Game Notes – 09/25/2025

The 1996 Rockies roster boasted the NL leader in home runs and RBI (Andrés Galarraga), the league’s top base stealer (Eric Young, Sr.) and the top guy in runs scored, total bases, extra-base hits and slugging percentage, Ellis Burks.  Burks’ line also dazzled with 40 home runs and 32 steals, a 30-30 season that found the team’s left fielder matched with another 30-30 author over in right, Dante Bichette.   The 1996 Rockies were FUN.

With a third-inning swat and trot around the bases, Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor joined the 30-HR, 30-SB club for the second time.  

~Lindor – who posted his first campaign in 2023 –  is one of two shortstops to go 30-30 in multiple seasons, joining Bobby Witt, Jr. (2023, 2024).  With two, Lindor can also rub shoulders with former Met Howard Johnson and former teammate José Ramírez as the only switch-hitters to do this multiple times, with the other two owning a trio of qualifying campaigns.

~Lindor joined his current teammate Juan Soto in the club, making the 2025 Mets the third team to have multiple players post a 30-30 campaign.  In 1987, Mets Howard Johnson and Darryl Strawberry turned the trick and then the 1996 Rockies had Ellis Burks and Dante Bichette direct the action.

Byron Buxton put on a one-man show in Texas on Thursday, leading off the game with a home run and adding a three-run shot later on – all the Twins needed in a 4-0 victory.  

~Buxton’s 10th leadoff homer of the year moved him to within one of matching Jacque Jones’ franchise record, established in 2002.  

~Buxton lifted his longball tally to 34 – a benchmark for four-baggers from a Senators/Twins center fielder.  The positional leaderboard for the franchise looks like this, using the baseline of a player needing at least two-thirds of his games at the position in question to qualify:

Senators/Twins:  Most HRs in a Season, By Position/Role

C      31 by Mitch Garver in 2019

1B    46 by Harmon Killebrew in 1961

2B    42 by Brian Dozier in 2016

3B    42 by Harmon Killebrew in 1959

SS    24 by Roy Smalley in 1979

LF     49 by Harmon Killebrew in 1964

CF    34 by Byron Buxton in 2025

RF    35 by Bob Allison in 1963

DH   41 by Nelson Cruz in 2019

P       3 by Walter Johnson (1914), Jim Shaw (1919), Bob Porterfield (1953), Pedro Ramos (1961), Jim Kaat            (1964)

Nick Kurtz homered twice for the Athletics, powering his power numbers to 35 home runs and a .623 slugging percentage.  Few first-year players can match his profile.

Most HRs by a First-Year Player (Age-Season in Parentheses)

53   Pete Alonso in 2019 (24)

39   Cody Bellinger in 2017 (21)

38   Wally Berger in 1930 (24)

38   Frank Robinson in 1956 (20)

37   Albert Pujols in 2001 (21)

36   José Abreu in 2014 (27)

35   Nick Kurtz in 2025 (22)

.600+ Slugging % From a First-Year Player, Min. 100 Games (Age-Season in Parentheses)

.634   Ryan Braun in 2007 (23)

.623   Nick Kurtz in 2025 (22)

.621   George Watkins in 1930 (30)

.614   Wally Berger in 1930 (24)

.610   Albert Pujols in 2001 (21)

.609   Ted Williams in 1939 (20)

Shea Langeliers constructed his second straight four-hit game, contributing three singles and a double to the Athletics’ effort.  

~Langeliers is the 15th Athletic to produce four-or-more hits in consecutive games – the second to do it this season (after JJ Bleday) and third in the past two seasons (Langeliers also did this in 2024).  Before last season, no Athletic had done it since Brent Gates in 1994.  Anyway, among the names that represent these 15 back-to-back efforts, Langeliers’ is the only one to appear twice.  And now, he can now aim his bat toward Doc Cramer, who had three straight games with four-or-more knocks in 1932.  

~Langeliers’ 30th double on the year made him one of 12 catchers (at least 50% of games at catcher) to post a 30-double, 30-homer campaign.  Gabby Hartnett did this first, in 1930, and then the 1950s ushered in Roy Campanella (1951) and Stan Lopata (1956).  Johnny Bench produced three such seasons in the 1970s (1970, 1974, 1977) and then Todd Hundley (1996), Mike Piazza (1997, 1998) and Mike Lieberthal (1999) provided the next wave.  Then, silence until 2025, when Langeliers and Salvador Perez make the grade.  And since we’re invoking the Royals’ longtime catcher …

Salvador Perez stroked a three-run double in Kansas City’s win to get to 100 RBI for the year.  

~With the burst, the 35-year-old Perez (30 HR) became the second-oldest catcher in history to post a 30-HR, 100-RBI season, following 37-year-old Carlton Fisk, who authored a 37-107 line in 1985.

~Perez joined Danny Tartabull (1987, 1991) as the only Royals to assemble multiple 30-100 seasons.  Perez’s first came in 2021, when he led the AL with 48 longballs and 121 RBI.

~With the double, Perez collected his 65th extra-base hit of the 2025 campaign.  No catcher in an age-35 or older season has ever had so many.  In 2007, Jorge Posada – in his age-36 season – had 63.

Mike Trout cracked his 401st career home run, the 23rd most ever for a player through an age-33 season.  Even if Trout’s eminence and production have dipped, his ascent and sustained level of excellence still carry over to keep him in limited collections.  For example, he’s one of 15 players ever to reach 400 longballs while drawing at least 1,000 walks through an age-33 season – by decade of debut season, that association evolves thusly:

1910s   Babe Ruth

1920s   Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Mel Ott

1950s   Mickey Mantle, Eddie Mathews, Harmon Killebrew, Frank Robinson

1980s   Barry Bonds

1990s   Jim Thome, Álex Rodríguez

2000s   Adam Dunn, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera

2010s   Mike Trout

~Among the 23 players in history to reach the end of their age-33 campaign with at least 400 home runs, Trout’s 168 OPS+ at this stage comes out fourth highest.  The top eight:

Through Age-33 Season, 400+ HR and 160 (or Better) OPS+

213   Babe Ruth (470 HR)

184   Lou Gehrig (427 HR)

175   Mickey Mantle (473 HR)

168   Mike Trout (401 HR)

167   Jimmie Foxx (519 HR)

165   Albert Pujols (492 HR)

164   Barry Bonds (411 HR)

161   Willie Mays (453 HR)

Shohei Ohtani hit his 54th home run to equal the career-best mark he established last season.  The four-bagger provided the DH with his 144th run scored – the third most ever for a Dodger (and the most since 1890) and the seventh-highest tally for any player in the post-WWII era. 

1946-2025 – Most Runs Scored

152   Jeff Bagwell (2000)

150   Ted Williams (1949)

149   Ronald Acuña, Jr. (2023)

146   Rickey Henderson (1985), Craig Biggio (1997), Sammy Sosa (2001)

144   Shohei Ohtani (2025)

Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s six innings featured four hits allowed and seven punchouts, shifting the right-hander’s seasonal marks to 201 K’s and an MLB-best 5.86 hits per nine innings.  Among the more than 600 pitchers since 1901 to have reached 200 strikeouts in a season, Yamamoto’s hit rate ties him with Russ Ford (1910) for the 15th lowest.  Those two, along with the groups directly above and below them:

5.83   Hideo Nomo in 1995

5.85   Herb Score in 1956

5.85   Bob Gibson in 1968

5.86   Russ Ford in 1910

5.86   Yoshinobu Yamamoto in 2025

5.87   Sam McDowell in 1965

5.88   Spencer Strider in 2022

5.89   Pedro Martínez in 1997

Aaron Judge singled and doubled and drew a pair of walks in a Yankees victory, giving the reigning AL MVP league-best marks in total bases (362) and times on base (305).  It’s the second straight season Judge has accumulated at least 300 of each, and that is not a feat that comes around every day.

Consecutive Seasons, 300+ Times on Base & 300+ Total Bases

4  Lou Gehrig (1934-1937)

4  Ted Williams (1946-1949)

3  Babe Ruth (1926-1928)

3  Lou Gehrig (1930-1932)

3  Barry Bonds (1996-1998)

3  Jason Giambi (2000-2002)

2  Babe Ruth (1920-1921)

2  Rogers Hornsby (1921-1922)

2  Babe Ruth (1923-1924)

2  Paul Waner (1927-1928)

2  Lou Gehrig (1927-1928)

2  Babe Ruth (1930-1931)

2  Jimmie Foxx (1932-1933)

2  Ted Williams (1941-1942)

2  Stan Musial (1948-1949)

2  Stan Musial (1953-1954)

2  Mickey Mantle (1956-1957)

2  Frank Thomas (1991-1992)

2  Jeff Bagwell (1996-1997)

2  Jeff Bagwell (1999-2000)

2  Todd Helton (2000-2001)

2  Barry Bonds (2001-2002)

2  Todd Helton (2003-2004)

2  Aaron Judge (2024-2025)

*That’s 14 different players represented above, if all the duplicates blurry the count.

Carlos Rodón picked up his 18th win of the season, giving the Yankees a second left-hander with at least that many (Max Fried has 19).  There are 39 instances of a club having multiple southpaws with at least 18 wins in a season, a chain link that begins with the 1887 Baltimore Orioles (Matt Kilroy and Phenomenal Smith), includes one staff with three (the 1991 Angels – Jim Abbott, Chuck Finley and Mark Langston) and also twines one other Yankees duo (Ron Guidry and Tommy John in 1979).

Jahmai Jones led off the top of the first with a home run and from there, the Tigers never relinquished the lead for a crucial win over the Guardians that left the two clubs tied atop the AL Central with three games left on the schedule.  Jones has made quite an early-game impact this month, launching three longballs to lead off the first.  Curtis Granderson was the last Tiger to have such an explosive final (full) month of the season, generating three of his own in 2009.  

Nick Lodolo fanned 12 over six-and-a-third scoreless innings to pace the Reds to a 2-1 win.  The K-column effort matched the best Lodolo has ever done, equaling his output from a 2023 game; with that, he joined Johnny Vander Meer (six) and Noodles Hahn (two) as the only Reds southpaws in the Modern Era to have multiple games with at least a dozen strikeouts.   Both of Hahn’s high-octane efforts came in 1901, while Vander Meer spread his out as such:  three in 1941, one apiece in 1942, 1943 and 1946.

Dylan Beavers – who made his MLB debut on August 16 and has played 32 games – produced his second career walk-off hit, this one a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth.  Quite an impression, and one that makes the 24-year-old the second Orioles rookie this year to have multiple walk-off hits in this September.  He joins Samuel Basallo, who made his debut on August 17 and had two over span of five days, with his second coming in his 17th career game on September 9.  Beavers’ first – a game-ending single – occurred on September 10 in his 20th career game. 

Daulton Varsho hit a grand slam for the Blue Jays in a 6-1 win, the fourth time the outfielder has gone yard with the bases loaded for Toronto.  Despite playing only 362 games with the Blue Jays, Varsho is tied with Joe Carter, Darrin Fletcher and George Springer for the seventh most slams in franchise history.  Carlos Delgado rests at the top with his nine, and is followed by George Bell (seven) and Edwin Encarnación (six) before this cluster at five:  Vernon Wells, Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr..

With a four-hit game, Kansas City’s Bobby Witt, Jr. crept to within one knock of tying Bo Bichette (who has been on the Injured List since September 9) for the AL lead in the category.  The Royals shortstop paced the league with 211 hits in 2024, and so is in position to become the first AL’er since Bichette in 2021-2022 to have consecutive belts.  One player stretching his preeminence over multiple seasons has been a recurring theme in the league over the past 20 years, with Ichiro Suzuki (2006-2010), Jose Altuve (2014-2017) and Whit Merrifield (2018-2019) all having successive crowns before Bichette and potentially, Witt. 

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