For all his gaudy career numbers, Eddie Murray doesn’t possess much in the way of single-year supremacy. There’s an AL-best number of walks in 1984 to go along with the circuit’s best on-base percentage (and the league’s best OPS+) that year, a few seasons with more intentional walks than any other batter in his league That’s it … except for his trajectory to the pinnacle in 1981, when the 25-year-old closed the strike-shortened year with 22 home runs and 78 RBI to tie for the league lead in longballs and outright pace the AL in RBI. Since then, there have been a couple of other switch-hitters to do the HR-RBI leadership two-step: Mets third baseman Howard Johnson (38 and 117) in 1991, Mark Teixeira for the Yankees in 2009, when the first baseman had 39 and 122. That’s the whole bucket over the previous 44 seasons. That’s the club reviewing and considering Cal Raleigh’s application.
Cal Raleigh clubbed his 53rd home run of the year to tie Chris Davis (2013) and Pete Alonso (2019) for the 31st highest tally in history. The longball also moved Raleigh past Mickey Mantle’s Triple Crown season tally (those 52 in 1956) for the second most ever for a switch-hitter, with only Mantle’s 54 in 1961 now above the Mariners’ slugger.
~Raleigh’s 53 home runs and 113 RBI have the backstop in line to become the 19th player since 1977 (the Mariners’ debut season) to pace the AL in both categories. The full list is below, which includes one Mariners representative and the one catching rep (both in italics):
Since 1977: Led the AL in HR & RBI in a Season
1978 Jim Rice (46 & 139) for the Red Sox
1981 Eddie Murray (22 & 78) for the Orioles
1983 Jim Rice (39 & 126) for the Red Sox
1984 Tony Armas (43 & 123) for the Red Sox
1988 José Canseco (42 & 124) for the Athletics
1990 Cecil Fielder (51 & 132) for the Tigers
1991 Cecil Fielder (44 & 133) for the Tigers
1995 Albert Belle (50 & 126) for the Indians
1997 Ken Griffey, Jr. (56 & 147) for the Mariners
2002 Álex Rodríguez (57 & 142) for the Rangers
2006 David Ortiz (54 & 137) for the Red Sox
2007 Álex Rodríguez (54 & 156) for the Yankees
2009 Mark Teixeira (39 & 122) for the Yankees
2012 Miguel Cabrera (44 & 139) for the Tigers
2013 Chris Davis (53 & 138) for the Orioles
2021 Salvador Perez (48 & 121) as the Royals’ catcher
2022 Aaron Judge (62 & 131) for the Yankees
2024 Aaron Judge (58 & 144) for the Yankees
~Raleigh’s home run was just a part of the Mariners’ 18-2 victory over the Braves, one that saw the offense erupt for five homers and add a pair of stolen bases. For the year, Seattle is second in the AL in both of these power/speed categories, with their 210 home runs trailing the Yankees’ 243 and their 140 steals behind only the Rays’ 178. There are eight other clubs who posted Seattle’s current numbers in the two categories in a season, starting with the Rockies and Indians in 1996 and concluding, before 2025, with the Rays and Phillies in 2023. In between: the 1998 Blue Jays, the 2009 and 2011 Rangers and the 2011 Yankees.
Eugenio Suárez hit his 44th and 45th home runs on the year – his seventh multi-homer game of 2025 with all seven coming when he was manning the hot corner. Positionally, no third baseman has produced more in one season, with Suárez matching Ken Caminiti in 1996, Adrian Beltré in 2004 and Álex Rodríguez in 2007.
Wins …
Clayton Kershaw recorded his 10th win of the season, the 222nd of his career.
~The Dodgers’ southpaw is 11 wins behind Don Sutton for the all-time franchise lead.
~Among all left-handers ever, Kershaw’s 222 ties him with Jerry Koosman for the 18th most.
~Additionally, Kershaw’s 13 seasons with double-digit victories aligns him with Herb Pennock, Earl Whitehill, Whitey Ford, Jerry Koosman and David Wells for the 17th most among portsiders.
~Kershaw is now 222-96 in his career, with his +126 in wins over losses getting him closer to Greg Maddux (+128) for the 13th widest margin in history.
~Kershaw’s .698 winning percentage has no superiors when it comes to the 105 hurlers who’ve recorded at least 200 wins since 1893, the year the pitching distance was lengthened to 60 feet, six inches. The top-10 list looks like this:
.698 Clayton Kershaw
.690 Whitey Ford
.687 Pedro Martínez
.680 Lefty Grove
.665 Christy Mathewson
.659 Roy Halladay
.658 Roger Clemens
.658 Max Scherzer
.648 Mordecai Brown
.646 Randy Johnson
~Max Fried won his 16th game of the year to tie his teammate Carlos Rodón and the Brewers’ Freddy Peralta for the Major League lead. The Yankees last saw a pair of southpaws reach 16 wins in the same season in 1998, when David Wells recorded 18 and Andy Pettitte chipped in with 16. There are a few other years in which the franchise could boast of two:
1953 Whitey Ford & Eddie Lopat
1955 Whitey Ford & Tommy Byrne
1979 Ron Guidry & Tommy John
1980 Ron Guidry & Tommy John
1997 Andy Pettitte and David Wells
Shohei Ohtani had a perfect day at the plate, a two-homer, three-walk afternoon that brought his seasonal numbers up to 48 longballs, 127 runs scored, 96 walks and 331 total bases.
~Just using the numbers referenced above as a baseline, Ohtani’s season is the 22nd to reach all of them and the first since Matt Olson’s 2023 campaign, when the Braves’ first baseman hit 54 home runs, scored 127 runs, drew 104 walks and tallied 367 bases. The other 20 campaigns are brought forth by Babe Ruth (5 seasons), Jimmie Foxx (2), Lou Gehrig (2), Mickey Mantle (2), Aaron Judge (2) and these guys with one each: Hack Wilson, Hank Greenberg, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Luis Gonzalez, Todd Helton and Barry Bonds.
~The first of Ohtani’s two home runs came in the first, making that longball his 12th in 2025 to lead off a game. Those dozen tie Ohtani with Mookie Betts (12 in 2023) for the most for a Dodger and leave the three-time MVP three shy of tying Kyle Schwarber’s single-season record set in 2024. Ohtani is the eighth player with at least 12 in a season.
15 Kyle Schwarber in 2024
13 Alfonso Soriano in 2003
12 Brady Anderson in 1996
12 Alfonso Soriano in 2007
12 George Springer in 2019
12 Jose Altuve in 2022
12 Mookie Betts in 2023
12 Shohei Ohtani in 2025
Boston’s Trevor Story made it 27-for-27 in stolen base attempts this season. Dating back to 1951, six players* have finished a year with at least 20 steals and a perfect SB%, with Trea Turner’s 2023 season (30-for-30) offering the most thefts in a pristine campaign (Story’s 27 would clock in as the second highest tally).
*Byron Buxton is currently 21-for-21 this year.
~In addition to Story’s theft, David Hamilton picked up his 20th stolen base of the season to give the Red Sox three players with at least 20 (Jarren Duran has 22). The franchise last had three players reach 20 in the same season in 2008, when Coco Crisp, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia each got to the mark. Ceddanne Rafaela needs one more to join the 2025 group with 20; the Red Sox last had four players with 20+ in 1912.
Byron Buxton’s longball to open the first inning gave the 31-year-old his 30th round-tripper of the year. Buxton, who has eight leadoff homers this season (three shy of tying the franchise record set by Jacque Jones in 2002) is the fifth Senators/Twins center fielder to post a 30-homer line, after Bob Allison (30) in 1959, Jimmie Hall (33) in 1963, Kirby Puckett (31) in 1986 and Torii Hunter (31) in 2006.
José Ramírez tripled in a run, his 938th career RBI. With the event, Ramírez moved past Jim Thome and into sole possession of second place on Cleveland’s lifetime leaderboard, now 146 behind Earl Averill. With 716 extra-base hits, Ramírez is now eight behind Averill for the top spot in that category and is also closing in on the Hall of Fame outfielder for the top mark in total bases, 2,970 to Averill’s 3,200.
Chase Meidroth went 2-for-3 with two walks in Chicago’s win against Detroit, completing his year against the Tigers with a .591/.700/.636/1.336 slash line in 31 plate appearances. For all White Sox batters in a single year against the Tigers with a minimum of 25 plate appearances, Meidroth’s average and on-base marks are the best, toppling Ray Morehart (.514 average in 1926) and Babe Borton (.593 OBP in 1912), respectively.
Josh Bell delivered a pinch-hit, go-ahead three-run homer in the top of the ninth for his Nationals in an eventual 6-3 win. Bell became the sixth pinch-hitter in Expos/Nationals history to produce a homer in the ninth inning that turned a deficit into a lead (or win), with the most recent coming 27 years ago, when DaRond Stovall tagged the Braves for a grand slam with the Expos down 5-2 in the top of the ninth.
Cubs catcher Carson Kelly produced his third multi-homer game of the year, establishing himself as the fifth backstop in the Modern Era to have so many for this club. Gabby Hartnett’s five in 1930 remain on top, withstanding challenges from Todd Hundley (three in 2001) and Willson Contreras (three in 2017 and 2019).
Reds right-hander Hunter Greene struck out a dozen Mets while allowing just one hit – the third time this season the 26-year-old has reached 12 punchouts. The Reds’ history books back to 1901 show the most such games in a season coming from Jim Maloney, who had six in 1963. Greene’s three tie him with Maloney in 1965 and Johnny Vander Meer in 1941 for the sixth most.
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.