June 14th, 2024
Sarah Langs
@SlangsOnSportsHere’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (June 7-13).
Top-two battle: The Yankees and Dodgers entered Friday’s series opener ranking first and second, respectively, in OPS. Naturally, the game was scoreless into the 11th. It was the third game in the live-ball era (1920) between MLB’s top two teams in OPS that was scoreless through 10 innings, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. In all three, the No. 2 team won the game in the 11th inning: Friday: No. 1 Yankees vs No. 2 Dodgers (LAD won 2-1 in 11); Aug. 7, 1956: No. 1 Yankees at No. 2 Red Sox (BOS won 1-0 in 11); and April 29, 1953: No. 1 Phillies vs No. 2 Cardinals (STL won 1-0 in 11).
What a comeback: The Royals won on Friday despite trailing 7-0 after the first inning. They became just the fifth team in the last 50 seasons to win after allowing at least seven runs and scoring none in the first frame. They joined Cleveland on June 4, 1995, the Pirates on July 15, 1994, the A’s on July 30, 1983 and the Yankees on July 20, 1976.
Beating the heat: Yordan Alvarez doubled off a 103.9 mph pitch on Saturday. That’s the fourth-fastest pitch anyone's had a base hit against in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008, including playoffs), behind only Francisco Cervelli (8/31/16, 1B), Stephen Vogt (8/7/16, 1B) and Carlos Ruiz (2010 NLDS G3, 2B), all off 104.2 mph. In the same inning, Yainer Diaz singled off a 103.1 mph pitch. It’s the first time in the pitch-tracking era a team has had multiple base hits on 103.0+ mph pitches in a season … let alone a game or an inning.
Skenes Day: Through his sixth MLB start on Tuesday, Paul Skenes has 46 strikeouts and just six walks. He’s the second pitcher with at least 45 strikeouts and no more than six walks in his first six career appearances since at least 1901. He joins Masahiro Tanaka, who had 51 strikeouts and six walks in his first six career outings in 2014. Skenes has thrown 60 MLB pitches at 100.0+ mph this season. No other starter has more than 36 (José Soriano, Angels).
This is June: June Kyle Schwarber was on full display Tuesday as he hit two home runs. It was Schwarber’s second career game with multiple 110+ mph homers, also done on April 17 of this season. He’s the only player with two such games out of the leadoff spot under Statcast in a career (2015). The only other players with multiple such games in a season, batting anywhere, in that span are 2022 Yordan Alvarez (three), 2017 Giancarlo Stanton (three), 2023 Aaron Judge, 2022 Judge, 2019 Gary Sánchez, 2017 Judge and 2015 Chris Davis.
What a duo: Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton each homered for the Yankees on Tuesday, the 43rd time they have done so in a game as teammates, including the postseason. That tied Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle for the fourth-most times homering in the same game among duos in Yankees history, including the playoffs, per Elias. They trail Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig (75 games), Mantle and Yogi Berra (56) and Ruth and Bob Meusel (47). The Yankees are now 39-4, including playoffs, when Stanton and Judge homer in the same game.
What a start: Royce Lewis’ homer on Wednesday was his fifth of the season in nine games. His 22 career home runs are two more than any other player in Twins/Senators history in his first 80 games – and Wednesday was his 79th career game. The only player with more homers in his first 80 games with the franchise, at any point in a career, is Nelson Cruz with 26.
Action Jackson: At 21 years and 54 days old on Wednesday, Jackson Merrill became the youngest player in Padres history with a walk-off home run. But it wasn’t his only homer of the game. With that, Merrill became the youngest player all-time with a multi-homer game including a walk-off home run, per Elias. He was the seventh Padres player with such a performance, and the first since Ryan Schimpf on Aug. 19, 2016.
What a streak: The Braves’ loss on Wednesday was their fifth in a row, marking their first losing streak of at least five games since September 2017. They went 934 games between five-game losing streaks. That’s the second-longest such streak in MLB history, per Elias, behind only the Yankees’ 1,243 games between five-game skids from 1930-38.
Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 524 consecutive games entering Friday, dating to May 2, 2021. There have been only six other streaks of at least 500 since 2000, per Elias. They belong to 2000-07 Miguel Tejada (1,152 consecutive games), 2018-22 Whit Merrifield (553), 2010-14 Prince Fielder (547), 2000-03 Alex Rodriguez (546), 2003-06 Hideki Matsui (518) and 2004-07 Mark Teixeira (507).
