Game Notes – 08/05/2025

In an easy-going, 20-4 rout of the St. Louis Browns on May 21, 1925, Philadelphia Athletics backstop Mickey Cochrane erupted for three home runs.  The verb is useful here, as Cochrane entered the game with one four-base hit on his career ledger; then again, he had only played 27 games in his big league career up to this point.  The Hall of Famer would go on to play more than 1,400 more contests in his brilliant career, but as for the “four-bagger in a bunch” type of line, that effort in May of 1925 was the only one in which he produced three.  For backstops, this refrain is common; 42 different catchers have reached the pinnacle of a three-homer day, but only four of them have done it multiple times.  Hall of Famers Johnny Bench and Gary Carter make up half of this collection – appropriate for immortals who thundered with a frequency and sustainability that has rarely been matched or surpassed for the position.  The third is of a different variety – a version of the summer storm that stations itself overhead, unleashes all its fury, and then passes quickly, leaving behind all sorts of awe for the unexpected display – Travis d’Arnaud.  As for the fourth and newest member, well, we’ll have to keep checking the skies to see what sort of booming Shea Langeliers can conjure.

Batting leadoff and assuming catching duties, Shea Langeliers hit three homers, added a double and a single, and drove in three as the Athletics piled up 16 runs.  Where to begin?

~Langeliers’ 15 total bases are the third most in Athletics history, behind Nick Kurtz’s 19 from about two weeks ago and Jimmie Foxx’s 16 in 1932.  The 15 total bases tie for the third most for a leadoff hitter since 1901, behind Shohei Ohtani’s 17 in 2024 and Matt Carpenter’s 16 in 2018.  Langeliers is matched with Davey Lopes (1974) and Kyle Schwarber (2024).  Langeliers’ 15 tie for the most by a catcher since 1901, matching him with Walker Cooper (1949) and Wes Westrum (1950).

~Langeliers’ four extra-base hits tie him for the second most in Athletics history, with Nick Kurtz’s five on July 25, 2025 the most.  Langeliers is one of three Athletics catchers with four in a game, after Mickey Cochrane (1929) and Frankie Hayes (1936).  He’s the 59th leadoff hitter since 1901 to have at least four in a game, with two (Ohtani and Carpenter, as referenced in the earlier bullet) having five.  Langeliers is the 25th catcher since 1901 to have at least four extra-base hits in a game, with Kelly Shoppach (2008) the only one to have five. 

~Langeliers is the seventh leadoff hitter in the Modern Era to have a line featuring three homers and at least five hits.  Most of the predecessors have already been referenced (Ohtani, Schwarber, Carpenter, Lopes); the others are Pete Rose (1978) and Mickey Brantley (1987).

~Langeliers is the sixth batter in Athletics history with multiple three-homer games.  The others (everyone had/has exactly two):  Jimmie Foxx, Mark McGwire, Gerónimo Berroa, Miguel Tejada and Lawrence Butler.

~Langeliers’ big night pushed him past the 20-homer mark for the season, the third straight year he’s hit at least 20.  He and Gene Tenace (1974-1976) are the only Athletics catchers to have three straight seasons with at least 20.  

Langeliers was one of three Athletics batters with at least four hits in the game, joining Brent Rooker and JJ Bleday.  13 previous Athletics contests emerged with three teammates each having at least four hits, with one submitting four.  On July 1, 1979, Mike Edwards, Jim Essian, Mike Heath and Rickey Henderson all got there in a 15-inning affair which saw Oakland tally 29 total hits.  

~For Bleday, this effort marked his second straight game with four hits and two of them going for extra bases (he’s had a double and home run in each).  He’s the fourth Athletic to compose back-to-back games with these batting numbers, joining Topsy Hartsel (1903), Frankie Hayes (1936) and Mark McGwire (1987).   

Playing in his fifth career game, Marlins outfielder Jakob Marsee was 2-for-2 (with his first big league home run) and a walk.  So far, Marsee has reached safely 11 times (six hits, five walks) and owns five extra-base hits.  Few players in the Modern Era have sprung out of the gate in this manner, with 12 others matching or surpassing both Marsee’s times on base and extra-base hit tallies through five games.  One of the previous 12 is a current teammate, who also started like gangbusters in 2025:  Agustín Ramírez, who tallied seven extra-base hits while reaching safely 11 times.  

Logan Webb fanned 10 with no walks and allowed a run to pick up his 10th win of the year.

~Webb has four games this season with at least 10 strikeouts and no walks, making him the first Giants’ pitcher since at least 1901 to have that many in one campaign.  Career-wise, Webb now has six of these efforts, giving him – outright – the second most for any Giants rep in the Modern Era (he had been matched with Tim Lincecum).  Madison Bumgarner is the leader here, with 12.  

~With this 10th win, Webb joined Framber Valdez and Chris Bassitt as the only pitchers thus far to have claimed double-digit victories in every season since 2021.  

~The Giants right-hander is pacing the NL in innings, now at 147.1  If he finishes the year with the most, it’ll make him the first hurler to lead the NL in three straight seasons since Liván Hernández from 2003-2005.

Garrett Crochet (7.0 IP, 2 R, 8 K’s) improved to 13-4 with a 2.24 ERA and 183 strikeouts.  

~In a race for a second consecutive pitching Triple Crown in the AL, the Red Sox southpaw owns the most wins and strikeouts in the league and holds down the second lowest ERA.  Tarik Skubal, the league’s defending Triple Crown winner, owns the slight edge in ERA (Skubal is at 2.18), but trails Crochet by two wins and two strikeouts.   

~Crochet’s Triple Crown numbers have been matched or bettered at this stage of the season (115 team games) on 19 occasions in the Liveball Era, most recently by Boston’s own Pedro Martínez in 2002 and 2000.  Pedro (Expos version) also had the goods in 1997, as did Roger Clemens that season.  Moving backward, we also find Dwight Gooden (1985), Steve Carlton (1980 and 1972) and Vida Blue (1971) before the 1960s come into view.  That decade had nine pitchers make the grade, with Sandy Koufax responsible for five of the performances (1962-1966).  There’s also Sam McDowell in 1965, Denny McLain and Luis Tiant in 1968 and Bill Singer in 1969.  The other two examples come from 1946, when Bob Feller and Hal Newhouser hit the marks.  

Trevor Story (two singles, three RBI) and Jarren Duran (single and a double, RBI) contributed significantly to Boston’s seventh straight win – something they’ve done throughout the run.  During the winning streak, Story is slashing .480/.552/1.000 with seven extra-base hits and 11 RBI and Duran is at .360/.385/.880 with seven extra-base hits and nine RBI.

Daulton Varsho cracked a pair of two-run home runs to accompany a two-run double as his Blue Jays came away with another win.  Varsho is the 30th Blue Jay to produce a line featuring at least two home runs and at least six RBI and the second in as many days to do this, after Bo Bichette on Monday. Varsho and Bichette joined George Springer (July 1, 2025) on the overall list; there have been two other seasons in which the team saw three big performances like this.  In 1987, George Bell had two and Ernie Whitt contributed one; in 2021, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., Teoscar Hernández and Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. each produced one.  

~While Bichette was having his huge night on Monday, Varsho chipped in with four RBI of his own.  Coupled with this command performance on Tuesday, Varsho is the 10th Blue Jay to have back-to-back games with at least four RBI and the first since Raimel Tapia in July of 2022.

Tampa Bay’s Brandon Lowe connected on his 20th home run of the season, the 146th of his eight-year career.  Lowe is within reach of becoming the 11th player to reach 150 longballs through his first eight seasons while having at least two-thirds of his games come at second base.  Most of the players who’ve done this debuted in the 21st century, including the guy with the most four-baggers (231) on this list, Dan Uggla.  There are three who debuted in the 20th century:  Joe Gordon (182 HR from 1938-1947), Jeff Kent (161 HR from 1992-1999) and Alfonso Soriano (208 HR from 1999-2006).

Bryan Woo allowed a run and two hits while picking up a win and lowered his WHIP for the year to 0.936, fifth lowest in the Majors.  Since the start of last season, the Mariners’ right-hander’s 0.918 WHIP is the third lowest in the big leagues among pitchers with at least 40 starts.  The low five:

0.884    Tarik Skubal

0.913    Logan Gilbert

0.918    Bryan Woo

0.934    Paul Skenes

0.939    Zack Wheeler

In a San Diego win, Manny Machado had three hits while his teammate Luis Arráez contributed one.  The two are 1-2 in the NL in hits with Machado leading 133 to 129.  This duo makes up the sixth example in Padres history of teammates with at least 129 hits through 114 team games, but the first to be without Tony Gwynn as part of the couple.

129+ Hits Through 114 Games – Padres Teammates

1984    Tony Gwynn and Steve Garvey

1990    Tony Gwynn and Roberto Alomar

1992    Tony Gwynn and Gary Sheffield

1994    Tony Gwynn and Derek Bell

1995    Tony Gwynn and Steve Finley

2025    Manny Machado and Luis Arráez

Max Muncy and Teoscar Hernández each homered twice and each drove in four runs as Los Angeles scored a dozen runs in a victory.  In the Modern Era, the Dodgers have seen teammates mount this production in the same game five times.  

1901-2025:  Dodgers Teammates With 2+ HR and 4+ RBI

June 12, 1949     Billy Cox and Gil Hodges

Sept. 19, 1950    Gil Hodges and Duke Snider

Aug. 5, 1990       Kirk Gibson and Eddie Murray

Aug. 2, 2018       Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig

Aug. 5, 2025       Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy

Nathan Eovaldi surrendered a lone hit in eight otherwise flawless innings to pick up his 10th win of the year.  The right-hander has recorded a win in each of his past six appearances and in this stretch, covering 38.2 innings, owns a 0.47 ERA and a 0.776 WHIP.  Eovaldi is the 12th pitcher in Rangers history to pocket a win in at least six straight outings, with Kenny Rogers’ eight-game streak in 2005 the longest.  Among these 12, Eovaldi, Rogers (twice) and Fergie Jenkins are the only ones to also post a sub-one ERA across their run.  

1974    Fergie Jenkins goes 7-0 with a 0.74 ERA

1995    Kenny Rogers goes 7-0 with a 0.87 ERA

2005    Kenny Rogers goes 8-0 with a 0.92 ERA

2025    Nathan Eovaldi goes 6-0 with a 0.47 ERA

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