On April 22, 1983, George Brett, batting genius, stroked a double as his Royals improved to 7-4 on the year. The two-base hit gave the future Hall of Famer nine doubles to go along with four home runs and gave him more extra-base hits through his club’s first 11 games than any other player in the modern era. With the stretch, the Royals’ icon had surpassed a couple of other all-timers, Billy Herman and Frank Robinson, who each had produced 12 (33 years apart, in 1936 and 1969, respectively). Brett would gain a couple of partners over the next run of years, with Barry Bonds tallying 13 in 1988 and Dante Bichette matching in 1994. And there the three stood, unsurpassed or equaled until 2006. It wasn’t Albert Pujols in his prime or Joe Mauer in his ascent or the slugging Travis Hafner or do-everything Carlos Beltrán or on-his-way-to-58 homers Ryan Howard who sped past the trio; no, it was Chris Shelton, who from the start of the year, decided to personify whatever images “greatest slugger of ‘em all” might generate. Five doubles, three triples, seven home runs. 15 extra-base hits through his team’s first 11 contests: more than any immortal, more than any bottler of lightning. The most, then and now.
Spencer Torkelson doubled and homered in the Tigers’ 5-0 win over the Yankees, raising his extra-base hit total for the year to eight in 11 games. The 25-year-old is the 21st Tiger to produce at least eight through the team’s first 11 affairs and the first to get to this height since Prince Fielder had eight in 2013. On the franchise list, Torkelson and Fielder and 18 others (all of whom had eight or nine) take a back seat to the aforementioned Chris Shelton.
Making his third start of the year, Tarik Skubal resembled the Cy Young Award winner he was in 2024. With six frames of six-strikeout, no-walk, four-hit ball, Skubal furnished his seventh start since the beginning of last year that featured no runs in at least six innings. Those seven in 2024-2025 are tied for the third most in the Majors:
9 Bryce Miller
8 Framber Valdez
7 Dylan Cease, Nestor Cortes, Zac Gallen, Logan Gilbert, Hunter Greene, Tarik Skubal, Logan Webb, Zack Wheeler
Cole Ragans fanned 11 and issued not a single walk in the Royals’ 2-1 win over the Twins.
~The southpaw now has two of the seven examples of a Kansas City hurler reaching that many strikeouts and keeping the walks to zero, with his other line coming in 2023. Luke Hochevar struck out 13 on July 25, 2009, the most K’s in a walk-less performance for the franchise. The others to appear: Zack Greinke in 2010 (12 K’s), Felipe Paulino in 2011 (11), Mike Montgomery in 2019 (12) and Seth Lugo in 2024 (12).
~The left-hander has made 47 starts for the Royals and has reached double-digits in K’s in seven of them. Those seven tie him with Dennis Leonard for the sixth most in franchise history. A look at the whole top group with a focus on their percentages of double-digit strikeout games:
| Pitcher | 10+ K Games With KC | Total GS With KC | % |
| Kevin Appier | 21 | 275 | 7.6 |
| Zack Greinke | 9 | 222 | 4.1 |
| Bret Saberhagen | 8 | 226 | 3.5 |
| Mark Gubicza | 8 | 327 | 2.4 |
| Tom Gordon | 8 | 144 | 5.6 |
| Dennis Leonard | 7 | 302 | 2.3 |
| Cole Ragans | 7 | 47 | 14.9 |
Nolan Jones drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth to give the Guardians a 1-0 win over the White Sox. This walk-off walk is the first of this season and the first to come in a 1-0 win since May 1, 2009, when Russell Martin drew the pass and the Dodgers defeated the Padres. Cleveland had last won on a game-ending walk on May 10, 2011, when Michael Brantley was the patient hero. The franchise’s last with the score at 0-0 at the time of the “ball four, we all go home” moment had come on June 16, 1989, when Pete O’Brien got the best of Tom Gordon.
In his second career appearance, Shane Smith surrendered a pair of hits over six scoreless innings. The White Sox righty is one of two hurlers for the franchise to post a line so early into his career featuring at least six innings of no-run ball with no more than two hits allowed. The previous author – Wilson Álvarez – did Smith a whole lot better, spinning a no-hitter in his second game, on August 11, 1991.
Carlos Santana singled twice to reach 1,800 career hits. He’s one of 408 players with at least that many knocks, but one of just 26 within that collection to pair all those hits with a walk percentage of at least 14.5. For a little bit of context, the last 10 players to retire with these numbers and percentages: Joey Votto, Jason Giambi, Bobby Abreu, Lance Berkman, Jim Thome, Brian Giles, Frank Thomas, Barry Bonds, Jeff Bagwell and Edgar Martínez.
Behind Nick Lodolo (6.0 IP, 3 H), the Reds blanked the Giants, 1-0. The day before, Cincinnati defeated San Francisco, 2-0. The last time the Reds had back-to-back shutouts in which their offense contributed no more than two runs, the staff was shutting down Eddie Mathews and Henry Aaron while Frank Robinson and Pete Rose were in the Cincinnati lineup. On May 21, 1963, Jim Maloney fell two outs short of a complete game but did fan 16 and the Reds took down the Braves, 2-0 (Robinson drove in both runs, Aaron and Mathews were a combined 0-for-7). On May 23, 1963, Jim O’Toole twirled a three-hit shutout (Mathews had one of the hits), Rose and Vada Pinson each scored a run, and the Reds took down the Braves, 2-0.
Kyle Schwarber homered and tripled for the Phillies on Tuesday. The 32-year-old has 455 career extra-base hits, made up of 153 doubles, 13 triples and 289 longballs. He’s one of four players with 250-plus home runs who’ve seen their tally represent at least 63% of their total extra-base hits:
69.3% Mark McGwire
64.6% Harmon Killebrew
63.9% Aaron Judge
63.5% Kyle Schwarber
With another four RBI, Pete Alonso continued his early season run of run production. The first baseman has 15 through the Mets’ first 11 games, a notable tally for the club.
Most RBI Through Mets’ First 11 Games
19 Jeff Kent (1994), John Buck (2013)
15 Dave Kingman (1976), Gary Carter (1986), Darryl Strawberry (1987), Pete Alonso (2019 and 2025)
Easton Lucas put up five-and-a-third scoreless innings and improved to 2-0 as the Blue Jays defeated the Red Sox, 6-1. In his initial appearance this season, the left-hander worked five innings of no-run ball while allowing one hit. Easton is one of two Toronto pitchers to open his season with back-to-back efforts featuring at least five innings and no runs, joining Matt Shoemaker. In 2019, Shoemaker began the year with two straight starts of seven innings and two hits allowed.
The Angels defeated the Rays to improve to 7-3 on the year and equal the club’s best 10-game start ever. The other 7-3 Halos teams: 1970, 1974, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1987, 2018 and 2021.
Kyle Tucker reached safely three times via a double, single and intentional walk. The Cubs’ outfielder has strung together 10 straight games in which he’s reached base at least twice, the longest such streak for the club since Anthony Rizzo had a pair of 10-gamers in 2019. Dating back to 1901, Mark Grace (1998) owns the longest run, at 16 in a row.
Brice Turang homered to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, tied for the second longest streak to open a season in Brewers history. Turang and William Contreras (2023) trail only Dickie Thon and his 13-game start in 1993.
Jacob Wilson went 3-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, tied for the 14th longest in Athletics’ history to open a season. Hank Mejeski owns the longest streak, 19 straight to begin his 1949 campaign.
~Looking way too far ahead, Wilson and Turang are chasing Édgar Rentería (hits in 23 straight in 2006) for the longest hitting streak to open a season this century.
Corbin Carroll homered and scored a pair of runs as the Diamondbacks defeated the Orioles. It’s been quite the start for the 24-year-old, especially in contrast to his 2024.
Carroll’s First 12 Games of the Season
2024: .224/.333/.327 with 3 XBH and 16 TB
2025: .304/.407/.696 with 9 XBH and 32 TB
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.