Game Notes – 04/13/2025

On May 1, 1966, Cleveland’s Sam McDowell went the distance on a one-hitter to defeat the White Sox, 1-0.  The gem lowered the left-hander’s ERA to 1.55 and raised his shutout tally to two.  The next time Cleveland played a ballgame, on May 3, the outcome looked familiar, thanks to Luis Tiant and his four-hitter in a 1-0 win against the Yankees.  The next day brought the Indians a 2-1 win (via a six-hitter from Sonny Siebert) and then the next, ho hum, another shutout.  When that 4-0 win on May 5 was in the books, Cleveland pitching had reached a level that remains a pinnacle for a club a couple of weeks into its season:  15 contests in, a 1.29 ERA, six of their wins coming when the staff blanked the opponent.  

San Diego’s Michael King spun a two-hit shutout as the Padres blanked the Rockies, 6-0.  

~Since 2021, when Joe Musgrove produced the first no-hitter in Padres history, San Diego starting pitching has three nine-inning shutouts on two-or-fewer hits (with Dylan Cease matching Musgrove’s no-hitter).  Now that King has added his contribution, San Diego’s three are tied for the second most for any franchise over this span.  The full view of those with at least two since 2021:

Yankees (4):      Gerrit Cole (2), Corey Kluber and Domingo Germán

Padres (3):        Joe Musgrove, Dylan Cease and Michael King

Phillies (3):        Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Michael Lorenzen

White Sox (2):   Carlos Rodón and Dylan Cease

Astros (2):         Framber Valdez and Ronel Blanco

Angels (2):        Reid Detmers and Shohei Ohtani

Giants (2):         Anthony DeSclafani and Blake Snell

Cardinals (2):    Adam Wainwright and Jordan Montgomery       

~The Padres have six team shutouts this season – tied for the most in the modern era for any franchise through its first 16 games of the year.  In 1966, the Indians had six.  Before 2025, the most for any Padres club at this exact point had been three, in six different years.  

~The Padres swept the three-game set against the Rockies:  8-0, 2-0, 6-0.  On two other occasions, San Diego has blanked its opponent in at least three straight.  In 1984, they had a four-game run (two against the Dodgers and two against the Astros) and in 1988 they had a three-game stretch (two versus the Astros and one versus the Cardinals).

Behind Kodai Senga’s seven scoreless innings, the Mets shut out the Athletics, 8-0.  New York leads the Majors with a 2.30 ERA – a value through 15 games that’s been bettered only twice in franchise history.  The 1968 club had a 1.67 after 15 contests and the 1970 team had a 2.17 at that stage.  For the entirety of the liveball era, the 2025 Mets tie for the 66th lowest through 15 games, matched with the 1920 Reds, 1941 Indians, 1972 Athletics and 1994 Braves.  That aforementioned 1966 Cleveland club owns the lowest – a 1.29.

Gaining his first victory of the year, Royals’ lefty Cole Ragans rang up 10 strikeouts and issued no walks.  

~Ragans has reached double-digits in strikeouts while permitting no walks three times in his Royals career – the second most for any Kansas City pitcher.  Zack Greinke posted five outings that fit the bill.

~Ragans has struck out at least 10 batters in three consecutive appearances, matching Kevin Appier (1996) for the longest streak in Royals history.

~In his previous start, Ragans fanned 11 with no free passes.  Thus, he’s one of 40 pitchers since 1901 to have – within the framework of a single season – consecutive outings showcasing a line with 10+ strikeouts and no walks.  Some artifacts from a deeper dig into this collection:

*Atlanta’s Spencer Schwellenbach had been the most recent pitcher to do this, with two in a row in July/August of 2024.  

*There are three pitchers to author a streak three games long:  Chris Archer in 2015, Clayton Kershaw in both 2015 and 2016 and Gerrit Cole in 2021.

*Kershaw, Ragans and seven other left-handers populate this list of 40.  In order, from the oldest to most recent, the others:  David Wells (1998), Randy Johnson (2000), Johan Santana (2005), Cole Hamels (2010), Chris Sale (2019), Carlos Rodón (2021) and Nick Lodolo (2022).  

*In September of 1905, Cy Young was the first pitcher in the modern era to do this.  Before the Divisional Era dawned in 1969, there were only two others to join Young:  Dazzy Vance in 1930 and Camilo Pascual in 1962.  

*Aside from Kershaw, these pitchers show up more than once among the 40:  Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Curt Schilling.

*Ragans is the only Royals hurler on the list.

Taylor Ward homered to lead off the game – the 10th time in his career he’s opened a first inning by putting one in the seats.  Those 10 match with him Kole Calhoun for the third most in Angels history and also extends a stretch that has seen him pop a leadoff homer seven times across his past 43 games (he struck five times in 2024 between August 30 and the end of the year and now has two early on in 2025).  

Jung Hoo Lee cracked his second and third home runs of the year and ended the game – the Giants’ 15th of the year – with 12 extra-base hits for the season (he’s tied for the NL lead with eight doubles).  Those 12 through 15 team games represent the most for the franchise since Barry Bonds had 14 in 2004.  The dozen through 15 also give the outfielder a significant place for the franchise in the modern era:

Most XBH Through 15 Team Games – Giants Since 1901

14    Barry Bonds (2004)

13    George Kelly (1921), Willie Mays (1964)

12    Orlando Cepeda (1959), Willie McCovey (1960), Bobby Bonds (1971, 1973), Kevin Mitchell (1989),                  Barry Bonds (1993), Glenallen Hill (1995), Jung Hoo Lee (2025)

Facing his former club, Garrett Crochet lost a bid for a perfect game in the sixth (thanks to a leadoff walk) and then fell in his no-hit bid when he surrendered a one-out single in the eighth.  The southpaw finished with 11 strikeouts against a run, a hit and a walk against the White Sox and thus, etched his name alongside eight other Red Sox pitchers to submit a line featuring that many whiffs and so few hits.  Fellow lefties Jon Lester and Chris Sale each had a pair of these efforts, as did righties Smoky Joe Wood, Pedro Martínez and Hideo Nomo.  In the singles category, Crochet joins left-hander Roger Moret and right-handers Ray Culp and Nick Pivetta.

Keibert Ruiz added a couple of knocks to his soaring start to the year, advancing his year-long hit tally to 19.  Cruz’s 19 hits through 15 team games – all while inked into the order as Washington’s catcher – are tied for the 57th most for a backstop through that many contests.  24 hits stands as the high bar for this set of standards, a tally most recently reached by Victor Martinez in 2006.  For Expos/Nationals catchers, only Iván Rodríguez – with 20 in 2010 – had more.

Right-hander Hunter Greene completed his day with seven innings of two-hit ball as his Reds blanked the Pirates, 4-0.  Since a ho-hum Opening Day start, Greene has been nearly unscored upon (one run in three starts over 22.2 IP) and now carries a 0.98 ERA into his next trial.  For all Reds pitchers in the liveball era who had four starts at this stage of the year (through 16 team games), he’s the second, after Bucky Walters in 1944, to own an ERA that dips below 1.00.  In that season so long ago, Walters had a 0.92 in five starts and 49.0 innings.  

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