I don’t love the fact that I am writing this blog, but as a student of history I always get frustrated when individuals label something “The best ever" seconds after it happened. Shohei Ohtani’s 3 HR and 6 IP 10K performance was insane and IS one of the best single game performances in history without a doubt. I worked 14 hours yesterday and crawled into my bed at 10pm ready to be put out of my misery, but I put on every light in my house to force myself to stay awake to watch Ohtani come up to bat again because you could just feel that next home run coming.
So, this is not me trying to point at Ohtani’s performance and discredit it, I am simply trying to remind people of other great postseason performances that I think are better. This is primarily motivated by posts on social media of people making up statistics to justify Ohtani’s game. I also saw articles that said “Yeah, this player might have hit three home runs in a World Series clinching Game 7 BUT IGNORE THAT BECAUSE OHTANI PITCHED ALSO.”
At the end of the day, Ohtani did this against a Brewers team that was playing like a Low Single A team this series (Sorry Will.) History is going to take that into account when it looks back at this game.
I don’t love that I’m even writing this, but as a student of baseball history I get frustrated when people label something “the best ever” seconds after it happened. Shohei Ohtani’s recent feat – hitting three home runs while pitching six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts – was insane and is undoubtedly one of the greatest single-game performances ever. Last night, I worked a 14-hour day and crawled into bed at 10 PM ready to be done, but I ended up turning on every light in my house to force myself to stay awake for Ohtani’s next at-bat because you could just feel that another home run was coming. And he delivered.
So don’t get me wrong: I am not trying to discredit Ohtani’s performance at all. In fact, even Ohtani’s teammates are describing it as perhaps the greatest game in baseball history. But I do want to remind people of other legendary postseason performances that deserve to be in this conversation (and which history will judge as even greater given their context). This is motivated by all the social media posts making up weird stats to crown Ohtani’s game as the best, and by articles saying things like “Sure, Reggie Jackson might have hit three home runs in a World Series Game 6 but ignore that because Ohtani also pitched.” At the end of the day, Ohtani did this against a Brewers team that played like a low Single-A squad this series (sorry, Brewers fans). History will take the level of competition into account when comparing great games.
With that in mind, let’s look back at seven other all-time postseason performances that I believe provide a benchmark for greatness
Editors Note: These are in no particular order.
Honorable Mention (Non Playoff)
Rick Wise (June 23, 1971 – Regular Season)
Context: June 23, 1971. Phillies vs. Reds. In Cincinnati.
Performance: Threw a no-hitter on the mound and hit two home runs at the plate.
Pitching Line: 9.0 IP, 0 H, 3 BB, 4 K.
Hitting Line: 2-for-3, 2 HR, 3 RBI.
Significance: That line up had three HOFers (Rose, Bench, Perez). If you really want to argue SINGLE game performance then hear it is.
1. Babe Ruth (1916 World Series Game 2)
Context: 1916 World Series Game 2 (Boston Red Sox vs. Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers). Ruth was a 21-year-old lefty pitcher at the time.
Performance: Pitched 14 innings in a complete-game 2–1 victory. After allowing an inside-the-park homer early, Ruth threw 13 straight scoreless innings, scattering a total of six hits and three walks while striking out four.
Hitting Impact: Despite going 0-for-5, Ruth helped himself by driving in the Red Sox’s tying run with a third-inning RBI groundout.
Significance: This game started a 29⅔ consecutive scoreless World Series innings streak for the Babe. Key word there, World Series.
2. Jack Morris (1991 World Series Game 7)
Context: 1991 World Series Game 7 (Minnesota Twins vs. Atlanta Braves). Winner takes the championship.
Performance: Threw a 10-inning complete-game shutout to clinch the World Series for the Twins.
Details: His final line in Game 7: 10 innings, 7 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts, 122 pitches. He refused to come out of the game, getting into an argument with Tom Kelly when he tried to remove him from the game. Max Scherzer did that in the 5th inning the other day and Twitter drooled all over him.
Significance: This was a championship-clinching shutout that extended into extra innings. I mean what else am I supposed to say? Did he hit three home runs in the process? No, but he threw 10 shut out innings
3. Reggie Jackson (1977 World Series Game 6)
Context: 1977 World Series Game 6 (New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Dodgers). The Yankees were up 3–2 in the series, so this was a title clincher at Yankee Stadium.
Performance: Hit three home runs in the game, powering the Yankees to victory and a championship.
Details: Jackson didn’t just hit three homers – he hit them on three consecutive swings, in three consecutive at-bats, facing three different pitchers.
Significance: This three-homer barrage earned Reggie the nickname “Mr. October.” It was only the second time a player had ever hit three home runs in a World Series game (Babe Ruth did it twice in the 1920s), and Jackson was the first to do it in three straight swings. This in Game 7 of the World Series
4. Don Larsen (1956 World Series Game 5)
Context: 1956 World Series Game 5 (New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers). The Series was tied 2–2.
Performance: Perfect game, 27 up, 27 down. Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history, and in fact the only no-hitter of any kind in postseason history until 2022.( If you count the combined no-hitter by the Astros)
Details: The Yankees won 2–0. Larsen needed just 97 pitches to mow down all 27 Brooklyn batters, striking out 7. By the
Significance: Uhhh, it is a perfect game in the World Series. Oh, and there were five Hall of Famers in the Dodgers lineup….
5. Sandy Koufax (1965 World Series Game 7)
Context: 1965 World Series Game 7 (Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Minnesota Twins). Koufax famously insisted on resting for Game 1 (due to Yom Kippur), but he came back on just two days’ rest to start Game 7. The Series was tied 3–3.
Performance: Fired a complete-game shutout to clinch the World Series for Los Angeles. Koufax allowed 3 hits while striking out 10.
Details: He was virtually unhittable despite pitching on short rest, relying almost entirely on his ferocious fastball that day.
Significance: A shutout in a Game 7 of the World Series is about as clutch as it gets. Again, did he hit three home runs. No.
6. Bob Gibson (1968 World Series Game 1)
Context: Game 1 of the 1968 World Series (St. Louis Cardinals vs. Detroit Tigers). 1968 was famously the “Year of the Pitcher,” and Gibson was the poster child of that era (he had a 1.12 ERA that season.)
Performance: 17 strikeouts in a complete-game shutout, as the Cardinals won 4–0.
Details: Gibson’s 17 Ks set a new World Series single-game record, breaking Sandy Koufax’s previous mark of 15. He completely overpowered Detroit, allowing only 5 hits and 1 walk. At one point he struck out seven batters in a row, and he fanned at least one Tiger in every inning.
Significance: Those 17 strikeouts still stand as the World Series record for a game. Gibson would go on to win Game 4 of the Series as well, but lost the deciding Game 7. Look into that game yourself, but long story short one of his fielders blew the game in the 7th and misjudged a fly ball. Today analytic boys would start posting Gibson’s FIP. I won’t do that.
7. David Freese (2011 World Series Game 6)
Context: 2011 World Series Game 6 (St. Louis Cardinals vs. Texas Rangers). The Rangers led the series 3–2.
Performance: Freese went 2-for-5 and brought St. Louis to victory with a game-tying triple and a walk-off home run, plus two runs scored.
Game-Saving 9th Inning: Bottom of the 9th, Cardinals down 7–5, two outs, two strikes… Freese ripped a triple to deep right-center that scored two runs and tied the game 7–7. If he doesn’t get that hit, the Rangers win the championship.
Walk-Off 11th: In the bottom of the 11th, Freese led off and hammered a solo walk-off home run to center field to win the game 10–9 and force a Game 7.
Significance: All of the games prior to this were from before I was born, so I knew I had to put at least one in from my lifetime. In terms of postseason performance, nothing tops David Freese in 2011.
Again, what Ohtani did was amazing, but everyone should do a history lesson before posting GREATEST GAME EVER.
How are any of these better performances?
1. Babe Ruth 1916: Great pitching performance with subpar hitting performance, especially considering the era. 0-5 is simply not good in any era really. You're also counting things that didn't even happen in that game (29.75 consecutive scoreless is irrelevant when discussing a single game performance lol)
2. Morris 1991: Incredible pitching performance again but not a two way performance. 10 shut-out isn't even that rare that it hasn't happened before. Not even remotely comparable.
3. Jackson 1977: 3HR on 3AB is precisely what Ohtani did. Ohtani also pitched.
The rest don't even deserve mentioning because they're all outrageous comparisons. A player pitching and hitting in the SAME GAME is so much more difficult and rare that your only legit comparison is Babe Ruth in the 1916 WS where he went 0-5 at the plate, because...again...pitching and hitting in the same game is incredibly difficult.
I can appreciate sharing other amazing performances in the playoffs throughout history because even for me it was a great history lesson. Your summary quote is still incorrect though. Despite your strongest evidence, I see nothing to suggest any of those games were better than Ohtani's performance. In fact, I don't even see any in the same ballpark, much less better.