As all things stand on this June 5, 2025 morning, current Royals catcher/first baseman/DH Salvador Perez is tied with the forever face of the franchise George Brett for the most career multi-homer games in the franchise’s history. Perez holds an uncommon position as this season unfolds – he’s one of four in the Majors to be at the top of his current team’s leaderboard in this particular category, one of only four to have an almost daily chance to rewrite his club’s record book. Mike Trout and Manny Machado also hold this post, with their respective tallies for the Angels and Padres already clear ahead of any competition. The fourth, like Perez, is tied with a franchise icon at the very peak.
Pete Alonso drove out two homers and drove in five runs to lead the Mets to a 6-1 win against the Dodgers.
~Alonso’s 22nd career multi-homer game broke him out of a tie with David Wright and moved him into a tie with Darryl Strawberry for the most ever in Mets history.
Most Multi-HR Games, NY Mets
22 Darryl Strawberry, Pete Alonso
21 David Wright
17 Mike Piazza, Carlos Beltrán
16 Dave Kingman, Lucas Duda
~Alonso’s 22 multi-homer efforts have come in 908 games. That many at this stage ties him with Hal Trosky, Roger Maris, Dave Kingman, Todd Helton and Yordan Alvarez for the 21st most. The top four, for the curious: Aaron Judge (36), Ralph Kiner (34), Gus Zernial (27), Carlos Delgado (27).
~Alonso has produced 11 games with at least five RBI – an unmatched number in Mets history. Before this contest, Alonso had been tied with Wright for the most.
Merrill Kelly surrendered one hit in seven scoreless innings and pocketed a win as Arizona defeated Atlanta, 2-1. Kelly is now one of three hurlers in Diamondbacks history to have multiple lines in a season featuring 7.0+ IP, 0 runs and 1 or 0 hits (his other came on May 18). The others to do this: Randy Johnson in 2001 and Patrick Corbin in 2018.
Chris Sale struck out 10 – his 90th career double-digit K game. The Braves left-hander is three shy of tying Curt Schilling for the seventh most. Among southpaws, only Randy Johnson (212) and Sandy Koufax (97) have produced more. With this effort and personal outcome, Sale has the third most losses in double-digit strikeout games, with his 21 behind Nolan Ryan’s 54 and Johnson’s 37.
Alejandro Kirk singled in the bottom of the ninth to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 win over the Phillies and Kirk his third career walk-off hit. The catcher’s three since he debuted in 2020 tie him with Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. and fellow backstop Danny Jansen for the most by a Blue Jay across this span. Joe Carter holds down the all-time franchise lead with nine, two ahead of Lloyd Moseby’s tally.
MacKenzie Gore allowed three hits over seven scoreless innings and struck out seven to push his NL-leading tally to 108 punchouts. A strikeout crown for Gore at the end of this year would mean lefties had led the league in consecutive seasons, after Chris Sale did the trick in 2024. The NL hasn’t been led by southpaws in consecutive years since the early 2000s when Randy Johnson paced the league in every year from 1999-2002. There’s a similar situation brewing in the AL, where left-hander Garrett Crochet leads the league with 101 strikeouts (in fact, the top three spots are held by portsiders). Last year, left-hander Tarik Skubal took the AL crown. Back-to-back lefthander titlists last appeared in the AL in 2014-2015, when it was David Price and Chris Sale making the waves. Putting all of this together, IF the NL and AL both witness lefties atop the strikeout leaderboard at the close of this season, 2024-2025 will mark the first time both leagues have seen this in the same consecutive years since 1964-1966:
1964: Bob Veale (NL) and Al Downing (AL)
1965: Sandy Koufax (NL) and Sam McDowell (AL)
1966: Sandy Koufax (NL) and Sam McDowell (AL)
Luis Ortiz (5.2 IP, 3 H) and three Guardians relievers combined on a five-hitter as Cleveland took care of its AL rival in New York, 4-0. Cleveland leads the AL with eight team shutouts, which are also the most for the club through 60 games since the 2013 team had eight.
Oneil Cruz nabbed a couple of steals in Pittsburgh’s win over Houston, lifting his MLB-leading tally to 22. The 26-year-old is one of 19 Pirates since 1901 to have at least 22 through the club’s first 62 games, and the first to make this claim since Tony Womack in 1997. Cruz, who doubled in this game, also has 12 homers. There’s a fun group of names who have a similar SB/HR profile through 62 team games.
1901-2025: 22+ SB/12+HR Through 62 Team Games
| Year | Player | SB | HR |
| 1967 | Lou Brock | 27 | 13 |
| 1974 | César Cedeño | 28 | 12 |
| 1976 | Joe Morgan | 22 | 12 |
| 1987 | Eric Davis | 28 | 20 |
| 2023 | Ronald Acuña, Jr. | 28 | 12 |
| 2025 | Oneil Cruz | 22 | 12 |
Despite Lucas Giolito getting tagged for seven runs and eight hits in one-and-two-thirds innings, the Red Sox defeated the Angels, 11-9. Boston had lost 16 consecutive contests when their starter had surrendered at least seven runs while failing to get through at least two innings. This win marked the first under these conditions since September 21, 2000, when Rolando Arrojo gave up seven runs in two-thirds of an inning and the Sox defeated the Indians, 9-8.
Taylor Ward drove in four runs for the Angels – the third time this season the 31-year-old has produced at least four RBI. The most such games any Halo batter has generated in a season is seven, by Don Baylor (1979), Tim Salmon (1997) and Mo Vaughn (2000).
Jackson Chourio singled twice and added his 10th homer of the year as the Brewers downed the Reds, 9-1. The round-tripper, the 31st of his career, came as Chourio was 21 years and 85 days old. It’s not an upper, upper tier level of longballs for that age, but it’s also fairly uncommon and the exact number by this exact age also gives Chourio an A-list match.
Most HR by 21 Years and 85 Days Old
70 Mel Ott
56 Tony Conigliaro, Juan Soto
42 Bryce Harper
41 Álex Rodríguez
38 Frank Robinson, Ken Griffey, Jr.
36 Mickey Mantle, Andruw Jones
35 Mike Trout
32 Al Kaline, Miguel Cabrera
31 Ted Williams, Jackson Chourio
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.