Over his past 25 games, Phillies shortstop Trea Turner is batting .330, with 36 knocks over 109 at-bats. This stretch won’t be regarded as scintillating or historic or any other word, expression or phrase generally reserved for the upper tier levels of “wow” on a big league diamond. But, Turner’s work has vaulted him into the conversation about who might emerge from the NL with the league’s best average, a race currently being paced by Miami’s Xavier Edwards and his .302 (Turner is fourth among qualifiers, at .295). And if that league-leading number looks low, well, it is – historically so. Since the start of the 20th century, no NL batting champ has been lower than Tony Gwynn, who captured the 1988 crown with a .313 mark. So not only are Edwards, Turner and the rest of the legit contenders chasing each other, they are also in pursuit of a run that might elevate them above the worst the best has done.
The NL leader in hits – Philadelphia’s Trea Turner – turned in his fifth straight multi-hit game with two singles, a double and a home run. The Phillies’ shortstop’s streak marks the second time this season he’s posted a multi-hit run this long, which isn’t seen too often for the franchise.
Most Multi-Hit Game Streaks of at Least Five in a Season, Since 1901 – Phillies
4 Don Hurst (1932)
3 Chuck Klein (1929, 1930, 1932), Richie Ashburn (1958)
2 Bobby Byrne (1914), George Harper (1925), Lefty O’Doul (1929), Hal Lee (1932), Dick Bartell (1934), Chuck Klein (1936), Richie Ashburn (1948, 1957), Dave Cash (1975), Bake McBride (1980), Pete Rose (1981), Jimmy Rollins (2006), Bryce Harper (2023), Trea Turner (2025).
~Turner’s big night brought him his 1,500th career hit. He’s the 46th player to record at least 1,500 through an age-32 season while also having at least two-thirds of his career games at shortstop. At 1,503, Turner is tied with 19th century batsman Jack Glasscock, and is right behind Jay Bell (1,507) and these guys at 1,511: Roger Peckinpaugh, Leo Cárdenas and Bill Russell. There are five players at the top who cleared 2,000: Robin Yount (2,407), Édgar Rentería (2,185), Derek Jeter (2,150), Cal Ripken, Jr. (2,087) and Arky Vaughan (2,032).
In the Phillies’ win, Bryce Harper generated his 30th career multi-home run game and brought his career tally of extra-base hits up to 778.
~The 30 multi-homer games before turning 33 years old places Harper in a dead heat right now with Dick Allen and Chipper Jones for the 41st most ever. For this particular lens, Jimmie Foxx, with his 55, is the king.
~Harper’s 778 extra-base hits tie him with Vladimir Guerrero for the 21st most for any player through an age-32 season. Among the 20 players with more, seven have paired their quantity of long hits with more walks than Harper has: Mickey Mantle, Mel Ott, Jimmie Foxx, Eddie Mathews, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
Gunnar Henderson tripled and homered in the Orioles’ win over the Red Sox, upping his career tally of extra-base hits to 202. There are six players in franchise history who had more through their respective age-24 seasons than Henderson has produced in his. Manny Machado had the most (323), followed by Cal Ripken, Jr. (275), Eddie Murray (247), Harlond Clift (238), Boog Powell (226) and Vern Stephens (205).
Trevor Rogers allowed a run in seven innings for Baltimore, trimming his ERA to 1.41 in his 12 starts this season. Since 1954, five different Orioles hurlers – including Rogers – have scripted a 12-game stretch that saw them throw at least 75.0 innings and own an ERA no higher than 1.43 (a few of these stretches overlap). The names that are responsible:
1959 Hoyt Wilhelm puts together two (overlapping) stretches
1969 Mike Cuellar has one stretch
1972 Jim Palmer puts together two (overlapping) stretches
1972 Pat Dobson has one stretch
1975 Jim Palmer has one stretch
2025 Trevor Rogers has one stretch
Freddy Peralta’s six scoreless innings featured 22 batters facing the right-hander with only one coming away with a hit. The formula worked out to a 15th win for Peralta and the 79th of the year for Milwaukee.
~Peralta has been about as hit-stingy as they come this season, posting a 6.56 hits per nine that ranks fourth in the NL and would be the fourth-lowest mark ever for any qualifying Brewers pitcher, behind posts from Corbin Burnes in 2022 (6.42), Brandon Woodruff in 2021 (6.52) and Burnes in 2023 (6.55).
~Peralta has limited batters to a .205 average in his career (consisting of 204 games, 155 starts). Place that into the career rankings of pitchers since 1920 with at least 150 starts and it doesn’t take long to find Peralta’s name and number among the most grudging.
Liveball Era: Lowest Batting Average-Against (min. 150 GS)
.204 Nolan Ryan in 5,386.0 IP
.205 Sandy Koufax in 2,324.1 IP
.205 Freddy Peralta in 897.0 IP
.209 Sid Fernandez in 1,866.2 IP
.210 Jacob deGrom in 1,507.1 IP
~With the 7-0 win over the Cubs, the Brewers improved to 79-45 with an MLB-best +168 run differential (the Cubs are second, incidentally, with a +110). The wins and run difference through 124 games are the best marks in Brewers franchise history and pretty notable for all teams this century.
→the +168 run differential is the franchise best by 42 runs over what the 1980 team did and ranks as the 15th best for any team this century, directly behind the 2019 Astros’ +175.
→the 79 wins is the best mark for the franchise by four, over the 2021 club, and is tied for the 13th best total for any team this century.
Riley Greene connected on his 29th home run for Detroit in the club’s 10-0 win over the Astros – a two-run shot that brought his RBI tally to 92. As the 24-year-old closes in on his first 30-100 campaign, it’s worth noting the Tigers this young who have assembled these numbers.
Age-24 or Younger Season, 30 homers and 100 RBI for the Tigers
1935 Hank Greenberg goes 36-168
1937 Rudy York goes 35-101
1938 Rudy York goes 33-126
1977 Jason Thompson goes 31-105
In a no-decision, Paul Skenes surrendered a pair of runs, and for the year, owns a 2.95 ERA in his 19 starts that have failed to bring him a victory. The right-hander’s tough-luck season in a little bit of context:
2000-2025: Lowest ERA in Starts That Failed to Yield a Win (min. 100.0 IP)
2018 Jacob deGrom goes 0-9 with a 2.09 ERA in 22 non-winning starts
2005 Roger Clemens goes 0-8 with a 2.32 in 19
2014 Félix Hernández goes 0-6 with a 2.45 in 19
2013 Clayton Kershaw goes 0-9 with a 2.80 in 17
2013 Matt Harvey goes 0-5 with a 2.95 in 17
2018 Clayton Kershaw goes 0-5 with a 2.95 in 17
2025 Paul Skenes is 0-9 with a 2.95 in 19
Michael Harris II went 4-for-4 with a home run in a Braves loss and is now OPS’ing 1.144 in 30 games since the All-Star break, a number that is so far beyond what he was able to do in this season’s first half, when he produced a .551 in 93 games. Right now, this extreme and dramatic turnabout brings the outfielder a 219 tOPS+*, a value that would be so far beyond what any player has generated in a second half this century. From 2000-2024, there were more than 4,500 batters who accumulated at least 200 plate appearances in a season’s second half, with the three highest tOPS+ values coming from Melvin Mora in 2008, Freddy Sanchez in 2008 and Gavin Lux in 2024. Some details, along with a re-stating for Harris …
2008 Melvin Mora with a 158 tOPS+. First half (.686), second half (1.073), season (.826).
2008 Freddy Sanchez with a 157 tOPS+. First half (.556), second half (.862), season (.669).
2024 Gavin Lux with a 155 tOPS+. First half (.562), second half (.899), season (.703).
2025: Michael Harris II with a 219 tOPS+. First half (.551), second half (1.144), season (.705).
*Via Baseball Reference: tOPS+ is the OPS for the split relative to the player’s overall OPS, where a number greater than 100 indicates the batter did better than usual in this split.
Playing in his 15th game with the Royals, Mike Yastrzemski led off the first with a homer – the third time since being acquired he’s done this. The three tie a team mark for most leadoff home runs in any calendar month, matching this brand new Royal with franchise stalwarts Johnny Damon (three in September of 1998) and Alex Gordon (three in August of 2012).
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.