Game Notes – 09/01/2025

September baseball is the time to meaningfully count – up and down.  With each contest that marches upward toward the 162nd, postseason pursuers can focus on a magic number, counting down toward the desired zero that translates to October baseball.  With each day moving a player closer to his final chance to add to the seasonal line, we can look up to the milestone numbers that shape and solidify and color the game and count down toward how many more strikeouts or wins or saves, home runs or RBI or steals are needed to reach the landmarks.  

There have been 47 players who, by the time all of the counting in both directions was complete, could proudly display a batting line that featured 200+ hits and 50+ doubles.  Most of the campaigns came from positions other than the two holding up (down?) the middle of the infield and most of the keystone contributors came from second basemen, with only two delivered by shortstops.  Can we count on another in 2025?

As the Blue Jays count down toward their final game and potentially clinching their first AL East title since 2015, their shortstop, Bo Bichette, can tick off the numbers in both directions – 25 remaining games to amass 24 hits and eight doubles and join the 200-50 club.  

Bo Bichette went 4-for-4 with two doubles, a homer and a single.  

~The effort marked the 18th time in his career Bichette has sprayed at least four hits, a figure that places him underneath just Shannon Stewart (20) for the most in Blue Jays history.  

~Extending the purview to consider all of the Majors, Bichette is now leading the bigs in both hits (176) and doubles (42):  a double-dip that last saw a shortstop as the author in 1983, when Baltimore’s Cal Ripken, Jr. did this with 211 and 47.  The very year before, Brewers shortstop Robin Yount (210, 46) turned the trick.  Before these back-to-back super shortstop seasons (each bringing the protagonist a league MVP award), the super-est shortstop, Honus Wagner, had been the last at the position to pace the Majors in both categories, thanks to his 1908 campaign (201 hits, 39 doubles).

Juan Soto hit a grand slam, drove in six and added a pair of walks to his line in a Mets 10-8 win over the Tigers.  The all-around effort provides a good excuse to catch up with Soto’s heights and placements alongside some of the greatest names the game has produced (it’s also a nice way to recall the awesomeness of Mike Trout).  

~Soto has accumulated nearly 4,700 plate appearances already, one of just 63 players in history to have at least 4,000 through an age-26 season.  Among them, his 160 OPS+ ranks as the seventh-best mark:

Highest OPS+ Through Age-26 Season, Minimum 4,000 Plate Appearances

181    Ty Cobb

176    Mickey Mantle

175    Mike Trout

173    Rogers Hornsby

173    Jimmie Foxx

169    Albert Pujols

160    Juan Soto

~For all players through their age-26 seasons, Soto’s 44.0 oWAR casts him just above Tris Speaker and Henry Aaron, his accumulation bettered by nine others:  

Most oWAR Through Age-26 Season

63.1    Mike Trout

61.6    Ty Cobb

59.7    Mickey Mantle

54.3    Álex Rodríguez

53.6    Rogers Hornsby

50.7    Jimmie Foxx

48.7    Arky Vaughan

48.4    Mel Ott

44.5    Eddie Mathews

44.0    Juan Soto

43.8    Tris Speaker

43.6    Henry Aaron

~Soto has 116 games in his career that have seen him homer and draw a walk.  No player in history has delivered more such lines before turning 27 years old, with Soto’s tally surpassing those presented by Mickey Mantle (115), Jimmie Foxx (114), Eddie Mathews (106), Mike Trout (105) and Mel Ott (101).

Jose Altuve doubled and homered – the 50th time in his Astros career he’s had at least one of each in the same game.  Houston can claim two players with more – Jeff Bagwell (80) and Lance Berkman (54) – with Altuve right above Craig Biggio (48).

In a 6-5 win over the Twins, White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery went yard for the 16th time this season.  The rookie has more longballs through his first 47 career games than all but one White Sox representative – José Abreu, who mashed 17.  

~Montgomery has inflicted his most damage against the Twins, who’ve been on hand for four of his longballs.  In the long history between the two franchises, Roy Sievers has the most home runs in a season for the White Sox against the Senators/Twins, with nine in 1960.  On the other side of the competition, Sievers also can claim the most for a Senator/Twin against the White Sox, with 12 in 1957.   

Luis Arráez singled three times to reach 1,000 career hits.  He’s one of 254 players to have at least 1,000 through his first seven seasons, but profiles within this group as one of just 18 to also boast of fewer than 250 strikeouts and fewer than 250 walks (Arráez has 210 K’s and 223 free passes).  Five of the other 17 debuted in the 19th century and eight others got their start before the 1930s entered the picture.  The four to debut since then:

Buddy Hassett: debuted in 1936 and owned 1,026 hits, 116 K’s, 209 walks through 7 seasons

Dick Groat: debuted in 1952 and owned 1,072 hits, 208 K’s and 213 walks through 7 seasons

Vic Power: debuted in 1954 and owned 1,116 hits, 139 K’s and 181 walks through 7 seasons

Glenn Beckert: debuted in 1965 and owned 1,200 hits, 203 K’s and 195 walks through 7 seasons

Charlie Morton hit his 13th batter of the season and 199th of his career.  The 13 are tied for the most by any AL hurler in 2025 and the 199 offer a crucial, penultimate step to the magical 200.  

~A fifth title in the category would match Morton with Howard Ehmke, Tommy Byrne, Don Drysdale and Dave Stieb for the most in history.

~A 200th hit batsman would align Morton with three pitchers who got started in the 19th century* and Hall of Famer Walter Johnson (who debuted in 1907) as the only ones to get to the milestone.

*Gus Weyhing, Chick Fraser, Pink Hawley

Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo opened the Diamondbacks’ first inning with home runs – the fourth time in franchise history Arizona’s first two batters of the game went deep, with Marte involved in three of the four explosions.  

July 21, 2017:  David Peralta, AJ Pollock and Jake Lamb

June 10, 2019:  Jarrod Dyson, Ketel Marte and David Peralta

August 5, 2024:  Ketel Marte and Gabriel Moreno

September 1, 2025:  Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo

Making his big league debut, Andrew Alvarez gave up a hit in five innings and came away a winner as the Nationals blanked the Marlins, 2-0.  Since the franchise moved from Montreal to Washington for the 2005 season, Alvarez is the sixth pitcher to start and win his first game in the Majors, joining Collin Balester (2008), Jordan Zimmermann (2009), Luis Atilano (2010), Stephen Strasburg (2010) and Mitchell Parker (2024).  There were 11 Expos pitchers who could make this claim, including Hall of Famer Randy Johnson. 

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