Dissecting and inspecting any Mariners season through the easily compartmentalized segments of “monthly” splits, the usual suspects dominate the collection for the highest OPS. For the top 10, Álex Rodríguez claims three of the slots, including the very best, a 1.412 in May of 1999. Ken Griffey, Jr. owns two of the others available, with his best, a 1.293, blazing across July of 1996. Four others sparkle on the title belt worn by Edgar Martínez, who owns the second, third, fourth and sixth highest marks, with his personal best – a 1.345 – a product of August in 1995. Right now, with just one more day left in April of 2025, Jorge Polanco shares a penthouse suite with these others, a 1.243 OPS his password to hang out with three of the most iconic and deeply significant players in the franchise’s history.
Jorge Polanco drove in five runs, courtesy of a three-run home run and a two-run jack. The DH has been tearing up pitches lately, posting two doubles, six homers and 13 RBI over his past six games; he’s driven in at least two runs in four straight contests.
~For the year, Polanco is tied for second in the AL with nine homers and owns the second most RBI (25). He’s one of four Mariners to hit those two tallies before May 1, joining Ken Griffey, Jr. in 1997 and 1998 and Mitch Haniger in 2018.
~Polanco’s run of four straight games with two-or-more RBI ties for the longest such streak by a Mariner. Before this productive stretch, it had happened 10 previous times, first by Danny Tartabull in 1986 and most recently by Tom Murphy in 2019.
A month after becoming the 10th team ever to open a game with back-to-back-to-back home runs, the Yankees did it again. The full list now looks like this, as New York is the first club ever to do this multiple times in a season.
| Date | Team | Batters |
| 4/13/1987 | Padres | Marvell Wynne, Tony Gwynn, John Kruk |
| 5/28/2003 | Braves | Rafael Furcal, Mark DeRosa, Gary Sheffield |
| 9/9/2007 | Brewers | Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy, Ryan Braun |
| 5/10/2012 | Orioles | Ryan Flaherty, J.J. Hardy, Nick Markakis |
| 7/21/2017 | D’Backs | David Peralta, AJ Pollock, Jake Lamb |
| 6/10/2019 | D’Backs | Jarrod Dyson, Ketel Marte, David Peralta |
| 6/9/2022 | Twins | Luis Arráez, Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa |
| 10/4/2022 | Mets | Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil |
| 8/31/2024 | Dodgers | Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman |
| 3/29/2025 | Yankees | Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge |
| 4/29/2025 | Yankees | Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge, Ben Rice |
Trent Grisham has led off a game with a home run three times this season, all within the past nine games. For the year, the Yankees have six leadoff blasts, the most in the Majors. The single-season high mark for this out-of-the-box jolt comes in at 15, shared by the 2003 Yankees, 2019 Astros and 2024 Phillies.
The three batters responsible for the three straight longballs to start the first inning – Grisham, Aaron Judge and Ben Rice – are all in the top 10 in the AL in homers, with Judge tied for second (nine) and the other two tied for sixth, with eight. The Yankees franchise has seen three of its players with at least eight round-trippers, 30 games into the year, on two other occasions:
2011 Robinson Canó, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira
2003 Raúl Mondesi, Jorge Posada, Alfonso Soriano
Carlos Rodón (6 IP, 2 R) improved to 4-3 in seven starts. The lefty is one of 55 pitchers in the modern era with at least seven starts before May 1, and one of eight among this collection to have taken a decision in all of his starts. That group looks like this:
1917 Pete Schneider opens 3-4 with a 1.83 ERA
1971 Vida Blue opens 6-1 with a 1.20 ERA
1971 Bill Singer opens 2-5 with a 4.34 ERA
1973 Wilbur Wood opens 5-2 with a 1.30 ERA
1974 Wilbur Wood opens 2-5 with a 5.27 ERA
1974 Jim Bibby opens 5-2 with a 3.78 ERA
2024 Luis Castillo opens 3-4 with a 3.46 ERA
2025 Carlos Rodón opens 4-3 with a 3.43 ERA
Seiya Suzuki doubled and tripled and homered in the Cubs’ 9-0 win over the Pirates – the 533rd player since 1901 to come up a single shy of hitting for the cycle. This scenario is the rarest of the four in which a player knocks out three-quarters of the cycling pursuit. Here are some details for all four outcomes, since 1901:
Single Shy of the Cycle
533 times
Seiya Suzuki is the most recent, on April 29, 2025
10 players did this the most (3 times), including Lou Gehrig
Double Shy
2,073 times
Drew Waters is the most recent, on April 22, 2025
Lou Gehrig did this the most, 15 times
Triple Shy
15,941 times
Junior Caminero is the most recent, on April 29, 2025
Lou Gehrig did this the most, 42 times
Home Run shy
6,182 times
CJ Abrams is the most recent, on April 29, 2025
Paul Waner did this the most, 27 times
Bobby Witt, Jr. went 1-for-3 to extend his hitting streak to 20 games – the eighth Royal to reach 20 or more in a row (in a single season). The shortstop is the first to get there since Whit Merrifield in 2018, when he hit safely in 20 straight.
Five Red Sox hit home runs in a 10-2 demolition of the Blue Jays. A couple of player-specific notes:
~Alex Bregman’s longball – his sixth – gives him 17 extra-base hits for the year, tied for the lead in the AL. Those 17 are also tied for the fourth most for any Red Sox batter through the end of April. In 2018, Mookie Betts had 19 and was matched three years later by J.D. Martinez. Mike Napoli had 18 in 2013 and Rafael Devers amassed 17 in 2023.
~Kristian Campbell added a double with his home run and is slashing .313/.420/.515 for the year. There have been six players since 1901 who – in their first big league season – entered May with at least 75 plate appearances and a .300/.400/.500 slash line. That full list, with Campbell included:
1969 Coco Laboy .377/.424/.610 Playing in his age-28 season
1977 Mitchell Page .366/.435/.683 Playing in his age-25 season
1984 Alvin Davis .369/.453/.769 Playing in his age-23 season
1998 Bob Smith .314/.407/.500 Playing in his age-24 season
2001 Albert Pujols .370/.431/.739 Playing in his age-21 season
2016 Aledmys Díaz .423/.453/.732 Playing in his age-25 season
2025 Kristian Campbell .313/.420/.515 Playing in his age-23 season
Pete Alonso singled, walked and homered to add a significant bit to the Mets’ 8-3 win against the Diamondbacks. In his 30 games, the first baseman is slashing .346/.462/.664/1.126 – a special start, but not quite the best ever (by OPS) for a Met heading into May. Here’s the top producers for each chunk of the calendar.
Highest OPS for a Met in Monthly Splits – Min. 75 PA
March/April: Jeff Kent with a 1.160 in 1994
May: Mike Piazza with a 1.212 in 2000
June: Darryl Strawberry with a 1.209 in 1990
July: Mike Piazza with a 1.268 in 2001
August: David Wright with a 1.172 in 2007
September/October: Mike Piazza with a 1.177 in 1998
Jacob deGrom posted six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and no walks and picked up his first win of the campaign. The right-hander has 16 starts which have featured at least six innings and no walks or runs, a tally that ties him with Babe Adams, Curt Schilling, Chris Sale and Jose Quintana for the 17th most since 1901. The top five looks like this:
44 Greg Maddux
34 Pete Alexander
32 Christy Mathewson
30 Walter Johnson & Zack Greinke
Teoscar Hernández doubled twice, singled twice and drove in four runs to chauffeur the Dodgers to a 15-2 win over the Marlins. The 32-year-old leads the Majors with 31 RBI, the second most for any Dodger since 1901 at the end of April. He’s between Cody Bellinger (37 in 2019) and Ron Cey (29 in 1977). The high mark for any monthly split for any Dodger since 1901 belongs to the bats of Glenn Wright (41 in July, 1930), Duke Snider (41 in August, 1953) and Frank Howard (41 in July, 1962).
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.