Feel Like Wagering on MLB History Being Made in 2024? Here's What You Need to Know

March 28, 2024 by Staff

If you've been itching for baseball to begin in earnest, along with all of its related wagering opportunities, today is your lucky day.

All 30 teams will see action and plenty of wagers will be placed. The MLB Season Specials at FanDuel,com include odds of accomplishing such historical feats as a no-hitter or a perfect game. They also feature odds on the number of times any player will smash multiple home runs in a game, and the total number of times a player will hit for the cycle (single, double, triple, homer run).

So let's take a look at the history of some of those achievements. All of them may be a bit more rare than you think.

Perfect Game

Pitching a perfect game basically gets you remembered and revered forever - especially by those who witnessed it live.

There have only been twenty-four (24) perfect games thrown in the history of Major League Baseball (source). The first in eleven years occurred last season when Domingo German pitched the fourth all-time perfect game for the New York Yankees in an 11-0 victory at Oakland on June 28.

No-Hitter

It's a bit easier to thrown a no-hitter than it is to toss a perfect game. There have been a number of instances where perfect games were turned into a no-hitter in the final inning.

Still, there were just four non-no's pitched last season, and one of those was a combined no-hitter by three pitchers.

Aside from German, just two others accomplished the feat individually - Michael Lorenzen or Philadelphia, and Framber Valdez of Houston,

After German's perfect game, the second no-hitter of 2023 was a combined effort of three pitchers on the Detroit staff on July 8 when Matt Manning, Alex Lanoe and Jason Foley combined for the 2-0 win over Toronto.

Valdez recorded his no-hitter in a 2-0 win over Cleveland on August 1st as he walked just one batter and struck out seven.

Just eight days later, Lorenzen became just the fifth pitcher to ever to do so in his home debut with a new team. He surrendered four bases on balls and recorded five strike-outs in the 7-0 victory over Washington on August 9.

Cycle

The number of players who have hit for the cycle rose to 344 on August 28 of last season when Jose Altuve went 4-for-6 in Houston's 13-5 win at Boston. Altuve doubled in the 3rd, singled in the 5th, tripled in the 6th, and then completed the cycle with a home run over the Green Monster in the 8th inning to close the deal.

3+ Homers

Last season, there were nine occurrences of players hitting three home runs in a game with seven in the American League (Aaron Judge, twice) and two in the National League.

The AL players were as follows:
Adolis García, April 22, Texas
Jordan Diaz, May 9, Oakland
José Ramírez, June 8, Cleveland
Kyle Tucker, July 21, Houston
Aaron Judge, August 23, NYY
Jose Altuve, September 5 (Cycle), Houston
Aaron Judge. September 9, NYY

The NL players were:
Trayce Thompson, April 1, Dodgers
Paul Goldschmidt, May 7, St. Louis

No player has hit 4 homers in a game since 2017.