Since Dave Roberts started steering the Dodgers in 2016, the club owns the Majors’ best overall winning percentage at .628. For all this says about the franchise’s sustained brilliance, the team has – in the aggregate – needed a little bit of runway to soar. Over this 10-season stretch, Los Angeles is 143-107 through April 30, for a .572 winning percentage that dims a little bit against their overall mark, but still displays evidence of their relative superiority across the Majors. Only the Mets, with a .576 in March/April since 2016, have raced out of the gate to a better percentage.
The Dodgers banged out 17 hits – with seven of them going for extra bases – in a 12-7 win against the Marlins.
~The previous game, Los Angeles had 18 knocks. Since 1901, these back-to-back efforts marked the 20th time the club has had at least 17 hits in consecutive games and the first time it’s occurred since 2011. The 1996 club produced a three-game streak with at least 17 hits, while in 1923, Brooklyn struck for a four-game streak. That four-game streak ties for the longest in the modern era, with the 1930 Cardinals and 1936 Indians also producing four-game runs.
~Los Angeles will enter May with the NL’s best slugging percentage at .462. In the Dodger Stadium era (since 1962), this is a top five mark for the franchise at the close of April. The 1977 club posted a .505, with the 2015 (.486), 2000 (.471) and 2019 (.464) versions following before the 2025 team appears.
~The Dodgers enter May 1 with a 21-10 record: a .677 winning percentage that ties them with the Mets for the best in the Majors and is the club’s best through April since the 2012 team strode into May with a 16-7 record (.696).
~Teoscar Hernández contributed a double, two singles and an RBI to the cause and closed out his first month-plus with 32 RBI and 18 extra-base hits. The first number ties the Dodgers’ outfielder with Aaron Judge for the Major League lead, while the second ties him with Judge and two others for the third most across all 30 teams. And thus, we have a pair of players in 2025 to reach those two numbers by the end of April.
1901-2025: 18+ XBH & 32+ RBI through April 30
2025 Teoscar Hernández & Aaron Judge
2019 Cody Bellinger & Christian Yelich
2014 José Abreu
2007 Álex Rodríguez
2006 Albert Pujols
1998 Mark McGwire
Aaron Judge concluded his first month-plus with a 3-for-3, one-walk, one-homer effort that shifted his slash line to .427/.521/.761/1.282. In the modern era, Judge is one of a dozen players to reach the end of an April with at least 75 plate appearances and a .400/.500/.700 line.
~Judge is the first to do this since Mike Trout in 2021.
~Judge is one of two Yankees on the list, along with Paul O’Neill in 1994 (O’Neill was at .448/.543/.806/1.349).
~Judge is tied with Rico Carty (1970) for 10th when arranging from the highest to lowest OPS. Barry Bonds, with his otherworldly 1.828 in 2004, has the highest.
~The seven other player-seasons that haven’t been mentioned: Rico Petrocelli (1969), Tony Pérez (1970), Ron Cey (1977), Eddie Murray (1982), Barry Bonds (1993), Larry Walker (1997) and Cody Bellinger (2019).
The Mariners defeated the Angels to improve to 18-12 (.600) for the year. This opening stretch gives the club its best winning percentage through the end of April since the 2003 team played .630 ball. There are only three* other examples of the Mariners entering May with a .600 or better mark. In 2001, the team was 20-5 (.800) and the year after, they played .692 ball (18-8). The 1996 team began with a 16-10 mark, for a .615 winning percentage.
*The 1995 team was 3-1 (.750), but that’s hardly countable.
Chris Sale racked up his 20th career game with double digit strikeouts against no walks. He’s the eighth pitcher in the modern era to get there:
36 Randy Johnson
30 Max Scherzer
27 Curt Schilling, Clayton Kershaw
22 Gerrit Cole
21 Roger Clemens
20 Justin Verlander, Chris Sale
Fernando Tatis, Jr. singled three times in San Diego’s win over San Francisco and closed out his April with a 1.011 OPS (third best in the Majors, second best in the NL). There are 11 other Padres to enter May 1 with at least 75 plate appearances and an OPS above 1.000, including Hall of Famers Dave Winfield (1975, 1979) and Tony Gwynn (1984, 1999), the only names to appear twice.
Michael King recorded his fourth win of the year after allowing a run in five-and-two-thirds innings. The Padres right-hander is one of 12 pitchers in the franchise’s history to finish April with at least four wins; among them, his 2.09 ERA is bettered only by his current teammate Nick Pivetta, who is 5-1 with a 1.78 this year. Dating back to the start of the liveball era in 1920, there were – before the 2025 Padres – a dozen teams to feature a pair of pitchers with four-plus wins and an ERA no higher than 2.09 at the end of April.
1928 Browns Sam Gray and Jack Ogden
1963 Cardinals Curt Simmons and Ray Washburn
1969 Braves Phil Niekro and George Stone
1984 Dodgers Rick Honeycutt and Alejandro Peña
1992 Pirates Randy Tomlin and Zane Smith
2005 Marlins Josh Beckett and Dontrelle Willis
2010 Giants Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito
2011 Angels Dan Haren and Jered Weaver
2012 Cardinals Kyle Lohse and Lance Lynn
2016 White Sox Mat Latos and Chris Sale
2018 Astros Charlie Morton and Justin Verlander
2022 Blue Jays Adam Cimber and Alek Manoah
2025 Padres Michael King and Nick Pivetta
José Ramírez was 2-for-4 with a double and his sixth steal of the year. The 32-year-old, who now needs one stolen base to join the 250-homer, 250-steal club, has 76 career games with at least one stolen base and at least one extra-base hit. For the Cleveland franchise, only Kenny Lofton produced more such lines (94).
Royals left-hander Noah Cameron completed his Major League debut with six-and-a-third scoreless innings, surrendering one hit (but five walks) to pocket his milestone win. By Game Score, Noah reached a 69.
~Cameron is one of 156 pitchers in the modern era to start and win his Major League debut while going at least six innings and allowing no runs. He’s one of five Royals representatives, after Rich Gale (1978), Derek Botelho (1982), Jimmy Gobble (2003) and Eric Skoglund (2017).
~Cameron’s 69 Game Score comes in as the sixth best for a Royal in his debut. Craig Chamberlain (CG, 6 Hits, 1 R, 6 K’s) posted a 75 on August 12, 1979 for the best score.
Bobby Witt, Jr. went 2-for-4 and extended his hit streak to 21 games to match Rey Sánchez (2001) and José Guillén (2010) for the fifth longest single-season streak in Royals history.
Kyle Tucker drove in a run to push his RBI tally to 27 – since 1901, the second most for any Cub entering May. In 2005, Derrek Lee drove in 28 runs.
Nathan Eovaldi fanned eight with no walks and now has 46 K’s against three bases on balls for the year. Of the 4,324 pitchers since 1901 to have at least five starts through any April, there are 22, now that Eovaldi is part of the mix, who’ve accompanied their close to this part of the season with a K:BB ratio of at least 15. Corbin Burnes, thanks to his 49 whiffs and zero free passes in 2021, is the king of this collection.
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.