Game Notes – 06/22/2025

In every campaign from 1995 through 2002, Mike Piazza withstood the rigors of catching to emerge, by the end of the regular season, with at least 30 homers as part of his show and tell demonstration of what he did for the spring, summer and early part of fall.  That’s eight straight seasons with at least 30 home runs – a remarkable feat considering that before Piazza began lasering his drives beyond outfield walls with astonishing regularity and flair, no catcher had ever had more than two consecutive 30-homer seasons.  Piazza did more than restructure the sense of possibilities for a backstop with a bat; he obliterated the given boundaries.  Up until just a few days ago, Piazza was still the only catcher to have at least three straight 30-homer seasons.  Now, he has to share this claim to (batting) fame with Seattle’s backstop, Cal Raleigh, who has emerged from his own workshop with his own interpretation of what can be achieved.

Cal Raleigh hit his Major League-leading 31st home run of the year.  

~Raleigh is the ninth player to have at least 31 homers through his team’s first 76 games, tied with Babe Ruth (1921) at that exact tally.  The seven seasons above them:

39    Barry Bonds (2001)

34    Reggie Jackson (1969), Mark McGwire (1998)

32    Babe Ruth (1928, 1930), Ken Griffey, Jr. (1994), Luis Gonzalez (2001)

~Most 30+ HR Seasons from a Catcher (at least 67% of games at C)

9     Mike Piazza (1993, 1995-2002)

4     Roy Campanella (1950-1951, 1953, 1955)

4     Johnny Bench (1970, 1972, 1974, 1977)

3     Cal Raleigh (2023-2025)

In the Mariners’ 14-6 win over the Cubs, the victorious club got multi-homer efforts from its seventh and eighth place hitters, Donovan Solano and Dominic Canzone, respectively.  The team had never before received this output from those two slots in the same game.  

With a two-homer, three-RBI day at the dish, Seiya Suzuki (20 HR, 64 RBI for the year), joined teammate Pete Crow-Armstrong (21 HR, 61 RBI) in the 20-60 club.

2000-2025:  20 HR, 60 RBI Through 77 Team Games, Teammates

2025     Seiya Suzuki & Pete Crow-Armstrong with the Cubs

2004     David Ortiz & Manny Ramírez with the Red Sox

2001     Todd Helton and Larry Walker with the Rockies

2000     Eric Karros and Gary Sheffield with the Dodgers

2000    Edgar Martínez & Álex Rodríguez with the Mariners

2000    Iván Rodríguez and Rafael Palmeiro with the Rangers

For the second time this season and third time in his Dodgers career, Max Muncy recorded a line featuring two home runs and seven RBI.  Among Dodgers in the modern era, it’s only Muncy and Ron Cey (in 1974) who can make the claim of multiple games of this ilk in a single season.  As for having three altogether while repping the Dodgers, Muncy shares the top slot with Gil Hodges, who had one such game in 1949, another in 1950 and his third in 1951 (Muncy’s first came in 2023).  Across all big league teams since 1901, Muncy is tied with 16 others* for the most such games in a season.  Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams and Álex Rodríguez share the high mark for the most in a career since 1901 (five).

*1901-2025:  Multiple Games in a Season with 2+ HR & 7+ RBI

1920s     Babe Ruth (1929)

1930s     Lou Gehrig (1930, 1934), Rogers Hornsby (1931), Jimmie Foxx (1938), Bob Johnson (1938)

1940s     Joe DiMaggio (1940)

1950s     Ralph Kiner (1950, 1951)

1970s     Brant Alyea (1970), Ron Cey (1974), Jim Spencer (1977)

1990s     Andrés Galarraga (1996)

2000s     Álex Rodríguez (2000), Cody Ross (2006)

2020s     Matt Carpenter (2022), Max Muncy (2025)

Ronald Acuña, Jr. singled and doubled and scored twice in the Braves’ loss to the Marlins.  The 27-year-old is slashing .396/.504/.698 in his 27 games this season and has reached safely at least twice in each of his past 12 games.  This streak is the longest of its kind for a Brave since Chipper Jones had a 13-game run in 2004.  

Out-hit 18 to 17, Milwaukee managed to get past Minnesota in a 9-8 win full of interesting nuggets on both sides.

~The Brewers have scored at least eight runs and amassed double-digit hit tallies in each of their past four games (all wins).  The run/hit streak is tied for the longest in franchise history, with the 2012 club also having a four-game stretch (although that team lost one of the games).

~The Brewers had seven starters produce multi-hit games, one shy of the most they’ve ever had in a nine-inning contest (Milwaukee has had eight on eight separate occasions).

~On Minnesota’s side, the club received four-hit games from Carlos Correa and Brooks Lee – the first time the team had seen a pair of four-hit lines go to waste in a loss since 2021, and the 15th time it’s happened in the franchise’s history.  

~Byron Buxton produced his second multi-homer game in his past four contests – both as Minnesota’s leadoff hitter.  Four is the magic number here, the highest number of multi-homer games by a Senator/Twin batting leadoff in a season – a feat shared by Jacque Jones (2002) and Max Kepler (2019).  In 32 games batting leadoff this season, Buxton is slashing .313/.401/.678.  For all players with at least 100 plate appearances out of the top spot in the order in 2025, Buxton’s 1.080 OPS is the second best in the business, behind Ronald Acuña, Jr.’s 1.177.

~The Twins’ 18 hits were the most in a nine-inning defeat since they collected 19 in a loss to the Tigers in 2017.  The Brewers’ 18 hits allowed in a win matched the highest tally ever for the franchise in a nine-inning affair.  They also surrendered 18 when defeating the Indians in 1991.

Andrew Abbott allowed a run on three hits and picked up his seventh win of the year as Cincinnati took care of St. Louis, 4-1.  The Reds’ southpaw is 7-1 with a 1.79 ERA (although he is a few innings short of qualifying the ERA title).  In the liveball era, there are 22 matches for a profile similar to Abbott’s (7+ wins, .850+ winning percentage, sub-2.00 ERA, 10+ GS, all through 78 team games), including a Red who emerges as the first to do this:  Dolf Luque (13-2, 1.36 ERA in 1923).  Gary Nolan (12-2, 1.93 ERA in 1972) is the only other Red on the list.

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