5+ hits in a game?

In August, I watched a baseball game on TV. In the game, a player who used to win the MVP award had a fantastic game. In that game, he collected 5 hits. He surely has played excellently in 2023. After watching the game, I began to think about a question.

How often do we see a player collect 5 hits or more in a game? To understand a little bit more, I went to check on the statcast website.

 

Well, I’m not going too far. So, let’s start with the year of 2020. We still remember what happened in 2020. It was a shortened season. However, there were still some players who could collect 5+ hits in a game. In mid-August, Bo Bichette collected 5 hits against the Marlins and in late-August, Trea Turner had 5 hits against the Red Sox. In September, there were 4 players who collected 5 hits in a game. In particular, Alex Dickerson crushed 3 home runs and had 2 doubles against the Rockies on September 1, 2020.

In 2021, I don’t know whether there are many who still remember that Yermin Mercedes had a hot start. On April 2, he collected 5 hits against the Angels. A couple of days later, Cedric Mullins collected 5 hits in Boston. Additionally, it’s not the only time that Mullins had 5+ hits in a game. On June 5, he had a 5-hit game against the Indians, 2 of those 5 hits were home runs. The 2021 season is surely a breakout season for Mullins and he was selected to the All-Star for the first time in his career. In total, there were 20 times that a player had 5 hits in a game.

Last season, Steven Kwan collected 5 hits in the third game of his career, but he didn’t have any RBI in that game. In April 2022, there were 3 players who had 5 hits in a game. Additionally, on July 22, 2022, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. collected 6 hits to tie the Blue Jays all-time single game record. Moreover, he had 5 RBI in that game, which was against the Red Sox. Furthermore, Yoan Moncada had 5 hits in a game twice last year. The first one was against the Tigers and the other was against the A’s. Interestingly, he collected 5 RBI in each of the 5-hit games. In total, there were 15 times that a player had at least 5 hits in a game in 2022.

Hitting isn’t easy and it might be one of the hardest things to do in sports. Collecting a hit in a game is possible. To collect multiple hits in a game, a batter has to have good hitting skills and sometimes, luck. And, collecting 5 hits or more in a game should be very difficult. Firstly, 5 plate appearances are minimum. Secondly, a hard-hit ball might become an out and you can’t ignore the importance of luck. Over the last 3 seasons, we can see some hitters have 5 hits or more in a game. It's not so easy. In 2023, an interesting thing is that there are more than 30 times that a player who has at least 5 hits in a game. And, there’s one player who already has three 5-hit games.