There has never been an MLB player like Shohei Ohtani, and he just authored his masterpiece — “The Ohtani Game” — on Friday in Game 4 of the NLCS.
Facing a Milwaukee Brewers team that held the best record in MLB during the regular season, Ohtani posted three mammoth homers in a 3-for-3 night at the plate and struck out 10 in six-plus scoreless innings on the mound, almost single-handedly pushing the Dodgers to a 5-1 win that ended a series sweep.
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He had the three hardest-hit balls of the game, and the 11 hardest-thrown pitches. He had the Dodger Stadium fans screaming. He had his teammates ranging from stunned silence to hilarious guffawing. He had his manager plotting to “ruin baseball.” He had media scrambling to figure out what you even say when a man with three MVP awards (soon to be four), a World Series ring and MLB’s only 50-50 season surpasses himself.
He also had Brewers manager Pat Murphy tipping his cap in defeat. As the Dodgers received the Warren C. Giles Trophy and Ohtani received his well-deserved NLCS MVP Award, Murphy described the game as “maybe the best individual performance ever in a postseason game.”
And that somehow may be underselling it. We might have just watched the greatest performance, bar none, in the history of baseball. That’s a heavy title, though, so let’s go through Ohtani’s competition.
Shohei Ohtani’s NLCS Game 4 might never be topped. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
We should spell out that we’re specifically talking about entire games here rather than one huge moment, and are trying to not include performances where there seems to be a clear upgrade. So Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off homer in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series won’t be here, nor will, say, a postseason no-hitter be here when there’s already a postseason perfect game.
On that note …
Don Larsen’s perfect game
The only perfect game ever thrown in the postseason, and it happened in a pivotal Game 5 that helped push the New York Yankees to a seven-game win over the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 Fall Classic.
Larsen struck out seven and needed only 97 pitches to get all 27 outs against a Dodgers lineup that featured five future Hall of Famers in Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges and Roy Campanella. Oh, and he posted a sacrifice bunt that helped score the Yankees’ second run in a 2-0 win.
Almost by definition, it’s hard to imagine a better performance on the game’s biggest stage. If you still want to call this the greatest single-game performance in MLB history, we won’t stop you.
Sandy Koufax’s Game 7 triumph
The Dodgers legend earned a spot on this list through pure perseverance.
At first glance, a 10-strikeout, three-hit shutout in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series is an incredible achievement. But also consider that Koufax was pitching on two days’ rest after throwing another shutout in Game 5. Consider that Koufax had invited immense scrutiny by sitting out Game 1 of the series because it was on Yom Kippur. Consider that Koufax didn’t have his legendary curveball working in that game, so he blew away the Minnesota Twins with just his fastball.
And consider that Koufax did it a year after being diagnosed with traumatic arthritis in his pitching arm, which caused him to pitch through unimaginable pain for the final two legendary seasons of his career.
“Greatness” is an amorphous concept. It can be taken to mean anything from statistical production to shows of character, but when you take in just how much Koufax had going against him, you can’t deny there isn’t some definition of greatness where this game is on top.
Bob Gibson’s 17-strikeout shutout
The St. Louis Cardinals ace was so dominant in 1968 that baseball lowered the mound, lest the “Year of the Pitcher” have repeats. And Game 1 of that year’s World Series was his apex of dominance. His 17 strikeouts are a postseason record that still stands, and it was in a duel with Denny McLain, who is likely to be the last 30-game winner in MLB history.
We can also add an honorable mention to Jack Morris’ 10-inning shutout in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.
And that pretty much ends the postseason competition for Ohtani. There have been some incredible, clutch offensive performances, but the basic nature of baseball makes it hard to surpass the greatest pitching performances as a hitter. Unless you happen to be doing both at the same time, like Ohtani just did.
Rick Wise’s 2-HR no-hitter
Moving onto the regular season, we have the one guy who can probably say he did more for his team in a game than Ohtani did for the Dodgers in Game 4.
Two days ago, the question “What would you rather your pitcher do, hit three homers and throw six scoreless innings or hit two homers while throwing a no-hitter?” would sound ludicrous. It’s now very real, as Wise did the latter against the Cincinnati Reds in their Big Red Machine Era.
The Philadelphia Phillies right-hander posted only three strikeouts on the mound, but a no-hitter is a no-hitter. There have actually been four no-hitters with a home run, but Wise is the only one to go deep multiple times.
So that can go on the vision board for Ohtani.
That other Shohei Ohtani game
Remember last year, when Ohtani hit three home runs and stole two bases to not only become the first 50-50 player in MLB history, but reach 51-51 in the same game? Isn’t it wild how he seems to have one-upped that?
In total, Ohtani went 6-for-6 with three homers, two doubles, two steals, four runs scored and 10 RBI. Had he successfully stretched a double into a triple in the third inning, it would also have been a cycle. Obviously, hitting and pitching at an elite level is the most impressive thing Ohtani does, but it can’t be forgotten that he just decided to start stealing bases in 2024 and ended up doing this:
Other regular-season records
For the remaining games, take your pick.
There have been 21 four-homer games, four 20-strikeout games (five if you count Randy Johnson, which you probably should in this case) and 21 perfect games. Some of those that stand out:
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Max Scherzer’s 17-strikeout no-hitter, the second-highest game score on record
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Koufax and Matt Cain each reaching 14 strikeouts in their perfect games, the most ever in a perfecto
As far as we can tell, that is pretty much the full list of games that could be considered alongside Ohtani.
Your definition of greatness is ultimately up to you. If you care about pure achievement, you might take Larsen. If you care about personal narrative, you might take Koufax. If you care about numbers going up more than the postseason, any of the above games could be your pick.
But to combine it all in a two-way spectacle beyond precedent, to send his team to the World Series, when baseball has never been played at a higher level, well, it makes a convincing case that we just watched the greatest day at the office in the history of the sport.
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