When Barry Bonds drew 232 walks in 2004 to annihilate the previous single-season record and set a standard which feels unbreakable, he didn’t exactly erupt from the outset. On Opening Day, he drew one free pass and then in the following contest, collected another (this one of the intentional variety). Since 1901, the high bar for the most walks through a club’s first two games rests at six, and has for a long time. Max Bishop – he of the “Camera Eye” nickname and owner of eight straight seasons with at least 100 free passes – was the first to get there, in 1932. Jo-Jo White matched that tally in 1935 and then Ted Williams (1950), Wally Moon (1958), Vic Davalillo (1966), Sixto Lezcano (1978), Von Hayes (1990), Freddie Freeman (2018) and Robbie Grossman (2021) filed in. A whole bunch of names come in next with five, including Dodgers Jim Gilliam, Miguel Vargas and the newest entrant, Will Smith.
Catcher Will Smith couldn’t quite match his Opening Day line when he reached safely four times, but the 29-year-old did draw a pair of walks in companionship with a double and two runs scored. In two of the past three seasons, Smith has been an on-base machine out of the gate:
1901-2025: Dodgers Catchers to Reach Safely 3+ Times in Games 1 & 2
1952 Roy Campanella
1974 Joe Ferguson
1978 Steve Yeager
2023 Will Smith
2025 Will Smith
Smith’s seven times on base through the first two games is three short of the high mark for any player since 1901, a crest shared by Toronto’s Carlos Delgado in 2002 and the Cubs’ Emilio Bonifácio in 2014. No Dodger has surpassed eight, with Zack Wheat (1926), Campanella (1952), Corey Seager (2021) and Mookie Betts (2024) all getting to that number.
Tommy Edman connected for the season’s first home run – part of a 1-for-5 day that also gave him an RBI in each of the first two contests. The second baseman has a number of remaining steps to trace if he wants to match the longest streak to open a season for the Dodgers in the modern era. In 1957, Carl Furillo drove in a run in each of Brooklyn’s first seven games, a feat later matched by Ron Cey in 1977.
Shohei Ohtani filled up his line in the box score, contributing a solo home run and two walks to the Dodgers’ 6-3 win. The two-game set in Tokyo yielded a 1.375 OPS for the team’s leadoff hitter – a glossy number that extends a narrative from the previous season. In 2024, Ohtani and Mookie Betts shared leadoff duties (combined, they started all 162 games in the top spot) to propel the club to a .991 OPS from that batting order position. Only three clubs since 1901 have generated a higher value:
1901-2024: Highest Team OPS From Leadoff Spot
1.028 Red Sox in 2018*
.999 Braves in 2023
.998 Rockies in 2017
.991 Dodgers in 2024
.988 Yankees in 2020
.959 Dodgers in 2023**
Special mention then comes in the form of the 1901 Cardinals, who break the string of recent dominance with the seventh best figure: .954.
*Betts was in the top spot for 131 of Boston’s games
**Betts was in the top spot for 151 of the Dodgers’ games
Ohtani’s two-game start has produced seven total bases – a nice beginning from the man whose 411 last year tied him with Barry Bonds in 2001 for the 16th most in history, but a far cry from the best a Dodgers player has mustered through two games. Since 1901, Adrián González’s 14 in 2015 represents the apogee. For all players in the modern era, George Bell’s 19 in 1988 are the most (it helps to bang out three homers on Opening Day). Just behind Bell: Chuck Klein in 1931 and Bonds in 2002, each with 17.
Jon Berti posted the brightest line for a Cubs batter with three hits, a run scored and a steal (his second in as many contests). It’s trivial, but also the exact type of circumstance made for a final note – how many times has a number nine batter posted this kind of line (or better) so early in the year? Certainly, the pickings are slimmer due to decades of non-DH seasons, but here’s the entire list since 1901:
~Roberto Kelly goes 4-for-4 with 2 runs and 2 steals on Opening Day in 1989
~Derek Jeter goes 3-for-3 with 3 runs and 1 steal in Game #2 in 1996
~Kevin Stocker goes 3-for-4 with 2 runs and 1 steal in Game #2 in 1999
~Jerry Hairston goes 3-for-4 with 2 runs and 1 steal on Opening Day in 2001
~Jason Kendall goes 3-for-4 with 1 run and 1 steal in Game #2 in 2008
~Jon Berti goes 3-for-4 with 1 run and 1 steal in Game #2 in 2025
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.