by Mark Langill
“He plays a game with which I’m not familiar.”
The phrase used by six-time Masters champion Jack Nicklaus to describe a golf phenom named Tiger Woods now applies to Shohei Ohtani, whose three home runs as a batter and 10 strikeouts in six innings during the Dodgers’ pennant-clinching victory on Friday over Milwaukee at Dodger Stadium already is being nominated as arguably the greatest performance by a Major Leaguer in postseason history.
Ohtani already had the “greatest regular season game” nomination on Sept. 19, 2024, against the Marlins in Miami. Used exclusively as a designated hitter during his first year with the Dodgers, Ohtani became the first MLB player with at least 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in the same season. He went 6-for-6 with three home runs, a career-high 10 RBI and two stolen bases.
But could his NLCS Game 4 performance be the greatest single-game performance in U.S. sports history? It’s certainly a nominee.
Nicklaus reacted to the 21-year-old Woods in 1997 setting the record for the largest margin of victory at the famed Augusta, Georgia tournament, winning 12 strokes over runner-up Tom Kite. It remains the only double-digit margin of victory in Masters history.
In the National Basketball Association, it’s doubtful anyone will ever top Wilt Chamberlain’s triple-digit milestone on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The 7-foot-1, 275-pound center, in his third season with the Philadelphia Warriors, scored 100 points against the New York Knicks.
Chamberlain, who averaged 50.4 points per game during the 1961–62 season, was 36-for-63 from the field and 28-for-32 from the free throw line and had 25 rebounds.
The next two games on the NBA’s single-game points list aren’t close: 81 (Kobe Bryant, 2006 Lakers) and 78 (Chamberlain, 1961).
Ohtani’s penchant for the shining in big moments can be compared to six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan, who with the 1986 Chicago Bulls set the NBA playoff single-game playoff record with 63 points in a 135–131 loss to the Celtics in Boston in Game 2 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Or how about seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, who with the 2017 New England Patriots led his team to a Super Bowl 34–28 overtime victory against the Atlanta Falcons after his team trailed 28–3 with 2:15 remaining in the third quarter.
Brady threw for 466 yards in the game.
In the National Hockey League, the record for most points in a game is 10 by Darryl Sittler (six goals, four assists) of the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Boston Bruins on Feb. 7, 1976.
Versatility only goes so far in hockey. It’s possible for a goalie to score, usually on an empty net shot or get the credit if an opponent accidentally puts a puck in their own net.
For goalies, Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek set the bar with a 70-save shutout in four overtimes with his team facing elimination on April 27, 1994, as the Buffalo Sabres edged the New Jersey Devils, 1–0, in Game 6 of a first-round series against the New Jersey Devils.
But if we’re sticking to the postseason, and greatest, then the “Great One” deserves mention. Wayne Gretzky has stated that the greatest game he ever played was a potential clinch game. He scored three goals and added an assist in the Los Angeles Kings’ 5–4 victory over the Leafs in Game 7 of the Conference Finals on May 29, 1993. The performance, like Ohtani’s, sent Gretzky’s team to his sport’s final series — the Stanley Cup Finals.
2025 Postseason: Shohei Ohtani’s big day is one of the best outings in sports history was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.