Game Notes – 07/08/2025

Since the NL and AL started tussling in the Midsummer Classic, 30 pitchers have been able to take a breath at the pause to the season and pridefully point to already owning at least 15 wins.  Bob Feller was the first to have this chance, way back in 1941 when the All-Star Game was readying for its ninth installment.  59 years later, a Blue Jay added his name in the connective thread to Feller, as David Wells stamped his first half with 15 wins (no other Blue Jay has ever ended his first half with more than 13 victories).  With nine wins this season, Chris Bassitt won’t be any challenge to Wells’ first half.  Still, the Blue Jays’ 36-year-old owns a somewhat remarkable tally considering his first six seasons in the big leagues – first and second halves put together – mustered only a total of 19 victories.   

Chris Bassitt (6.0 IP, 4 H) went the distance in a weather-shortened affair as his Blue Jays took down the White Sox, 6-1.  The right-hander is tied for fourth in the AL with his nine wins, so close to what would be his fifth straight campaign with double-digits in the ‘W’ column.  Coming into this season, there were six others who had won at least 10 in every year since 2021, including two of Bassitt’s current Toronto teammates, Kevin Gausman and José Berríos.  All seven are outlined below, with their current status in 2025. 

2021-2024:  10+ Wins in Every Season (win status in 2025)

Chris Bassitt (nine wins in 2025)

José Berríos  (five wins in 2025)

Corbin Burnes  (three wins in 2025 – out for the season)

Kevin Gausman  (six wins in 2025)

Framber Valdez (10 wins! in 2025)

Logan Webb (eight wins in 2025)

Zack Wheeler (nine wins in 2025)

In the Blue Jays’ victory, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. went 2-for-4 with a run-scoring single and a run-scoring double.  The 26-year-old is now one knock away from 1,000 in his career, a milestone which would make him the 85th player to get to a grand through an age-26 campaign.  But for now, let’s look elsewhere for some context to his career.  Guerrero carries a career OPS+ of 136 in 3,937 plate appearances.  Among the 306 players in history who can claim at least 3,000 trips to the dish through their age-26 campaigns, that mark at this stage of their respective careers ties him for 48th.  The players in this area, both at and closely above and below:

139    Willie Keeler, Eddie Murray, Prince Fielder, Andrew McCutchen, Ronald Acuña, Jr.

138    Barry Bonds

137    David Wright, Bryce Harper

136    Fred Carroll, Rickey Henderson, Hanley Ramírez, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.

135    Jesse Burkett, Hal Trosky, Greg Luzinski

134    Ross Youngs, Goose Goslin, Jim Ray Hart, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts

133    Jack Clark, Juan González

Nathan Eovaldi allowed an unearned run in six innings and picked up the win as the Rangers thrashed the Angels, 13-1.  The righty owns a 1.62 ERA in his 15 starts this season.  

Senators/Rangers: Lowest ERA (min. 15 GS) Before or After the All-Star Break 

1.52    Rick Honeycutt in first half of 1983 

1.59    Fergie Jenkins in second half of 1974

1.62    Nathan Eovaldi in first half of 2025

1.86    Gaylord Perry in second half of 1975

2.12    Jon Matlack in second half of 1978

2.29    Jacob deGrom in first half of 2025

Corey Seager delivered a homer, a single and a walk to Texas’ offensive surge and now carries a lifetime .984 OPS against the Angels – a top-10 mark all-time for all players with at least 250 plate appearances against the Halos.  Fellow active player José Ramírez owns the highest mark, at 1.085, with the rest of the top five made up of guys who are all done making the Angels miserable:  Mike Napoli (1.048), Alex Rodriguez (1.036), Oscar Gamble (1.008) and Frank Thomas (1.007).

Nick Pivetta (5.2 IP, 2 H) and four Padres relievers combined on a three-hitter as San Diego blanked Arizona, 1-0.    

~The Padres have 14 team shutouts this season, four more than any other team in 2025 and tied for the 11th most in the Expansion Era for any club through 91 contests.  The 1968 Indians, 1981 Dodgers and 2014 Cardinals share the top mark of 17.  The franchise’s team record for an entire season comes in at 20, shared by the 2007 and 2010 clubs.

~The Padres have five 1-0 wins this season, one shy of the franchise mark for an entire season (the six came in 1985 and 2010).  In the past 40 years, no team has had more than five at this stage of the season (91 games), with the 1991 Astros, 2011 Twins and 2018 Mariners also having that many.  

~Luis Arráez’s fifth homer of the year gave the Padres their lone run and made the three-time defending batting champ the 30th Padre to homer in a 1-0 win (he’s the second this season, after Manny Machado on June 8).  Fittingly, the franchise has two players among this collection who have done it more than once:  Dave Winfield and Tony Gwynn, each with two.  

In the Yankees’ 10-3 win over the Mariners, both of the season’s biggest home run bats – Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge – got to show off their wares:  Raleigh with his 36th four-bagger of the year and Judge with his 34th.  Few players have ever hit more by the time it was time to take time for the All-Star Game.  

1933-2025:  Most Home Runs In the First Half of the Season

39    Barry Bonds (2001)

37    Reggie Jackson (1969), Mark McGwire (1998), Chris Davis (2013) 

36    Cal Raleigh (2025)

35    Ken Griffey, Jr. (1998), Luis Gonzalez (2001)

34    Frank Howard (1969), Aaron Judge (2024, 2025)

~In the All-Star Era, Raleigh’s 36 in this season’s first half tie for the sixth most by any player in either a first or second half, with Hank Greenberg having that many after the All-Star Game in 1938 and then Albert Belle matching the second-half feat in 1995.  Judge’s 34 tie him with Howard and himself (referenced above) along with Barry Bonds from the second half of the 2001 season for the 12th most.  

Backstop Austin Wells homered in his third straight game.  The Yankees high (or long) mark for most consecutive games with a homer as a catcher stretches to five, courtesy of Bill Dickey in 1937.

Shohei Ohtani hit his 31st home run of the year.  The tally is the best for any Dodger before or after an All-Star break, with Cody Bellinger the only other member of the franchise to reach 30, which he did in the first half in 2019.  

Lawrence Butler opened the first inning with an inside-the-park-homer and later connected on his second round-tripper, a conventional, into-the-seats job.  The multi-homer effort marked the third of Butler’s career as the Athletics leadoff hitter; he’s the fourth player in the franchise’s history to have at least that many, with Rickey Henderson having five to lead the pack.  Eddie Joost and Marcus Semien are tied with four.

Nick Kurtz’s first career grand slam gave the 22-year-old his 14th longball of the year.  That tally presents a pretty generous gap ahead of any other Athletics first-year player before the All-Star break, with Mitchell Page’s 11 in 1977 the second most.  Kurtz is one of 37 freshmen to have at least 14 before the break, with Pete Alonso’s 30 in 2019 the most.  

Patrick Bailey hit a three-run, inside-the-park homer in the bottom of the ninth to give his Giants a stunning, 4-3 walk-off win against the Phillies.  

~Bailey became the sixth player this century (and first since Cleveland’s Tyler Naquin in 2016) to produce a game-ending inside-the-park round-tripper.  Bailey is the first Giant with this event attached to his list of accomplishments since Ángel Pagán did it to the Rockies in 2013.  There’s another one this century that has some relevance to Tuesday night’s drama in San Francisco;  on August 27, 2000, the two teams played reversed roles, with Philadelphia’s Bobby Abreu getting the better of San Francisco’s Aaron Fultz to push the Phillies to the win.

~Bailey’s walk-off homer with his team down by two runs made him the first Giant since Ray Durham in 2006 to produce a game-ending longball with the club facing a deficit of more than one run.  

~The Giants have 21 wins by one run this season, the most in the Majors.  The most in a full season for the club in the San Francisco era came in 1978, when they had 42 (that Giants team had a total of 89 victories that year).  It’s a significant number, that 42, as no other team since 1958 has won that many, with the 1969 Mets having the second most, 41.  

Baltimore’s Brandon Young – making his fifth career start – struck out the side in the fifth using just nine pitches.  This immaculate inning was the first for the Orioles since Kevin Gausman had one on April 23, 2018.  

Pete Alonso hit a game-tying, two-run homer in the eighth to play a large role in the Mets’ eventual 7-6 win in 10 innings over the Orioles.  For the first baseman, the one swing provided RBI numbers 74 and 75.  The first-half tally represents the second highest for any Met before the All-Star break, behind Alonso’s own 78 in 2022.  

Ceddanne Rafaela saw his three-game home run streak come to an end, but the Red Sox center fielder did contribute a two-run double to Boston’s cause, and now has a six-game streak with at least one extra-base hit.  The 24-year-old is the 19th player in franchise history to have a streak of at least six games and be shy of his 25th birthday.  Among this collection, Rafaela’s streak is one of three to be from the 21st century, along with an eight-game run by Rafael Devers in 2019 and a seven-game streak from Alex Verdugo in 2020.  Ted Williams’ nine-game streak in 1939 is the longest.  

Brayan Bello struck out 10 while going the distance, a five-hitter in Boston’s 10-2 win over Colorado.  The effort gave the franchise its 197th pitching line that saw the starter finish what he started and in the process, reach double-digits in K’s; Bello is the first addition to the roster since Chris Sale struck out 12 in a three-hit shutout in 2019.  There are four pitchers who contributed at least 10 such lines to the annals:  Roger Clemens (35 of them), Smoky Joe Wood (15), Pedro Martínez (15) and Bruce Hurst (10).  At 26 years and 52 days old for his submission, Bello is the youngest to make the list since Jon Lester in 2009.

Eury Pérez (5.0 IP, 2 H) won his second straight start and helped lift the Marlins to their 11th straight victory on the road, a 12-2 win over the Reds.  The streak, which is the longest in franchise history, is the best the Majors has seen since the Phillies won 13 in a row away from home in 2023.  

Jacob Misiorowski struck out a career-best 12 and picked up the win as Milwaukee edged past Los Angeles, 3-1.  The Brewers’ right-hander fanned the dozen in his fifth career appearance, the 29th pitcher in the modern era to reach this bar so early.  Two other Brewers appear in this collection:  Steve Woodard (12 K’s) in his debut in 1997 and Freddy Peralta (13 K’s) in his first big league game in 2018.  For those with a precise memory for such things, it might be recalled that Kerry Wood’s 20-K masterpiece came in that right-hander’s fifth career outing, on May 6, 1998.

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