Cast the script back to 1977 …
The good: just 21 years old, Cardinals shortstop Garry Templeton bats .322 and amasses 200 hits (both top-three marks in the NL) and paces the Senior Circuit with 18 triples.
The bad: somehow, despite coming to the plate 644 times, Templeton draws 15 walks (and three of them are intentional).
The ugly: Templeton is thrown out trying to steal a base a whopping 24 times while managing to collect 28 thefts (editor’s note: Templeton’s 53.8 SB% still stands as the worst in the past 70 years for any player with at least 50 attempts).
Garry Templeton’s 1977 campaign is a wonder to consider and contemplate, especially with some of the sensibilities that we as baseball fans in 2025 hold. Whatever the evaluation, it’s nice to see Templeton crop up in some notes as the 2025 season winds down and league leadership and notable numbers are nearing their endpoint.
Corbin Carroll collected his 17th triple and stole his 29th base of the season.
~Carroll leads the Majors with his 17 triples and holds an advantage of six over the number two guy in the NL, pretty much guaranteeing he’s going to lead his league for a third straight season*. He’ll be the first to make this claim in the Senior Circuit since Garry Templeton in 1977-1979.
~Carroll is also second in extra-base hits in the NL, with 77. Looking ahead just a little bit … in the wide view of the entirety of the Modern Era, it’s not all that common to pair a 30-steal season with as many extra-base hits as Carroll currently has, there being 40 players to do it. In the more focused lens of the ultra-modern game, this is popping up fairly often; Carroll’s potential line would be the sixth in the past three years. Ronald Acuña, Jr. did it in 2023 and then this type of work exploded in 2024, with Bobby Witt, Jr., José Ramírez, Shohei Ohtani and Jarren Duran all adding their seasons to the list.
~*Assuming Carroll does lead the NL in triples in 2025, that’ll give Diamondbacks players 11 crowns in the category in the 28 years of the franchise’s existence. There’s David Dellucci in 1998, Tony Womack in 2000 and Steve Finley in 2003. More recently, things have really taken off: David Peralta (2015 and 2021), Chris Owings (2016), Ketel Marte (2018), Eduardo Escobar (2019), Carroll (2023-2025).
Jacob Wilson singled three times to raise his average to .321 (second in the AL). A mark this high for a shortstop this young = few and (mostly) far between.
1893-2025: Players in Age-23 or Younger Seasons, 100+ Games at SS & .321 or Better BA
1893 John McGraw hits .321
1896 Gene DeMontreville hits .343
1917 Rogers Hornsby hits .327
1926 Travis Jackson hits .327
1930 Joe Cronin hits .346
1934 Arky Vaughan hits .333
1935 Arky Vaughan hits .385 to lead the NL
1937 Cecil Travis hits .344
1942 Johnny Pesky hits .331
1977 Garry Templeton hits .322
1996 Álex Rodríguez hits .358 to lead the AL
2007 Hanley Ramírez hits .332
2025 Jacob Wilson is batting .321
Starters Justin Verlander and Brandon Pfaadt came out of a taut duel with no-decisions as the Giants took down the Diamondbacks in 11 innings, 5-1.
~Pfaadt worked nine scoreless innings, allowing one hit and a walk. In the Modern Era, he’s one of 18 starters to lose out on a win even after finishing his day with at least nine scoreless innings and no more than one hit allowed. He’s the first to appear on this list in 10 years, following Carlos Carrasco in August of 2015. For some inter-team sympathy, there is another Diamondback who can relate – on May 28, 2002, Miguel Batista added his effort to the roster (also in a start against the Giants).
~Verlander spun seven scoreless innings, but his W-L record remained at 3-10. Currently, the winningest active pitcher finds himself on a one-hand-needed-to-count-them-all list of tough-luck seasons.
Fewest Wins in a Season – Pitchers with 25-or-More Starts and an ERA+ of at Least 100*
3 John Dopson in 1988: goes 3-11 with a 118 ERA+
3 Spencer Turnbull in 2019**: goes 3-17 with a 103 ERA+
3 Daniel Norris in 2019**: goes 3-13 with a 106 ERA+
3 Ryan Feltner in 2024: goes 3-10 with a 105 ERA+
3 Justin Verlander in 2025: is 3-10 with a 107 ERA+
*This list does not include Ryne Stanek, who fulfilled the start/ERA+ requirements in 2018 and 2019 as an “opener,” with none of his starts ever going beyond two innings.
**Turnbull and Norris were teammates on the Tigers
Atlanta’s Matt Olson went 3-for-5 with a home run, his sixth straight game with an extra-base hit and RBI. Since 1901, 13 other Braves have strung together this combination in six or more consecutive games, including Olson in 2024 when he did it in seven straight. Eddie Mathews had an eight-game run in 1953 for the longest streak of this kind in the franchise’s books.
~Since joining the Braves for the 2022 season, Olson has amassed 298 extra-base hits. No Brave has accumulated so many over a four-year span since Chipper Jones tallied 300 from 1999-2002.
Manny Machado connected on his 14th career grand slam – the most among active players and tied for the 17th most in history.
25 Álex Rodríguez
23 Lou Gehrig
21 Manny Ramírez
19 Eddie Murray
18 Willie McCovey, Robin Ventura
17 Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Carlos Lee
16 Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron, Dave Kingman, Albert Pujols
15 Ken Griffey, Jr., Richie Sexson, Ryan Howard
14 Gil Hodges, Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire, Mike Piazza, Manny Machado
Padres leadoff hitter Fernando Tatis, Jr. scored twice in his team’s win, pushing his tally to 104 runs on the year, with 103 of them coming when slotted into the top spot in the order. And those 103 put him in a tie with Rickey Henderson (1996) for the most runs for a leadoff hitter in Padres history.
Blake Snell fanned 12 over seven scoreless innings to help the Dodgers to a 5-0 win. For the southpaw, this effort marked the 22nd time in his career he’s reached double-digits in strikeouts while allowing no runs. Seven pitchers in the Modern Era have amassed more such lines.
1901-2025: Most Games With 10+ K’s and No Runs Allowed
58 Nolan Ryan
44 Randy Johnson
31 Roger Clemens
30 Pedro Martínez
28 Max Scherzer
27 Chris Sale
24 Clayton Kershaw
22 Blake Snell
21 Tom Seaver
19 Justin Verlander
~Snell’s outing on this Wednesday marked the second straight in which he did the no runs, 10+ K’s thing. He’s the eighth Dodger since 1901 to do this in successive appearances, with Clayton Kershaw (2015) hovering as the only one of the eight to do it in three straight. The others with two in a row: Karl Spooner in 1954, Sandy Koufax in 1965, Fernando Valenzuela in 1981, Hideo Nomo in 1995, Chan Ho Park in 2000 and Alex Wood in 2017. Spooner’s two-game run came in his first two Major League appearances.
Shohei Ohtani hit his 51st home run and scored his 137th run. There are 47 players who’ve hit at least 51 homers in a season; 11 of them have scored at least 137 runs. Let’s identify them, from the longest ago to just last night …
1920 Babe Ruth, 54-158
1921 Babe Ruth, 59-177
1927 Babe Ruth, 60-158
1928 Babe Ruth, 54-163
1930 Hack Wilson, 56-146
1932 Jimmie Foxx, 58-151
1938 Hank Greenberg, 58-143
1947 Johnny Mize, 51-137
2001 Sammy Sosa, 64-146
2007 Álex Rodríguez, 54-143
2025 Shohei Ohtani, 51-137
Trent Grisham homered twice – his 32nd and 33rd longballs for the season.
~Grisham has five multi-home run games this season to reach a level few Yankees center fielders ever have:
Yankees – Most Multi-HR Games in a Season, Playing CF in Game
8 Mickey Mantle (1961)
7 Mickey Mantle (1956), Aaron Judge (2022)
6 Joe DiMaggio (1948)
5 Joe DiMaggio (1937), Trent Grisham (2025)
~Grisham’s 33 home runs tie him with Bobby Murcer (1972) for the 13th most in a season for a Yankee playing at least 100 games in center field.
Aaron Judge singled twice and added a double to push his total bases to an AL-leading 344.
~Judge is seeking his third belt in the category, after leading in 2022 and 2024. Three titles in the AL stands as a feat that last occurred in 2007, when Álex Rodríguez led the league for the fourth time. The last player before Rodríguez to lead the AL at least three times – Albert Belle, with titles in 1994, 1995 and 1998.
~Judge has reached 340 total bases four times in his career: 340 in 2017, 391 in 2022, 392 in 2024, and now 344 with a little more than a week remaining in 2025. Three Yankees have met this 340+ total base bar more times than Judge: Babe Ruth (10), Lou Gehrig (9) and Joe DiMaggio (5).
Salvador Perez clubbed his 29th home run of the season – his 63rd extra-base hit of the year. His numbers in these two categories place him near or at the very top among old catchers.
Most HR in an Age-35 or Older Season, 50+% of Games at Catcher
37 Carlton Fisk in 1985
29 Salvador Perez in 2025
27 A.J. Pierzynski in 2012
26 Carlton Fisk in 1983
Most XBH in an Age-35 or Older Season, 50+% of Games at Catcher
63 Jorge Posada in 2007
63 Salvador Perez in 2025
61 Carlton Fisk in 1985
56 Carlton Fisk in 1983
Jose Altuve connected on a two-run home run in an Astros win against the Rangers, giving the 35-year-old 100 RBI against Texas (he’s hit 37 home runs). The milestone instigated some curiosity about how many players have posted a 30-100 career line against this particular opponent; the answer is that Altuve is the 19th. The entire list is below, organized by the decade in which the duel started for each batter.
30-HR, 100-RBI Career Line Versus the Rangers Franchise
1960s Norm Cash, Harmon Killebrew, Carl Yastrzemski, Boog Powell, Willie Horton, Reggie Jackson, Graig Nettles
1970s George Brett
1980s Harold Baines, José Canseco, Ken Griffey, Jr.
1990s Frank Thomas, Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson, David Ortiz
2000s Albert Pujols
2010s Kyle Seager, Mike Trout, Jose Altuve
Agustín Ramírez pushed his season totals to 21 homers and 66 RBI. For all first-year players in Marlins history, his 21 round-trippers are third most, behind Dan Uggla’s 27 in 2006 and Giancarlo Stanton’s 22 in 2010; for the same set, his 66 RBI trail only Uggla’s 90.
The Red Sox took down the Athletics in 10 innings for the club’s 11th walk-off win of the year – the 13 tie for the most for the franchise in any season in the Wild Card Era, matching the dramatics that came out of the 2013 season.
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.