Cobb Reporter

It is an age-old rule of baseball: If you’re not bunting, you can’t strike out on a foul ball, even if you foul it off twice on the same pitch. This informal addendum was necessary for Atlanta’s Orlando Arcia during a Thursday night showdown against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

On a 1-2 count with two outs in a scoreless game in the third inning, Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt threw a 95 mph sinker low in the zone. The outcome was unusual. Arcia topped the ball, hitting it directly into the ground. The ball then bounced up vertically, and when it was near his head, his bat came into contact with the ball again during his backswing.

On a scorecard, it simply goes down as a foul ball, one that was part of an eventual strikeout. But the game isn’t played on spreadsheets, and fans who saw it unfold at Chase Field know they witnessed something different.

While such an event is uncommon, it has been done before. Several players have even managed to reach base while making contact twice on the same pitch. As such, while Arcia turned some heads on Thursday, there are some even more niche baseball achievements out there for the taking.