Currently, Édgar Rentería ranks in a tie with Chris Coghlan for 43rd on the all-time Marlins games played list, with 393. Despite that relatively minimal participation, the 1997 Fall Classic hero ranks first on the franchise’s list when it comes to walk-off hits, with seven (and that’s NOT counting his World Series-ending single in ’97). A lot of memories can be generated in a short amount of time, in other words. The same might be said for the Marlins’ latest walk-off hero, Jesús Sánchez, who has played in the 29th most games in franchise history but is already tied for the fifth most walk-off knocks.
Jesús Sánchez opened the bottom of the first with a homer and closed the contest with a two-run, walk-off triple in the ninth: an historic bookending within the Marlins’ franchise that gave the team an 8-7 victory over the Cubs.
~ Sánchez is the second player in franchise history to produce both a first-inning leadoff homer and a walk-off hit, after Hanley Ramírez on August 7, 2010. In that win, Ramírez doubled in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th.
~ Sánchez is the second player in franchise history to produce a walk-off triple with the team trailing at the time of contact. On July 14, 2022, Brian Anderson turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win in the bottom of the 11th.
~ Sánchez is the second player in the divisional era to open the bottom of the first with a homer and close the contest with a walk-off triple. On May 28, 2012, Dexter Fowler did this trick for the Rockies.
~Immediately after Sánchez began the first with a homer, Agustín Ramírez went yard as well. Before this 1-2 opener, the Marlins had last seen their first two batters of a game go deep a little less than a year ago (June 19, 2024), when Sánchez followed a leadoff homer from Bryan De La Cruz. Before last year, it had last happened in 2010 when Cameron Maybin and Logan Morrison opened the festivities with this particular display of fireworks.
Miguel Amaya drove in five runs while homering and doubling in the Cubs’ loss. It’s the second time this season Amaya – when catching – has produced a line showing at least five RBI and at least two extra-base hits. His partner in catching duties, Carson Kelly, also has two such lines this year. The two are two of seven catchers for the franchise since 1901 to have multiple games like this in a season, after Gabby Hartnett (1930 and 1931), Bob O’Farrell (1923), Jody Davis (1986) and Geovany Soto (2008). The four games this season are the most for any Cubs team since 1901 and tied for the most by any team since 1901. In 1951, the Dodgers had four, all courtesy of Roy Campanella.
William Contreras doubled twice, singled twice and drew a walk as the on-base star in a Milwaukee win. He’s one of eight catchers in Brewers history to have a perfect day at the plate with at least five plate appearances and the first to do this since Jonathan Lucroy in 2013. Contreras also added a steal to his line – he’s one of three among the aforementioned collection to have that category checked off, along with Charlie Moore in 1980 and B.J. Surhoff in 1988.
Sonny Gray spun six scoreless frames and racked up 10 K’s to lead St. Louis to a win. The Cardinals’ history books since 1901 offer 85 examples of a pitcher finishing his day with at least 10 strikeouts and no runs allowed, but few of them point toward a hurler as old as Gray doing it:
1901-2025: Oldest Cardinals with 10+ K’s and 0 Runs
40y, 274d Adam Wainwright on May 31, 2022
38y, 227d Bob Gibson on June 24, 1974
36y, 154d Chris Carpenter on September 28, 2011
35y, 292d Bob Gibson on August 28, 1971
35y, 278d Bob Gibson on August 14, 1971
35y, 193d Sonny Gray on May 19, 2025
Brendan Donovan went 3-for-5 with a double, the fourth time in the past five games the Cardinals second baseman has had at least three hits with one of them a double. He’s now at 61 hits and 16 doubles for the year – both figures are at the very top of their respective NL leaderboards. No Cardinal has finished a season leading the NL in both of these categories since Matt Carpenter had 199 hits and 55 doubles in 2013.
Kyle Schwarber connected on his 300th career homer to join 162 others in the club. Schwarber is one of 64 of the members to reach the bar through an age-32 season, including these other active players:
Giancarlo Stanton 378
Mike Trout 378
Manny Machado 345 (and counting, as he’s in his age-32 season right now)
Bryce Harper 343 (and counting, as he’s in his age-32 season right now)
Nolan Arenado 325
Aaron Judge 315
Kansas City’s Kris Bubic surrendered a pair of hits and three walks over seven scoreless frames to pick up the win (his fifth of the year). The lefty has allowed one run across four starts this May and overall, claims a 1.47 ERA in 10 starts (the ERA is tied for the fourth lowest in the Majors).
Royals Franchise: Lowest ERA Through 49 Team Games (min. 10 GS)
0.84 Zack Greinke in 2009
1.47 Kris Bubic in 2025
1.79 Seth Lugo in 2024
1.89 Dennis Leonard in 1986
1.99 Kevin Appier in 1992
~Thanks in part to Bubic’s work, the Royals as a team claim a 3.03 ERA (best in the AL) – a mark that has only one superior for any Kansas City team through 49 games: the 1972 club posted a 2.88.
~Bubic was one of four starters on Monday to go at least six innings and emerge unscored upon, joining Sonny Gray, Seattle’s Luis Castillo and Giants southpaw Robbie Ray. Since shutouts are no longer a meaningful measure for starters, I thought it would be interesting to track a lesser version of the art. Bubic now has four efforts of six-plus innings and zero runs allowed this year – the most. Eight others are tied with three: Gray, Hunter Brown, Nathan Eovaldi, Max Fried, Nick Pivetta, Joe Ryan, Tarik Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Last season, Seattle’s Bryce Miller led the Majors with nine.
Taylor Ward homered in a 1-for-4 effort that lifted the Angels’ outfielder’s average to .198. Ward is one of 487 players in the modern era to have at least 13 homers through his club’s first 46 games. There are 14 of them who accompanied those homers with an average of at least .400 (including Aaron Judge this year) but only three who are extremities in the other direction: an average at or below .200. There’s Ward, of course, Matt Olson in 2020 (.200) and Joey Gallo in 2017 (.193).
Mookie Betts homered twice for the Dodgers – his 31st career multi-homer game. There are 35 players who’ve had at least that many efforts by Betts’ age (32 years and 224 days old), including these guys at exactly the same level as Betts: Willie McCovey, Mark McGwire, David Ortiz and Adam Dunn.
Shohei Ohtani generated his 17th homer of the year. The most homers for any Dodger through the club’s first 48 games, along with their season-ending tallies:
18 Gil Hodges in 1951 (finished with 40)
18 Raúl Mondesi in 1999 (finished with 33)
17 Roy Campanella in 1953 (finished with 41)
17 Roy Campanella in 1955 (finished with 32)
17 Duke Snider in 1955 (finished with 42)
17 Cody Bellinger in 2019 (finished with 47)
17 Shohei Ohtani in 2025 (finished with ?)
Brandon Pfaadt picked up his Major League-leading seventh victory of the year. He’s the first Diamondback to get to seven at this stage of the season (48 games) since Patrick Corbin was 7-0 in 2013. The others to do this for Arizona: Randy Johnson (2000 and 2002); Todd Stottlemyre (2000); Curt Schilling (2001 and 2002); Brandon Webb (2006 and 2008).
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.