Here’s a lists of rare baseball stats and how often they’ve occurred in MLB history.
February 5, 2026
Here’s a lists of rare baseball stats and how often they’ve occurred in MLB history.
36 comments
I really like how similar No Hitters and Hitting for the Cycle are. That just feels right.
Then Perfect Game and 4 HRs in a game as well.
I feel like in my lifetime I’ve seen more no hitters than guys hit for the cycle
Thank you for sharing, looking forward to going down the rabbit hole to learn more about these stats!
Somewhat of a new fan and at a first glance I’m surprised that hitting for the cycle has happened as many times as it has. Some really fun things to learn about, most excited about the 4 GIDPs in one game, caught stealing 3 times and the 14 perfect games lost on 27th batter.
“Name the 11 occurrences in baseball that are rarer than a perfect game” seems like a pretty good quiz question. Also, 3 sac flies in a game seems so much rarer than it should be.
How does an unassisted triple play work out?
As a Mariners fan:
4 GIDPs in game – Ty France
3 Caught Stealing – Jarred Kelenic
None of that happened but given time…
Always remember dodgers legend Chan Ho Park
I guess I have to be the one to point out that this is very likely an old repost, as all of the numbers that happen with any frequency (4-HR games, no-hitters, cycles, etc) are wrong.
What about All walk game,it never happened before?
Seems bizarre that 3 sac flies in a game has happened less than 2 grand slams. Just evaluating the necessary conditions, the sac fly can’t happen with two outs, while the grand slams need two more baserunners, but a deep fly ball is also more likely than a homer. In my head the probabilities of those don’t match up at a 3:2 ratio.
I can’t find the *exact* number, but walk-off grand slams is somewhere around 300. There were 269 from 1916 to 2020, and they’re gradually becoming more common. There were 4 just last year.
I’ve seen 3 of them live, weirdly enough.
3 sac flys surprises me tbh.
4 GIDPs in a game – more records i shatter on MLB The Show
So actually losing a perfect game on the 27th batter is much cooler than getting the perfect game
To further the discussion on rarity… # of opportunities matters in my mind. This ranks items against each other with common denominator being “baseball”. However 2 guys show up with an opportunity for a perfect game while a minimum of 18 have a shot at a cycle.
Bad analogy but… super rare cancers have more cases in larger populations than in smaller ones, this presentation of data is semi akin to comparing # of people who have had heart attacks in Ireland to the number of people with eye cancer in the United Sates…. ignoring that one population is many times larger.
28 out perfect game
Hitting for the cycle in the World Series – 0
Hitting for the cycle in the Playoffs – 1
Pitching back-to-back no-hitters – 1
I find cycles to be not as entertaining or impressive as a lot of the other rare occurrences tbh i’m not sure if that’s an unpopular opinion
And the 2 grand slams in an inning were off the same pitcher (which will likely never happen again)
Pfft my RTTS player has done most of these
(No I will not turn the difficulty up)
Postseason cycle: 1 instance. Always seems pretty cool to me for a game with such deep lore.
Only one that really surprised me was immaculate inning. Thought that happened way more frequently
4 GIDPs has only happened twice? I thought Mauer alone had more than that
To think that Daniel Nava is at the top of this list…
I’ll always remember Jeremy Hermida’s grand slam in his first career AB. Unfortunately, I also remember the rest of his career.
Is the caught stealing from the pitcher or the hitters perspective?
I know we have some risky stealers who just want to pad their own stats in a lost game so they may steal and not be benched the next game/rest of that game for being caught so many times.
6 times only 3 seems so low for runners and even for one pitcher esp back when theyd go the full game.
Two consecutive No Hitters: 1
Mike Baxter five walks
Bravo to the 6 guys who got caught stealing twice in a game and thought “I’ve definitely got it this time.”
Surprising that “inside the park grand slam” is so high on this list
IIRC a 20 3b, 20 2b, 20 HR season is also super rare
I’ve been at both a perfect game (Buehrle) and 20 K game (Scherzer) somehow
I can beat that Caught Stealing record, easy
If you witnessed any of these live, it’s a hell of a special memory. Thanks for that cycle, Yeli 💙💛
Very interesting,thanks.
2 immaculate innings in 1 game against the same 3 hitters
36 comments
I really like how similar No Hitters and Hitting for the Cycle are. That just feels right.
Then Perfect Game and 4 HRs in a game as well.
I feel like in my lifetime I’ve seen more no hitters than guys hit for the cycle
Thank you for sharing, looking forward to going down the rabbit hole to learn more about these stats!
Somewhat of a new fan and at a first glance I’m surprised that hitting for the cycle has happened as many times as it has. Some really fun things to learn about, most excited about the 4 GIDPs in one game, caught stealing 3 times and the 14 perfect games lost on 27th batter.
“Name the 11 occurrences in baseball that are rarer than a perfect game” seems like a pretty good quiz question. Also, 3 sac flies in a game seems so much rarer than it should be.
How does an unassisted triple play work out?
As a Mariners fan:
4 GIDPs in game – Ty France
3 Caught Stealing – Jarred Kelenic
None of that happened but given time…
Always remember dodgers legend Chan Ho Park
I guess I have to be the one to point out that this is very likely an old repost, as all of the numbers that happen with any frequency (4-HR games, no-hitters, cycles, etc) are wrong.
What about All walk game,it never happened before?
Seems bizarre that 3 sac flies in a game has happened less than 2 grand slams. Just evaluating the necessary conditions, the sac fly can’t happen with two outs, while the grand slams need two more baserunners, but a deep fly ball is also more likely than a homer. In my head the probabilities of those don’t match up at a 3:2 ratio.
I can’t find the *exact* number, but walk-off grand slams is somewhere around 300. There were 269 from 1916 to 2020, and they’re gradually becoming more common. There were 4 just last year.
I’ve seen 3 of them live, weirdly enough.
3 sac flys surprises me tbh.
4 GIDPs in a game – more records i shatter on MLB The Show
So actually losing a perfect game on the 27th batter is much cooler than getting the perfect game
To further the discussion on rarity… # of opportunities matters in my mind. This ranks items against each other with common denominator being “baseball”. However 2 guys show up with an opportunity for a perfect game while a minimum of 18 have a shot at a cycle.
Bad analogy but… super rare cancers have more cases in larger populations than in smaller ones, this presentation of data is semi akin to comparing # of people who have had heart attacks in Ireland to the number of people with eye cancer in the United Sates…. ignoring that one population is many times larger.
28 out perfect game
Hitting for the cycle in the World Series – 0
Hitting for the cycle in the Playoffs – 1
Pitching back-to-back no-hitters – 1
I find cycles to be not as entertaining or impressive as a lot of the other rare occurrences tbh i’m not sure if that’s an unpopular opinion
And the 2 grand slams in an inning were off the same pitcher (which will likely never happen again)
Pfft my RTTS player has done most of these
(No I will not turn the difficulty up)
Postseason cycle: 1 instance. Always seems pretty cool to me for a game with such deep lore.
Only one that really surprised me was immaculate inning. Thought that happened way more frequently
4 GIDPs has only happened twice? I thought Mauer alone had more than that
To think that Daniel Nava is at the top of this list…
I’ll always remember Jeremy Hermida’s grand slam in his first career AB. Unfortunately, I also remember the rest of his career.
Is the caught stealing from the pitcher or the hitters perspective?
I know we have some risky stealers who just want to pad their own stats in a lost game so they may steal and not be benched the next game/rest of that game for being caught so many times.
6 times only 3 seems so low for runners and even for one pitcher esp back when theyd go the full game.
Two consecutive No Hitters: 1
Mike Baxter five walks
Bravo to the 6 guys who got caught stealing twice in a game and thought “I’ve definitely got it this time.”
Surprising that “inside the park grand slam” is so high on this list
IIRC a 20 3b, 20 2b, 20 HR season is also super rare
I’ve been at both a perfect game (Buehrle) and 20 K game (Scherzer) somehow
I can beat that Caught Stealing record, easy
If you witnessed any of these live, it’s a hell of a special memory. Thanks for that cycle, Yeli 💙💛
Very interesting,thanks.
2 immaculate innings in 1 game against the same 3 hitters