Game Notes – 05/18/2025

More than a century ago, a 22-year-old right-hander named Eddie Stack signed his name into the Major League register.  His debut came in front of the home fans at Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl and had the Cubs as the invited guests.  This was the Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance Cubs (although Evers was out of the lineup on this Tuesday); this was the first place Cubs; this was the “We’re on our way to our fourth pennant in five seasons” Cubs.  This was a formidable opponent for any pitcher, let alone one facing a Major League roster for the first time in his life.  And then Eddie Stack had a burst of a moment in a big league career that would produce few of them:  a three-hit shutout in a taut 1-0 affair.  

The Phillies defeated the Pirates, 1-0.

~Making his Major League debut, Mick Abel worked six innings for the win.  The 23-year-old fanned nine while issuing no walks.   

*Since 1901, Abel is one of 25 starters to come away with a win in a 1-0 affair in his Major League debut.  Abel is one of three Phillies to do this, along with Eddie Stack in 1910 and Hal Kelleher in 1935.  Before Abel, Houston’s Hunter Brown in 2022 had been the last to make this list.

*Abel is one of 34 starting pitchers in the modern era to have his debut feature no runs and no walks and the first Phillies representative among this near three dozen.  Abel’s nine K’s tie for the most in this collection, with Nick Kingham (for the Pirates in 2018) and Shota Imanaga (for the Cubs in 2024) also having rung that many up.

*For all Phillies in their debuts since 1901, Abel and Curt Simmons (September 28, 1947) are tied for the most strikeouts.

~Paul Skenes took the loss, working all eight innings for the first complete game of his career.  It had been 24 years since a Pirates starter absorbed a complete game loss in a 1-0 contest, with Todd Ritchie on May 25, 2001 being the most recent before Skenes.  There are 116 of these instances for the Pirates in the modern era, with Wilbur Cooper’s 10 the most.  

~The Pirates have been blanked eight times this season, the most through 47 games in the modern era for the franchise.  The previous high, seven, was first established in 1910 and matched in 1954, 1955, 1961, 1985 and 2010.

Seiya Suzuki drove in two runs to raise his tally to 39 RBI for the year – second in the NL.  Suzuki’s Cubs teammates Pete Crow-Armstrong (38 RBI, third) and Kyle Tucker (33, tied for 10th) also make an appearance on this leaderboard.  In the modern era, three Cubs have had at least 33 RBI through 47 games on two occasions, aside from this year:

1929     Charlie Grimm (42), Hack Wilson (41), Rogers Hornsby (35)

1954     Hank Sauer (48), Ernie Banks (34), Randy Jackson (34)

Rafael Devers hit his sixth career slam and tied Jim Tabor and Ellis Burks for 13th on Boston’s all-time list in the category.  A seventh would match Devers with Jimmie Foxx, Jackie Jensen, Carl Yastrzemski, Mo Vaughn, Manny Ramírez and Xander Bogaerts.

Batting cleanup, Cody Bellinger singled, doubled and homered, drew a pair of walks and drove in six to propel the Yankees to an 8-2 victory over the Mets.

~Bellinger’s big blow – an eighth inning slam – marked the ninth time in his career he’s gone deep with the bases loaded.  He’s tied for third most among active players, with Aaron Judge and Javier Báez also having nine.  Manny Machado (12) and Giancarlo Stanton (11) are in the 1-2 spots.  

~Bellinger produced the 16th game by a Yankees cleanup hitter that has sparkled with at least six RBI and at least five times on base.  Del Pratt (1920) produced the first such line, while Didi Gregorius (2018) had been the most recent contributor before Bellinger and his big night.  There’s only one name that comes up more than once:  Joe DiMaggio, who had four such performances.  DiMaggio’s four represent the most for any #4 hitter since 1901, with Jim Bottomley the only other player with even three of these lines (all three of Bottomley’s came as a member of the Cardinals).

CJ Abrams homered to lead off the game and later added a second four-bagger and a double to his line as the Nationals left Sunday with a 10-4 victory.  

~The shortstop has 11 career leadoff homers, third most in Expos/Nationals history, behind Brad Wilkerson’s 15 and Trea Turner’s 14.  Four of Abrams’ 11 have come this season, which ties him with Francisco Lindor and Oneil Cruz for the most in the Majors.  

~Abrams is now slashing .312/.368/.574/.942 for the year, with all 156 of his plate appearances coming from the top spot in the lineup.  For all Expos/Nationals with at least 400 plate appearances in a season batting leadoff, there are two examples of that player posting an OPS of at least .900 in the role:  Alfonso Soriano and his .956 in 2006 and Wilkerson and his .916 in 2004.

Cincinnati’s Will Benson extended his longball streak to four with a multi-dinger effort.  No Red has produced a longer streak since Joey Votto established the franchise record with home runs in seven straight in 2021.

Freddy Peralta limited the Twins to three hits and a run across five innings and came away with a win that put an end to Minnesota’s 13-game winning streak.  Peralta has limited batters to a lifetime .205 average, the lowest among all active pitchers with at least 100 starts.  Clayton Kershaw owns the second lowest mark (.210) among the cohort, with Jacob deGrom, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow right behind at .211.

St Louis’ Brendan Donovan was 4-for-5 with a double.  Donovan leads the NL with 58 hits and his 15 doubles are second in the league.  For Cardinals in the NL’s expansion era (since 1962), these two numbers have been reached or surpassed through 47 team games six other times:

1979    Keith Hernadez      60 & 15

1991    Félix José               61 & 17

2002    Fernando Viña        58 & 15

2003    Édgar Rentería       62 & 15

2005    Albert Pujols            61 & 15

2022    Paul Goldschmidt   62 & 16

Yusei Kikuchi surrendered a run in five-and-two-thirds innings, but like in his previous nine starts, came away without a win.  This effort and the sequence of his no-decision marked the third time this season Kikuchi has been in line for a win when he exited the contest but the bullpen blew the chance; those three tie for the most in the Majors (Kikuchi’s teammate José Soriano is one of six others with three).  More broadly, Kikuchi is one of 29 pitchers in the liveball era who’ve accumulated at least 10 starts and 50.0 innings but no wins through 45 team games.  As might be imagined, there are more pitchers with an ERA of at least 5.00 on the list (17) than below.  Organized by ERA, the five lowest look like this:

1.46    Jeff Samardzija for the 2014 Cubs (0-4)

3.50    Yusei Kikuchi for the 2025 Angels (0-4)

3.71    Kevin Millwood for the 2010 Orioles (0-4)

4.08    Cal Eldred for the 1998 Brewers (0-3)

4.33    Bob Forsch for the 1976 Cardinals (0-1)

Merrill Kelly scripted a line featuring 11 strikeouts and a hit over seven scoreless frames and came away the winner in Arizona’s 1-0 squeaker against Colorado.  There have been a dozen outings from a Diamondbacks hurler that saw domination in the form of 11+ K’s, no runs and no more than one hit allowed.  Kelly is responsible for the two most recent.  Ian Kennedy also had two for Arizona, which saw Randy Johnson produce four and Curt Schilling get there on three occasions.  Partrick Corbin produced one such game.

Bryan Woo allowed a run on five hits and no walks in seven innings and picked up the win as Seattle took care of San Diego, 6-1.  The right-hander is one of 91 pitchers in the Majors with at least 30 starts since the beginning of 2024.  He is top-10 in the following categories:

WHIP     Woo’s 0.888 is second lowest (behind his teammate, Logan Gilbert)

ERA       Woo’s 2.82 is seventh lowest

H/9         Woo’s 6.94 is ninth lowest

BB/9       Woo’s 1.06 is lowest

K:BB      Woo’s 7.43 is second best (behind his teammate, George Kirby)

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