It’s time again for Baseball Roundtable’s Trivia(l) Tidbit Tuesday. I hope you are enjoying this weekly presentation of baseball occurrences that for some reason caught The Roundtable’s eye. (I’m particularly fond of unexpected performances and statistical coincidences.) These won’t necessarily be momentous occurrences, just events, statistics or coincidences that grabbed my attention. I’m also drawn to baseball “unicorns,” one-of-a-kind MLB accomplishments or statistics.
This week, I focused on something I miss (yes, I know I’m in the minority on this one) … watching pitchers hit. My first goal was to answer my own trivia question: Who was the most recent pitcher to collect five base hits in a single game? Before you get to thinking this is an easy one. It’s not Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani did famously have a six-hit/ten-RBI/three-homer game (September 19, 2024 for the Dodgers), but he was in the game as a DH, not a pitcher.
So, your answer? It was Yankee righthander Mel Stottlemyre, who (on September 26, 1964) went five-for-five, while twirling a two-hit shutout in a 7-0 win over the Senators at D.C. Stadium. Stottlemyre collected four singles and a double off four different pitchers . (Claude Osteen, Steve Ridzik, Jim Bronstad, Alan Koch). Notably, the offensive outburst came in the then 22-year-old Stottlemyre’s rookie season, in just his twelfth MLB game.
On the season, Stottlemyre went 9-for-37 (.243), with two runs scored and three RBI. On the mound, he went 9-3, 2.06 in 13 games, 12 starts. (He would, ultimately, hit .160 over ten MLB seasons).
Side note: Five seems to be the sweet spot on this one. While Stathead.com lists nine instances of pitchers collecting five hits in a game (by eight pitchers), it lists 214 four-hit games by pitchers (as batters), by 174 different pitchers. In this category, Burleigh Grimes leads the way with five four-hit games, followed by Red Ruffing and George Uhle with four each.
The chart below shows all of MLB’s (Modern Era) five-hit games by pitchers. I did find it interesting that six of the nine were perfect five-for-five performances. The usual disclaimer: Game-by-game stats from the Negro Leagues (1920-48) have not been fully incorporated into the MLB record books.
Only Moundsman with two Five-Hit Offensive Games
White Sox’ righty Jimmy Callahan, who played in 13 MLB seasons (1894, 1897-1905, 1911-13) is the only player with two five-hit games as a pitcher. Callahan (a reflection of the times) was a two-way player. Over his career, he appeared in 195 games as a pitcher, as well as 386 in LF, 110 at 3B, 67 in RF, 62 at 2B, 37 in CF and 22 at SS. He also appeared in 49 contests as a pinch hitter. A .273-11-394 career hitter, his only two five-hit games came in games he started on the mound. He went five-for-eight and threw a 17-inning, eight-hitter in a White Sox 2-2 tie with the Browns on May 18, 1902 and went five-for-six and pitched all 11-innings in a 13-12 loss to the Browns on May 8, 1903 (he gave up 20 hits in that one). Callahan’s career pitching line was 99-73, 3.39 in 195 games (177 starts), with 169 complete games. As a hitter, he was .273-11-394 (923 games/3,395 at bats).
Tidbit Extra
Terry Forster, who toiled on the mound for the Braves, Angels, White Sox, Dodgers and Pirates has the highest batting average (as a pitcher) of any pitcher with at least 50 MLB at bats. For his career Forster hit .397 (31-for-78) with no home runs and seven RBI. Add in his two walks and he had a career .413 on-base percentage. Perhaps more impressive, in games in which he pitched, Forster went 30-for-74 … a .405 average (and a .421 OBP). Forster played in 16 MLB seasons (1971-86) and went 54-65, 3.23, with 127 saves as a pitcher in 615 appearances (39 starts). His best season at the plate was 1972 (his second MLB season), when the 20-year-old Forster went 10-for-19 (.526).
Putting The Ball In Play
From May 1, 1942 through June 22, 1947, Braves’ righthanded pitcher Johnny Sain went 174 consecutive plate appearances without striking out. In 1946, returning to MLB after missing three seasons due to military service, he was a 20-game winner and came to the plate 104 times without striking out – making him the only player in the Modern Era (and pre-DH) to win 20 games and never strikeout at the plate in the same same season. In some ways, Sain may have done even better at the plate in 1947, when he hit .346-0-18 in 118 plate appearances (and had the patience to draw three walks, while fanning just once), while going 21-12, 3.52 on the mound. If you look at Sain’s first three MLB seasons (1942, 1946-47, he hit .294 in 252 plate appearances and struck out just twice. He did not quite keep up that pace. In 11 MLB seasons (1942, 1946-55 … Braves, Yankees, Athletics) he hit .245-3-101 in 433 games. Over his career, he struck out a total of 20 times (versus 24 walks) in the regular season, an average of one strikeout every 42.9 plate appearances. He had five seasons with at least 100 plate appearances and three or fewer strikeouts (0,1,2,3,3). On the mound, the three-time All Star went 139-116, 3.49 and four times won 20 or more games in a season (leading the NL with 24 wins in 1948).
Side Note: A twenty-win season without striking out has become less of an accomplishment since the advent of the DH. For example, during his 19-season MLB career, the Orioles’ Jim Palmer achieved an MLB record five seasons in which he won 20 games, but did not strike out once as a batter (he had a total of eight career 20-win seasons). All five “20-0” seasons came after the DH went into effect in the AL in 1973 (1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978). And, in each of those, Palmer had zero plate appearances. In his three non-DH ERA 20-win seasons … 1970-71-72 … Palmer struck out 48, 41 and 36 times, respectively.
Pitchers to Hit Two Home Runs in a Regular-season Game
There have been 72 regular-season games in which a pitcher hit two home runs, a feat accomplished by 58 different hurlers.
The most recent player to hit two home runs in a regular-season game he pitched was, of course, the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (June 27, 2023). Ohtani is also the only pitcher to hit more than one home run in a post-season game (three home runs in Game Four of the 2025 National League Championship Series in which he started and pitched six innings). He hit two of those home runs while still in the game as a pitcher-designated hitter and the third after being relieved of mound duties (but still in the lineup at DH). No other player has hit more than one home run in a post-season game in which he also pitched.
For a full post on pitchers with two-homer, regular-season games, most specifically those with two such games in a season – including one with a two-Grand Slam game and another with two-homers in a game in which he pitched a no-hitter, click here.
Primary Resource: Stathead.com
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