Game Notes – 04/21/2025

Before he turned 32 years old, Mickey Mantle had 37 career multi-homer games.  At the time, here in this jaunt back to 1963, it wouldn’t have taken but a moment to go through all of the others who could make this claim.  Righty-swinging Jimmie Foxx had produced 53 multi-homer efforts before his 32nd birthday, bat-from-the-left-side Eddie Mathews had turned the trick 43 times, righties Ralph Kiner and Willie Mays 40 times and lefty-batting Mel Ott had managed the exact same number as the switch-hitting Mantle.  And that was it.  Mantle would add a few more demonstrations to his tally, the last coming in his penultimate month in the big leagues.  On August 10, 1968, batting third in the Yankees’ lineup between Roy White and Joe Pepitone, Mantle caught up with a couple of Jim Merritt offerings for his 46th career multi-homer game, still the gold standard for any switch-hitter to ever play the game.  

31-year-old Francisco Lindor homered twice and drove in four to lead the Mets to a 5-4 win against the Phillies.  

~For the second straight game, Lindor opened the first inning with a longball.  The switch-hitter has 23 career leadoff homers, tied with Tommy Harper, Lou Whitaker and Shannon Stewart for the 39th most ever.  After having just two leadoff homers in his first four years with the Mets, Lindor has three this season.  Curtis Granderson – with seven in both 2015 and 2016 – owns the single season record for New York.

~Lindor now has 20 career multi-homer games, third most by any shortstop.  Álex Rodríguez had 33 while handling the position and Ernie Banks had 24.  At 19, Lindor had been tied with Trevor Story.

~Lindor’s 20th multi-homer game also vaulted him into the club of switch-hitters who reached this nice number ending with a zero.  The full list of the 15 to get there:

Most Multi-HR Games, Switch-Hitters

46     Mickey Mantle*

42     Mark Teixeira*

40     Chipper Jones*

38     Carlos Beltrán*

31     Eddie Murray

29     Lance Berkman*

28     Chili Davis

26     José Ramírez*

24     Reggie Smith, Tony Clark

22     Kendrys Morales

21     Nick Swisher

20     Bobby Bonilla, Ken Caminiti, Francisco Lindor*

*Indicates the player had at least 20 before turning 32 years old, like Lindor can claim

In Boston’s annual Patriots Day game, shortstop Trevor Story was one of the batting studs, going 3-for-4 with an RBI.  Story is now slashing .337/.366/.528 for an .894 OPS that is the best for all qualified shortstops in the Majors.  In the divisional era, Boston shortstops reign supreme when it comes to cumulative OPS:  

1969-2025:  Highest OPS at Each Position*

C     .738     Yankees

1B   .843     Cardinals

2B   .754     Astros

3B   .789     Red Sox

SS   .737     Red Sox

LF   .820     Giants

CF   .789     Yankees

RF   .809     Expos/Nationals

*The data set only looks at the 24 franchises playing in 1969.  So the Blue Jays, Mariners, Marlins, Rockies, Diamondbacks and Rays are not considered.

Max Meyer fanned 14 with no walks and no runs allowed and recorded a win as Miami defeated Cincinnati, 6-3.  The righty is the fifth Marlin to reach 14 strikeouts while issuing no walks, after José Fernández in 2014 and 2016, Dan Straily in 2017 and Sandy Alcantara in 2022.  Meyer and Fernández share the extra bond of having allowed no runs in their efforts.  With no regard for walks or any other ancillary stat, the franchise high for K’s in a game remains the sole possession of Ricky Nolasco, who punched out 16 Braves on September 30, 2009.

Hunter Brown worked seven scoreless innings and allowed just a pair of singles to improve to 3-1 on the season.

~The Astros right-hander has thrown at least six innings and allowed no runs in each of his past three outings – tied for the longest streak of its kind for the club.  Don Wilson (1967), J.R. Richard (1980), Roger Clemens (2005) and Roy Oswalt (2008) also produced three-game runs under these criteria.  

~Brown carries a 1.16 ERA through his first five starts of the year.  The mark, which is sixth lowest among qualifiers in the Majors, is also notable for Astros lore.  Among the 161 hurlers with at least five starts through the club’s first 22 games in any season, Brown’s 1.16 rests as the fifth lowest.  Dallas Keuchel posted a 0.73 in 2015 for this title.  Then, Roger Clemens (1.03 in 2005), Pete Harnisch (1.07 in 1991) and Justin Verlander (1.10 in 2018) follow.  

Wilmer Flores cranked his seventh homer of the season – a solo shot in the sixth inning – to aid in the Giants’ 5-2 victory over the Brewers.  Flores now sits with 24 RBI, tied for the NL lead.  Even if he doesn’t do anything to add to his tallies in the homers or RBI departments for the rest of this month, he’s already one of four Giants in the modern era to enter May with at least seven and 24, after Barry Bonds in 1993 and 1996 and Moisés Alou in 2006. 

Jung Hoo Lee collected his 15th extra-base hit of the year – an RBI triple – in San Francisco’s win.  Already, the 26-year-old is one of 11 Giants since 1901 to reach May with at least that many:

19     Kevin Mitchell (1989)

17     Barry Bonds (1993)

16     Bobby Bonds (1973), Barry Bonds (2001)

15     Bobby Bonds (1971), Matt Williams (1993), Barry Bonds (1996), Jeff Kent (1997), Barry Bonds (1998),             Barry Bonds (2004), Jung Hoo Lee (2025) 

José Ramírez homered and singled and drove in four runs as the Guardians took down the Yankees, 6-4.  With the four-bagger, the 32-year-old moved past Tris Speaker and into sole possession of second place for the most extra-base hits (668) in franchise history.  Ramírez now trails Earl Averill in the category by 56.  Some other updates on where the current Cleveland star sits among the ones from the past; Ramírez needs:

~Seven doubles to tie Joe Sewell for fourth

~Nine RBI to tie Speaker for fifth

~20 runs to tie Jim Thome for fifth

~40 hits to tie Ken Keltner for eighth

~77 home runs to tie Thome for first

~137 total bases to tie Speaker for second

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