story.

Early on, it usually feels ordinary. You don’t walk into the stadium thinking,
“Ah yes, tonight is historic.” The first home run or the first couple of
strikeouts just blend into the normal ebb and flow. It’s after about the
third home run or the seventh straight strikeout that the collective mood
shifts. Conversations in the stands trail off, and instead of checking their
phones between pitches, people lean forward and start keeping their own count.

For pitching feats especially perfect games and 20-K outings the tension
becomes almost physical. There’s the unwritten rule that you don’t talk about
the no-hitter in progress. Everyone knows it, and everyone breaks it in their
own way: a nervous half-whisper, a scoreboard glance, a text to a friend that
just says, “Turn this on now.” By the ninth inning, the stadium noise turns
weirdly quiet between pitches, followed by huge, nervous roars as the ball
leaves the pitcher’s hand.

Hitting feats feel different less tense, more like a party that keeps
topping itself. After the third home run or the fifth hit, fans start rooting
for the impossible. Pitchers nibble at the corners; managers debate whether
to pitch around a batter who clearly ate his Wheaties that morning. The fans
want one more big swing, not because the team needs it, but because it’s fun
to watch history get greedy.

There’s also something oddly communal about witnessing these games. Strangers
high-five after strikeouts they would normally shrug at. A routine grounder
becomes weirdly important in a perfect game bid people cheer the first
baseman for catching the ball like he just climbed a mountain. When the final
out is recorded, there’s a split second of stunned silence, followed by
a roar that feels less like a reaction and more like a release.

And then there’s the afterglow. People linger. Nobody really wants to leave
the stadium right away because it feels like stepping out of a movie before
the credits roll. Fans snap photos of the scoreboard, even though they know
the numbers will be all over the internet in seconds. On the way out, the
concourse buzzes with improvised stat breakdowns:
“Did you see that he struck out the side in the eighth with just fastballs?”
“I swear that fourth homer went 480 feet.” Everyone becomes a storyteller on
the walk to the parking lot or the train.

Years later, the details blur a little you might forget the exact final
score or which reliever pitched the seventh but the feeling remains
crystal clear. You remember the rising crowd noise, the way everyone stood
for the last batter, the way complete strangers hugged or high-fived after
the final out. The numbers end up on Baseball-Reference; the adrenaline lives
rent-free in your memory.

That’s what makes these single-game baseball feats so special. They’re not
just lines in the record book. They’re shared experiences a few hours when
thousands of people watched someone do something so extraordinary that, for a
moment, the endless grind of the season shrank down to a single, perfect box
score.

Conclusion

Whether it’s a four-homer barrage, a 20-strikeout masterpiece, a no-hitter
with bonus home runs, or a defender casually turning three outs all by
himself, single-game feats are baseball’s purest form of spectacle. They’re
the reason fans keep their old ticket stubs and swear that, yes, they really
were there that night.

Most games fade into the endless schedule, but these performances stick
recounted in bar conversations, debated on talk shows, and replayed on
highlight reels whenever someone threatens to join the club. If you’re lucky
enough to witness one in person, go ahead and brag about it. You’ve earned
the permanent story.