Game Notes – 04/10/2025

When Rennie Stennett tied the Major League record for hits in a nine-inning game, his seven came out of the leadoff spot.  When he tied the modern era record for triples in a game, Lance Johnson struck his three when batting at the top of the order.  When they tied the Major League record for extra-base hits in a game, Matt Carpenter and Shohei Ohtani whopped their five while hitting first.  Every spot down the lineup card will have its share of notable, memorable, unmatched lines, but when those lightning bolts come from the top spot, they seem to have a little extra zip and zazz.  

In a power-laden 11-1 victory, Angels leadoff hitter Taylor Ward homered twice as part of a three-hit, three RBI showcase.

~Ward has nine home runs to lead off a game – tied with Tony Phillips for the fourth most in club history.  Brian Downing had 19, Darin Erstad tallied 12, and Kole Calhoun amassed 10.  

~Ward put together the 22nd multi-homer game from the Angels’ leadoff spot.  With one already on his ledger (in April of 2022), the 31-year-old is one of four to have multiple appearances on this list.  Darin Erstad produced four of them; Brian Downing and Luis Rengifo each come in with three.

~Ward posted the 71st three-hit, three-RBI (or more of each) game for an Angels leadoff hitter.  Erstad is responsible for the most of these lines out of the top spot, eight.  

Aside from Ward, Mike Trout and Jo Adell also had multi-homer efforts.  This is the third instance of the team seeing three in the lineup each whack two homers; all have come with a different set of characters.  The previous two:

July 14, 1990:    Dante Bichette, Brian Downing, Dave Winfield

April 21, 2000:   Troy Glaus, Tim Salmon, Mo Vaughn

Trout has 27 career multi-homer games, far and away the most for the franchise – Tim Salmon and Vladimir Guerrero are tied for second, with 20.  

Adell did his all longball damage in the same inning (the fifth) to become the third player in the franchise’s history to check that feat off the list.  On April 30, 1966, Rick Reichardt homered twice in the eighth inning.  On July 30, 2012, Kendrys Morales hit his two in the sixth inning.

Steven Kwan went 4-for-5 with four RBI to lead the Guardians to a 6-1 victory over the White Sox.  Kwan’s line represents the 19th time a Cleveland leadoff hitter had at least four of each and the first of its kind since Francisco Lindor did it in 2018.  Kenny Lofton produced five of the 19 occurrences (the most for the franchise), while Lindor and Dale Mitchell each had two.

Colorado leadoff hitter Brenton Doyle hit a first-inning homer in the club’s 7-2 win over the Brewers – the first part of a stellar day that saw the center fielder drive in five runs.  The five RBI from the leadoff spot can’t quite boast of being the best output from a Rockies #1 batter; that claim belongs to Ronnie Belliard, who drove in eight in September of 2003.   Those eight had been – until September of 2024 – tied for the most for any team’s leadoff hitter in the modern era.  Last year, on September 19, Shohei Ohtani drove in 10.  

Since 1993, when the Rockies and Marlins joined the MLB festivities, Colorado’s leadoff hitters have produced 104 longballs to start the game, a tally that ranks 22nd in the Majors (the Astros are first, with 157 while the Royals lag at the back end, with 76).  

Phillies’ leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber hit his sixth homer of the year (alas, not in the first inning).  Schwarber’s six are as good as almost everyone in the modern era has done for the club through 12 games:

1901-2025:  Most HRs Through the Phillies’ First 12 Games

11    Mike Schmidt (1976)

6      Dolph Camilli (1935), Johnny Moore (1935), Dick Allen (1964), Jimmy Rollins (2007), Chase Utley                   (2010), Kyle Schwarber (2025)

Flipping around all this attention paid to all the good that leadoff hitters did on Thursday, Milwaukee’s Brice Turang – hitting in the top spot – went 0-for-5 to end his hitting streak at 12 games.  Thus, Turang fell short of matching the Brewers’ record for the longest hitting streak to start a season, held by Dickie Thon and his 13-game run in 1993.

Spencer Schwellenbach allowed a run in six innings to get the Braves started in what turned out to be a 4-2 win in 11 innings.  The run was the first he allowed this season.  

~The right-hander has opened the year with three straight starts featuring at least six innings and no more than a run allowed.  Since 1901, the Braves’ franchise has seen 11 pitchers open their season with at least three consecutive outings like this, with Schwellenbach now tied for the fourth longest.  In 2014, Aaron Harang opened his season with five in a row and just last year, Reynaldo López began with four straight.  In 2007, Tim Hudson also started the season with four in a row.

~Schwellenbach owns a 0.45 ERA in 20.0 innings.  Among all Braves pitchers since 1920 to have at least three starts through the team’s first 12 games (there are 252 of them), that ERA is the sixth lowest.  In 1920, Dana Fillingim posted a 0.00 (although there were six unearned runs as part of his 36.0 innings).  93 years later, Paul Maholm also posted a 0.00, in 20.1 innings.  In between those two:

1920    Joe Oeschger had a 0.33 in 54.2 IP 

1980    Rick Matula posted a 0.42 in 21.1 IP

1994    Greg Maddux had a 0.35 in 26.0 IP

Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.