It was as awesome as it was unexpected, arguably one of the most surprising great offensive games by a player in major league history.
Washington Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon became the first player to go 6-for-6 with at least three home runs and 10 RBIs in a game since RBIs became an official stat in 1920. He did that in the Nationals' 23-5 drubbing of the Mets in the finale of a three-game series.
Rendon set the single-game franchise record for RBIs and the mark for most RBIs in a game against the Mets.
It was the 13th game in major league history in which a player had at least 10 RBIs. The most recent before Rendon was by Garret Anderson against the Yankees in 2007. The only other such game by a National League player since 1950 was by Mark Whiten in his four-home-run game for the 1993 Cardinals against the Reds.
What made this performance amazing was what Rendon had done all season entering the day. Take a look at the chart on the right.
In one game, Rendon raised his batting average from .226 to .278, his on-base percentage from .316 to .356 and his slugging percentage from .250 to 411. He had nearly as many total bases in this game (16) as he did in his first 22 games (21).
Trivia time
If you’re looking for a good, hard trivia question with which to stump your friends, ask them to name the three other players to go 6-for-6 with three home runs in a game. Tell them one did so for the Dodgers in the 2000s, the Mets in the 1990s and the Tigers in the 1920s.
The answer is Shawn Green (2002 Dodgers in his four-homer game), Edgardo Alfonzo (1999 Mets) and Ty Cobb (1925 Tigers).
If your friends get it right, that’s almost as impressive as what Rendon did.
The high-scoring Nationals
The Nationals set a team record with 23 runs scored (the second-most scored in a game against the Mets) and are the first team to score 23 runs in a game since the 2007 Rangers, who scored 30 runs against the Orioles on Aug. 22.
They’re the first NL team to score 23 runs outside of Coors Field since the 1990 Giants, who beat the Braves 23-8 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on June 8, 1990.
The 170 runs the Nationals have scored this month are the most scored by the franchise in a calendar month since the 1999 Expos scored 180 in August. They’re the first team to score 170 runs by the end of April since the 2008 Cubs.
To put their frequent high scoring into perspective: They have tallied at least 15 runs in a game three times this season. The 29 other teams have done so twice.