Game Notes – 04/16/2025

There are a lot of Major League games every season.  There have been a lot of Major League seasons.  The spring->summer->fall carnival ride of rises and dips, the sheer volume of numbers and storylines, the numerous ways to organize and contextualize:  all of this makes it easy and natural to forget – to have what once was extraordinarily vibrant in the moment become somewhat duller as more stories and more numbers and more incandescent flashes add to the picture album.  That’s where the magic of the present lies – in an instant, something that happens now can be the presto chango that conjures up the past and makes it live once again.  Here’s an example.  

Aaron Judge has launched into the start of the 2025 season, putting up an enthralling assortment and combination of numbers.  His start is also a magic phrase,  summoning Álex Rodríguez’s beginning in 2007 – oh, yeah!  In the Yankees’ first 18 games that year, the eventual AL MVP scored 26 runs, collected 30 hits with 21 going for extra-bases and drove in 34.  There were seven doubles in there, along with 14 homers, 79 total bases.  A .400 average, a 1.053 slugging percentage, a 1.507 OPS.  Oh, yes, right, now I remember – Álex Rodríguez was something from another world as the 2007 season got underway.  

Aaron Judge was 3-for-3 with a walk, a homer and a double in the Yankees’ 4-3 win over the Royals.  As things stand right now, Judge owns the Majors’ rate stat Triple Crown, slashing .409/.519/.803 for a 1.322 OPS.  Aside from these four categories in which he is pacing everyone, Judge also leads MLB with 53 total bases and 42 times on base and is tied for the big league lead with 27 hits.  No leadership, but also worth noting – he’s tied for second with seven homers and tied for second with 21 RBI.  So that’s a snapshot of 2025 – how about some context?

~Since 1901, for all players through their teams’ first 18 games with a minimum of 50 plate appearances, Judge is one of 39 to have a .400/.500/.800 line at this point, and the first to do it since Cody Bellinger in 2019.  The other Yankees to appear on this list:  Derek Jeter in 1999, Paul O’Neill in 1994, Rickey Henderson in 1987, Mickey Mantle in 1956 and Lou Gehrig in 1927.

~Since 1901, for all players through their team’s first 18 games, Judge is one of 33 to have amassed at least 50 total bases and reached safely at least 40 times.  He’s the first to do it since Bellinger in 2019.  The other Yankees to appear on this list:  Jeter in 1999, Mantle in 1956 and Babe Ruth in 1926.

~Judge is the seventh Yankee to have at least seven homers and 21-or-more RBI through the club’s first 18 games.  Mantle and Yogi Berra both hit the marks in 1956, Mantle did it again in 1961, Bobby Murcer joined the group in 1969, Graig Nettles reached the bars in 1974 and Álex Rodríguez got there in 2007.  Rodríguez’s 14 homers and his 34 RBI through 18 games are the most for any player on any team in the modern era.

Chris Bassitt twirled five scoreless innings and picked up a win as Toronto took care of  Atlanta, 3-1.  The right-hander is now 2-0 with a nifty 0.77 ERA in his four starts.  He’s one of 171 Blue Jays pitchers with at least four starts through the club’s first 19 games and one of just two to have a sub-one ERA at this point in the season.  In 2014, Mark Buehrle possessed a 0.64 as part of a 4-0 record in four starts.

Bassitt tallied 10 K’s in his five frames and then the Jays’ bullpen contributed nine more.  The 19 punchouts are a new high mark for the team in a nine-inning game (the staff posted 21 strikeouts in a 14-inning loss, in 1991), besting the previous high by one.  On August 25, 1998, Roger Clemens – all by himself – fanned 18 in a three-hit shutout.

Pete Alonso walked, singled and doubled in a run that moved his season numbers to eight doubles (tied for third in the NL), 21 RBI (2nd), 13 extra-base hits (t-3rd) and a 1.205 OPS (1st).  For all Mets through 18 games:

~The eight doubles tie for third most.  John Stearns (1980) and David Wright (2008) are tied for the most, with 10.

~The 21 RBI are the third most.  Jeff Kent leads with 23 in 1994.

~The 13 extra-base hits are tied for the third most (he also had 13 in 2019).  In the top spot, David Wright had 15 in 2008.

~The 1.205 OPS is the third best (min. 50 PA).  John Milner had the highest – a 1.349 in 1976.

The Padres defeated the Cubs, 4-2 to improve to 15-4 and lower their team ERA to 2.56.  The W-L record ties for the franchise’s best for any 19-game start and the ERA through 19 games comes in as the lowest.  In 1998, the eventual NL Pennant winners started 15-4.  The 1975 team had a 2.59 ERA through its first 19 games (but was only 10-9).

Fernando Tatis, Jr. went 1-for-4 with a walk to extend his on-base streak to begin his year to 18 games – tied for the sixth longest in Padres history.  In 2023, Xander Bogaerts reached safely in each of his first 30 games for the longest run.  Corbin Carroll went 1-for-5 to extend his on-base streak to start his season to 18 games, which is the third longest in Diamondbacks history.  In 1999, Luis Gonzalez reached safely in each of his first 35 games for the franchise’s longest streak to begin a campaign.

Matt Mervis connected for his sixth homer of the year.  He’s tied with eight others for the second most for any player through 17 Marlins games, with only Giancarlo Stanton (seven in 2017) ahead of the pack.  That ’17 season had been the last time any Marlin had as many as six, with Marcell Ozuna also hitting six that year to trail his teammate.

Cal Raleigh twice went deep to highlight a 5-3 Mariners victory.

~The multi-homer game gave Raleigh 100 longballs in his five-season career.  He’s one of four catchers (at least 67% of games behind the plate) to reach triple-digits through his first five seasons, joining Mike Piazza (128), Johnny Bench (114) and Gary Sánchez (105).

~Raleigh is one of 176 players with at least 100 homers through their first five seasons.  His current average –.218 – comes in as the second lowest among the entire collection, between Joey Gallo’s .212 and Dave Kingman’s .226.  

~In this game, as he had done three previous times in his career, Raleigh homered from both sides of the plate.  According to the Mariners’ 2025 media guide, those four tie for the third most ever for a catcher, with Jorge Posada having done it eight times, Todd Hundley five times and Yasmani Grandal four times.

Bailey Falter threw seven scoreless innings, allowed a pair of hits and picked up the win as Pittsburgh defeated Washington, 6-1.  Falter’s referenced line is not that uncommon – there have been 385 instances this decade where a pitcher finished his workday with at least seven innings and no runs with no more than two hits allowed.  Falter’s notability comes from his two strikeouts – among the 385 instances , seven have featured two punchouts and one has witnessed a single K on the line.  On May 5, 2021, Dallas Keuchel notched that single strikeout while going seven scoreless and allowing two hits.  

Bryce Harper hit one out and drew two free passes.  Harper is playing in his age-32 season and stands as one of 23 players ever to have at least 1,000 walks through that age-campaign.  Among this select group, his 340 homers currently rank as the 13th most, four behind Frank Thomas’ tally. 

Jung Hoo Lee doubled and singled in the Giants’ latest victory.  The San Francisco outfielder leads the Majors with 10 doubles and is tied for ninth in the big leagues with 23 hits.  There is one other Giant since 1901 who can claim these numbers through 18 team games:  Frankie Frisch in 1926, who saw 12 of his 23 hits go for two bases.

David Hamilton’s solo homer in the third inning provided all the scoring as the Red Sox blanked the Rays, 1-0.  Hamilton is the first to homer in a 1-0 win for Boston since Mitch Moreland in 2019.  

Jackson Holliday hit his second career grand slam to provide the big blast in Baltimore’s 9-1 win over Cleveland.  The 21-year-old, who has seven career home runs, is now 4-for-7 with the two homers and a double when batting with the bases loaded.  

Freddie Freeman doubled and homered in the Dodgers’ 8-7 win over the Rockies.  For all players through their age-35 seasons, Freeman currently ranks 26th with 888 extra-base hits and 17th with 511 doubles.  In the former category, he’s three shy of matching Carlos Delgado and Rafael Palmeiro for 24th most.  In the latter, his next double will tie him with Paul Waner and two more after that, he’ll be matched with Henry Aaron.  

Milwaukee’s Jose Quintana allowed a run over five-and-two-thirds innings to take home his second win of the year and pull one game over .500 for his career at 104-103.  The southpaw is part of a fascination of mine – longtime hurlers whose career winning percentages are very close (on either side) to or exactly at .500 and who can match that output with an ERA+ not so very far off from 100.  In all of baseball history, there are currently 15 pitchers who made at least 300 starts and whose career numbers saw a winning percentage between .495 and .505 and an ERA between 90 and 110.  The full group: