Forfeits, 26-inning ties, hidden-ball tricks, four-strikeout innings. The corners of the record book, several of them linked straight to the box scores they happened in.
Brooklyn 1, Boston 1 — and darkness ended it.
On May 1, 1920 at Braves Field, Brooklyn and Boston played twenty-six innings to a 1-1 tie before the umpires called it for darkness. Both starters — Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger — threw the entire way. It remains the longest game in major-league history, and no play-by-play archive has ever turned up a longer one.
Last seen · May 1, 1920 · Braves Field
See the box score →The biggest audience in the game's history sat in a NASCAR grandstand.
On August 2, 2025, the Braves and Reds played in front of 91,032 fans at Bristol Motor Speedway — the largest paid attendance for any major-league game in the archive, edging the great doubleheader crowds of the 1920s and Cleveland's packed Municipal Stadium of the 1950s.
Last seen · August 2, 2025 · Bristol, TN
See the box score →A game the box score records as 9-0, no matter the actual score.
Roughly one hundred and forty games in the complete archive end in forfeit — riots, unplayable fields, Disco Demolition Night. By rule the forfeiting team loses 9-0 regardless of what the scoreboard read when play stopped. They've all but vanished from the modern game.
Philadelphia 49, Troy 33 — before anyone thought to stop it.
In the game's rowdy infancy, on June 28, 1871, the Philadelphia Athletics beat the Troy Haymakers 49-33. The 82 combined runs remain the most in any major-league game on record — a total no modern nine innings has come remotely close to.
Last seen · June 28, 1871
See the box score →The most lopsided final the archive has ever recorded.
Margins like this belong to the nineteenth century, when defenses were bare-handed and pitching distances short. The single largest margin of victory in the entire game-log archive is 37 runs.
One fielder, three outs, no help.
One of the rarest plays in baseball — rarer than a perfect game. A single defender records all three outs of an inning without a teammate touching the ball. Bill Wambsganss famously turned one in the 1920 World Series.
Last seen · Eric Bruntlett, 2009
When the bullpen is empty, the shortstop toes the rubber.
Blowouts used to be the only time a non-pitcher would take the mound. The practice exploded in the 2010s — from a handful a year to over 90 in a single season — as teams began protecting their bullpens in lopsided games.
Last seen · Regular occurrence
Strike three gets away, and the pitcher earns a bonus K.
A pitcher can record four strikeouts in a single inning when a third strike is not cleanly caught, the batter reaches first, and the pitcher must retire a fourth batter. It has happened fewer than 100 times in MLB history.
The runner leads off second — but the fielder never gave the ball back.
An infielder feigns returning the ball to the pitcher, then tags the unsuspecting baserunner. It requires the pitcher to stay off the rubber and near-perfect timing. It has nearly vanished from the modern game.
Four batters, four pitches deposited over the wall.
Four consecutive home runs by four consecutive batters in a single inning. It has happened only eleven times in the history of the major leagues.
Last seen · Multiple teams, most recently 2010s
Lightning striking the same lineup twice.
A team turning two triple plays in the same game has occurred only twice in major league history — most famously by the Minnesota Twins against the Boston Red Sox in 1990.
Last seen · Minnesota Twins, 1990
Nine pitches. Three strikeouts. No fouls, no balls.
A pitcher strikes out all three batters in an inning on exactly nine pitches. Once vanishingly rare, the modern strikeout era has made it noticeably more common.
A single, double, triple, and home run in one game.
One of the game's signature single-game feats. The triple is usually the hardest leg — many cycles come down to legging out three bases in a player's final at-bat.