Game Notes – 07/29/2025

Harold Baines drove in 1,628 runs in his 22-year career, more RBI than all but 33 players in Major League history.  The number and ranking is/was an essential part of his narrative, even serving as the final statement on his Hall of Fame plaque.  10 of those 1,628 came in somewhat unexpected and spectacular fashion, as they were produced over a pair of games in which Baines started the affairs as a spectator.  On May 4, 1996, as a member of the White Sox, Baines didn’t enter the contest until the eighth inning and yet still finished the day with five RBI (thanks in large part to a grand slam in the ninth).  Exactly three years later and now facing the White Sox as a member of the Orioles, Baines got involved in the ninth inning, tripled in a run in that frame and then ended things in the bottom of the 10th with another slam.  Voilà, ta-da, abracadabra, another five-RBI day in a non-start.  The 125 seasons of the Modern Era has witnessed 75 occasions where a player opened the game on the bench but then got involved and ultimately drove in at least five runs.  A lot of different names populate this list, as it’s only Baines who managed this feat more than once.

Brooks Lee came off the bench for the Twins in Tuesday’s loss and delivered a two-homer, five-RBI line.  

~Lee became the fifth Twin to drive in at least five runs after entering as a substitute, joining Don Mincher (1962), Harmon Killebrew (1962), Mark Salas (1987) and Matt Lawton (1999).  Everyone except for Lawton had a multi-homer day as part of their line.  For the entirety of the Majors since 1901, the high RBI mark for a substitute comes in at seven – a level shared by Roy Sievers (1961), John Mayberry (1978) and José Bautista (2018).

~Lee became the 20th player since 1901 to start the game on the bench but eventually produce a line featuring at least two homers and at least five RBI.  In the Expansion Era, this feat has now occurred 17 times, with Twins (the aforementioned Killebrew, Mincher and Salas, along with Lee) responsible for four of them.  

~Lee became the sixth Twin to homer from both sides of the plate, joining Roy Smalley, Chili Davis, Ryan Doumit, Kennys Vargas and Jorge Polanco.  

Rockies first baseman Warming Bernabel was 2-for-4 with a double, extending his hitting streak to open his career to four games.  The 23-year-old is now 6-for-15 with two doubles, two homers and a walk, the whole package playing out to a 1.371 OPS.   Rockies history shows 11 players who hit safely in each of their first four career games – among them, Bernabel’s OPS shines as the second highest, in between Trevor Story’s 1.684 in 2016 and Todd Helton’s 1.313 in 1997.

Riley Greene’s trey-happy night sparked the Tigers to a 12-2 win on Tuesday, as the outfielder scored three runs, drove in three and had three extra-base hits (two doubles and a home run).  There have been fewer than 100 of these lines in Tigers history, with Charlie Gehringer and Miguel Cabrera tied for the most (six apiece).  

~Greene has 23 doubles and 26 home runs on the year, along with 28 walks.  The last Tiger to finish a season with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title while having more doubles and more homers than walks:  Iván Rodríguez in 2007, when the catcher had 31 two-base hits and 11 round-trippers to pair with nine walks.  

Corbin Carroll sped to his 14th triple of the year to tie the Diamondbacks’ single-season high mark, previously shared by Tony Womack (2000) and Carroll himself from 2024.  With 14 through 108 team games, the outfielder is averaging one about every eight contests and thus, projects out to 21 three-baggers for the year (all this just serving as an update to Carroll’s pursuit of the eighth 20-double, 20-triple, 20-homer season in history).  

~Carroll carries a notable extra-base hit profile through this, his age-24 season, with 79 doubles, 40 triples and 72 homers.  The array and combo speaks to earlier eras, as Carroll is one of nine players in history to have at least 70 doubles and 70 home runs along with 40-plus triples through an age-24 campaign, with six of the previous eight having debuted before the start of WWII.  In the 20s, there’s Lou Gehrig, Freddie Lindstrom and Jimmie Foxx, followed by Joe Medwick, Joe DiMaggio and Ken Keltner in the 1930s.  Mickey Mantle and Vada Pinson, both making their debuts in the 1950s, complete the collection, or at least had before Carroll broke in.  

Zach Neto stole his 20th and 21st bases of the year.  With 15 homers also part of his 2025 line, Neto could be in store for his second consecutive 20-20 campaign (he had 23 homers and 30 steals in 2024).  The Angels franchise has seen only Mike Trout and Don Baylor produce consecutive 20-20 seasons:  Baylor had three straight, from 1977-1979; Trout had three in a row from 2016-2018 and back-to-back seasons in 2012-2013.  

Randy Arozarena stole his 20th bag to produce his fifth career 20-HR, 20-SB season (and fifth in a row).  10 players in history have strung together at least five straight seasons with the numbers:     

Most Consecutive 20-20 Campaigns

9     Barry Bonds

7     Bobby Bonds, Bobby Abreu

6     Willie Mays

5     Darryl Strawberry, Kirk Gibson, Howard Johnson, Eric Davis, José Ramírez, Randy Arozarena

In the first game of a doubleheader, Baltimore’s bats exploded for 16 runs on 19 hits – with nine of those knocks going for extra bases – and defeated Toronto, 16-4.

~In their previous contest, the Orioles had 16 hits, with eight of them of the extra-base variety.  Before this two-game explosion, the franchise had never before seen back-to-back games featuring at least 16 hits with at least eight extra-base hits.  A team has done this 41 times since 1901, with the 2023 Cubs having been the most recent example.  In 1999, the Indians had three straight games hitting these requirements – the only club to sustain this level of punishment for that long.  

*Note:  The Orioles didn’t reach the requisite numbers in the second game of the doubleheader, delivering seven hits (three for extra bases) in a 3-2 win.

In the 16-4 win, the Orioles had seven starters produce multi-hit games, led by Jordan Westburg’s four-hit line.  Also, the 26-year-old tied the high mark for any Browns/Orioles leadoff hitter with four runs scored, a measure of production previously accomplished from that slot 29 times.  

Behind Andrew Vaughn’s six-RBI effort, the Brewers defeated the Cubs, 9-3, and improved to 17-6 (.739) for the month.  The best winning percentage the club has ever produced in a full July came in 1983, when the Brewers were 20-8 (.714).  The team’s best mark for any monthly split came in March/April of 1987, when they opened the year 18-3 (.857).   

Kyle Schwarber hit his 37th homer of the year in the Phillies’ win on Tuesday.  The 32-year-old joined Philadelphia for the start of the 2022 season and since then, has generated more longballs than any other National League player, with seasons of 46, 47, 38 and now 37 tallying up to 168.  Schwarber and Ryan Howard (2006-2009) are the only two Phillies to produce at least 37 homers in four straight seasons.  During his stretch, Howard launched 198 out of the park – and during that stretch, those 198 were the most in the Majors. 

Agustín Ramírez doubled for his 40th extra-base hit of the year – the fourth Marlins player to reach that number in a debut season, after Dan Uggla in 2006 (60), Chris Coghlan in 2009 (46) and Giancarlo Stanton in 2010 (44).  

Houston’s Josh Hader faced three batters in the ninth and fanned all three as part of his 28th save of the year.  The left-hander has struck out 73 of the 189 batters he’s faced.

~Hader has four seasons in which he’s struck out at least 100 batters (2018-19, 2021, 2024).  The most 100-K seasons for any full-time reliever (meaning zero games started) is five, shared by Goose Gossage, Aroldis Chapman and Dellin Betances (Chapman has 62 strikeouts this season).

~With 28 saves and a 38.6 K%, Hader appears in line for his sixth season where he’ll have at least 30 saves and a K% of at least 35.0.  Only Craig Kimbrel and Chapman have more such campaigns, with eight apiece (this season, Chapman has 19 saves and has fanned 38.8% of the batters he’s faced).

Manny Machado homered for his 770th career extra-base hit.  There are 21 players in history who had more through their respective age-32 seasons than Machado has in his, with Vladimir Guerrero (778) the closest within reach. A full list, organized by the decade in which each of the 22 with at least 770 debuted:

1910s    Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby

1920s    Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Mel Ott

1930s    Joe Medwick

1940s    Stan Musial

1950s    Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Mathews, Henry Aaron, Frank Robinson

1980s    Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey, Jr., Juan González

1990s    Manny Ramírez, Álex Rodríguez, Vladimir Guerrero, Andruw Jones

2000s    Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera

2010s    Manny Machado

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