Three strikeouts is a hat trick. Four strikeouts is a golden sombrero. Five strikeouts is a platinum sombrero, or the Olympic rings — whichever you prefer.
But we haven't yet come up with a term for a five-strikeout game that also includes a home run. On the surface, you might not think that this game could ever happen, considering six at-bats in a game is rare enough, as is striking out five times, as is hitting a home run on a day where you're clearly strugglign. All of those things together, wrapped in one neat package? Impossible... but not actually.
That's because Mike Tauchman did it last night. Whether it's an accomplishment to be proud of or to be ashamed of is one thing, but just the fact that such a stat line is, in fact, possible is impressive in itself. What's even more jaw-dropping is that after five at-bats, Tauchman had five strikeouts, all of which are viewable below in this neat little compilation from MLB Film Room.
You've got to be benched at that point, right? No way, said Gabe Kapler, and no way was Tauchman going to make MLB history with his sixth strikeout — which, by the way, is called a "horn" due to Sam Horn's six-K game in 1991. Instead, it was time to go yard.
So if it's so impossible to replicate, why not just name it a Tauchman? As it turns out, Tauchman wasn't the first to have such a game, as Sarah Langs pointed out. Here's the full list of players to experience such an interesting night (via Stathead):
As it turns out, Tauchman wasn't even the first player to strike out five times before hitting that first home run. Ray Lankford's wild game against the Cubs in 1998 looked a little something like this:
- Strikeout in second inning against Mark Clark
- Strikeout in fourth inning against Mark Clark
- Strikeout in sixth inning against Mark Clark
- Strikeout in seventh inning against Felix Heredia
- Strikeout in ninth inning against Terry Mulholland
- Home run in eleventh inning against Rod Beck - who, by the way, had 51 saves that year
- Walk-off single in thirteenth inning against Dave Stevens
While Tauchman's 13th inning blast wasn't a walk-off home run, it was part of an extremely interesting inning. The Giants piled seven runs on the Angels in that half-frame, which was the most they had scored in an extra inning in over 80 years.
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