When it comes to Dodgers kapowing a ballgame with a walk-off home run over the last half century, Andre Ethier is king. 2008 saw the first example of this flair, kind of a supporting role in the team’s drama that season. The following year, the 27-year-old grabbed hold of the spotlight and danced and sang across the stage, producing four game-ending home runs. 2010 brought one more and then his seventh and final one came in 2015. Across these 50 campaigns, no Dodger has generated more in a season than Ethier and his four in ’09, and no member of the franchise has amassed more in the entirety of his time in Dodger Blue than Ethier and his seven.
Mookie Betts hit a pair of go-ahead homers in the Dodgers’ win over the Tigers: a solo shot to give Los Angeles a 3-2 lead in the eighth and then a three-run blast to walk things off in the 10th.
~Before Betts, the last Dodger to have this kind of homeriffic impact (a pair of go-ahead longballs in the eighth inning or later) was Andre Ethier on August 2, 2015. In that particular contest, Ethier gave his team a 3-2 lead with a solo homer in the eighth and then walked things off in the 10th with a two-run shot.
~The Dodgers improved to 4-0 on the season, the first time the club has won its first four since 1981. The other years in the modern era the Dodgers began 4-0: 1919, 1940, 1952, 1955 and 1978. Of these clubs, the 1955 Brooklynites went the deepest into the year without losing, running their winning streak to 10 games.
Shohei Ohtani singled and walked and scored a run in the Los Angeles victory. In all four games this season, the DH has scored at least one run and has reached safely at least twice. There are five other Dodgers since 1901 who can make this claim, starting with Billy Cox in 1952. Reggie Smith (1977), José Cruz (2006), Rafael Furcal (2010) and Yasiel Puig (2016) are the others. Cox and Furcal carried their respective streaks out to five games before dipping below the thresholds.
Just beginning his eighth season, Ohtani holds a 157 OPS+ through 3,621 plate appearances. The mark – for all players through their first eight years (min. 3,000 PA) – is tied for 24th all-time. The others around him under these specifications:
155: Honus Wagner, George Sisler, Ralph Kiner, Barry Bonds
156: Eddie Collins, Mike Piazza
157: Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Shohei Ohtani
158: Charlie Keller
159: Hank Greenberg, Jeff Bagwell
160: Juan Soto
Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto fanned 10 in five innings. This sort of thing – a starter getting to double digits in strikeouts while failing to throw more than five innings – used to be uncommon. The first occurrence in the modern era came from another Dodger, Sandy Koufax in 1961. There were nine other examples of this up through 1985 and then the next three seasons brought about six more, thanks to three from Nolan Ryan, two from Bobby Witt and one from Sid Fernandez. In this decade (but removing the shortened 2020 season), there has been an average of a little more than 17 a season, although the 2024 campaign saw the fewest in a full year since 2018. Yamamoto’s effort is the first of this kind this year.
Colorado’s Kyle Freeland made his fourth Opening Day start for the club to emerge as the unmatched leader in team history. The left-hander, who had been tied with Germán Márquez, is one of three active pitchers who can claim their respective franchises’ top spots, along with the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw (9) and the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara (5). In this contest, Freeland soared through six innings of two-hit, no-run ball and fanned seven with no walks: all melding to produce a Game Score of 75, which is tied for the highest for any Opening Day starter in Rockies history. Freeland, who came into this affair owning the second highest mark (a 73 for his work in 2019), is now tied with Mike Hampton. That lefty’s 75 came via eight-and-a-third innings of five-hit, no-run ball in 2001.
Kameron Misner’s solo homer to lead off the bottom of the ninth gave the Rays a 3-2 win over the Rockies – the team’s fourth-ever walk-off win in their first game of the year (the fireworks also arrived in 2003, 2010 and 2012). Additionally, Misner’s heroics came in just his ninth career game. In the Division Era, there is a match for this kind of circumstance and experience. In 2022, Arizona’s Seth Beer – playing in his sixth career game – connected on a three-run blast to give the Diamondbacks a 4-2, Opening Day walk-off win.
Charlie Morton made the start for the Orioles and didn’t make it through four innings. But, at 41 years and 136 days old, the right-hander did become the oldest starter for the franchise since Satchel Paige (47 years and 77 days) allowed three runs over seven innings to pick up the win on September 22, 1953.
In the Mets’ win on Friday, Juan Soto homered and walked. The line marked the 100th time Soto has secured at least one of each in a game, which is the second most in the Majors since 2018 (his debut season). Soto’s former teammate – Aaron Judge – has 124 such performances over this specific stretch. Howard Johnson (1991) and Michael Conforto (2019) share the high mark for the most such games in any Mets season, 19. Last season, Soto had 24 such games. Soto’s 100 have come in 938 career contests. All-time, that’s a top-10 mark:
Through a Player’s First 938 Games, Most With a HR & BB
139 Aaron Judge
131 Babe Ruth
116 Ralph Kiner
115 Frank Thomas
113 Ted Williams
108 Adam Dunn
101 Ryan Howard
100 Eddie Mathews
100 Juan Soto
98 Harmon Killebrew
Fernando Tatis, Jr. homered to lead off the first in San Diego’s 4-3 victory, his 12th career longball to start the game. The 26-year-old is already the franchise’s all-time leader in this category, ahead of Will Venable and his 10. Looking at all franchises, his dozen are not as notable for his age.
Most HRs to Lead Off the Game – Through Age-26 season
34 Ronald Acuña, Jr.
25 Hanley Ramírez
21 Grady Sizemore
20 Barry Bonds
20 Mookie Betts
A day after driving in four runs, San Diego’s Jackson Merrill decided to fill up a different box, going 3-for-4. The 21-year-old has 15 career games with at least three knocks.
Padres History: Most Games with 3+ Hits Before Turning 22
16 Roberto Alomar
15 Jackson Merrill
12 Derrel Thomas
10 Fernando Tatis, Jr.
1901-2025: Most Games with 3+ Hits Before Turning 22
53 Ty Cobb
51 Al Kaline
47 Buddy Lewis
43 Freddie Lindstrom
43 Mel Ott
39 Ken Griffey, Jr.
Eugenio Suárez cranked out his second and third homers of the year in the Diamondbacks’ 8-1 win over the Cubs. The third baseman is the second player in the franchise’s history to have at least three through the club’s first two games, after Luis Gonzalez and his three in 2001.
Jeffrey Springs worked six scoreless frames and picked up the win as the Athletics blanked the Mariners, 7-0. The southpaw’s work came a day after Luis Severino also threw six innings of no-run ball. The club last saw its first two starters of the year each finish with no runs allowed in 2014, when Sonny Gray and Scott Kazmir provided the pitching punch. That’s the only other occurrence of this type for the franchise in its entire history.
Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.
Roger Schlueter
As Sr. Editorial Director for Major League Baseball Productions from 2004-2015, Roger served as a hub for hundreds of hours of films, series, documentaries and features: as researcher, fact-checker, script doctor, and developer of ideas. The years at MLB Production gave him the ideal platform to pursue what galvanized him the most – the idea that so much of what takes place on the field during the MLB regular and postseason (and is forever beautifully condensed into a box score) has connections to what has come before. Unearthing and celebrating these webs allows baseball to thrive, for the present can come alive and also reignite the past.