The early part of any season is so much fun in so many ways, including the weirdness of early-season statistics. The box scores add up, the individual player lines reflect those accumulations and a couple or a few weeks into things, the numerical revelations can be worth a second glance followed by a long stare and a big smile, because they just can’t possibly sustain for another five months.
Case in point: Seattle’s Randy Arozarena and Cal Raleigh.
Both have played enough to qualify for the batting title and both have done enough when swinging (or letting the bad ones go by) to rank in the first 10 in OPS+ among all American Leaguers, with Raleigh at 167 and Arozarena at 165. Raleigh is also batting .216, barely ahead of his teammate’s .212. Something, as it’s said, has to give. This is what history suggests, anyway. There have been 548 individual player seasons between 1969 and 2024 that saw a batter qualify for the batting title and produce an OPS+ of at least 150. The lowest batting average among these producers is .250 – by Ronald Acuña, Jr. in 2020, when the season was only 60 games long. The three lowest in an undiminished year: Mike Schmidt’s .253 in 1979, Schmidt’s .255 in 1983 and Shohei Ohtani’s .257 in 2021. Enjoy the shenanigans in Seattle while they last.
With a game-tying homer in the ninth and a two-run double in the 10th, Seattle’s Randy Arozarena played a significant role in the club’s 11-7 victory. In addition to his AL-leading 16 walks, the left fielder has 10 extra-base hits (tied for the sixth in the league). This numerical expression of patience and pop has been reached three previous times by a Mariner through 19 team games: by John Olerud and Álex Rodríguez in 2000 and Edgar Martínez in 1996.
Arozarena’s teammate, J.P. Crawford, is tied for second in the AL with 14 free passes. The Mariners have had two teammates each with at least 14 walks at this stage in the season once before – in 2000 with John Olerud and Álex Rodríguez. In 1993, Jay Buhner, Tino Martinez and Omar Vizquel all had that many through 19 team games.
Cal Raleigh hit his eighth home run of the season in the Mariners’ win. He’s one of five backstops in the modern era to have that many through his club’s first 19 games (no one has hit more). The others with the eight: Gabby Hartnett in 1925, Yogi Berra in 1956, Todd Hundley in 1996 and J.T. Realmuto in 2020.
Oneil Cruz led off the first inning with a homer and from there it was all zeroes in the runs column: a 1-0 win for the Pirates against the Nationals. Dating back to 1901, there is only one other instance of a Pirates leadoff hitter opening the first with a homer and that salvo coming in a 1-0 win. On September 14, 1993, Carlos García did the honors at the plate in what ended up being a shortened, six-inning victory over the Marlins.
Corbin Carroll swiped three bases in Arizona’s win over Miami.
~The outfielder has four career games with three steals, more than anyone else in franchise history. Tony Womack had a pair of these efforts, and there are nine others who had one. Carroll has played only 364 games in the Majors.
~Carroll has been successful on 87.2% of his steal attempts, which is third highest for any active player with at least 100 tries. Byron Buxton is at 89.0% and Kyle Tucker holds at 88.3%.
The Athletics’ Jacob Wilson contributed a pair of doubles to his club’s win and is fifth in the AL with 24 hits, but the shortstop still has not drawn a walk this season. Let’s pursue two different avenues …
~Wilson is one of 25 players since 1901 to have – through 19 team games – at least 24 hits and no walks. The distribution of players covers almost every decade (some much more fully than others), with only the 1950s and 2010s unrepresented. Butler is the first player to have this combination since Aaron Miles in 2005 and just the fifth since the 1990s began; Tony Peña did it in 1990, Charlie Hayes followed in 1992 and then Alfonso Soriano did this in 2001. Finally, there are a couple of Athletics forebears among the previous two dozen: Rube Oldring in 1910 and Joe Dugan in 1920.
~Wilson is batting .338. There are 964 players in the NL or AL between 1893 and 2024 who finished a season qualifying for the batting title while posting an average of at least .330. Only 32 of them managed the admirable average with a walk percentage below 4.0. 23 of these 32 seasons occurred before WWII. The others since then:
| Year | Player | BA | BB% |
| 1953 | Don Mueller | .333 | 3.8 |
| 1954 | Don Mueller | .342 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | Mickey Rivers | .333 | 3.0 |
| 1988 | Kirby Puckett | .356 | 3.3 |
| 1995 | Dante Bichette | .340 | 3.6 |
| 1999 | Iván Rodríguez | .332 | 3.8 |
| 2006 | Robinson Canó | .342 | 3.5 |
| 2015 | Dee Strange-Gordon | .333 | 3.8 |
| 2019 | Tim Anderson | .335 | 2.9 |
Tyler Soderstrom connected on his ninth homer in the Athletics’ victory. He’s one of five players in franchise history to have at least that many through 19 team games.
10 Bob Cerv (1958), Khris Davis (2019)
9 Reggie Jackson (1974), Mark McGwire (1992), Tyler Soderstrom (2025)
Tomoyuki Sugano allowed two runs over seven innings and improved to 2-1 with a 3.43 ERA in his four starts. Perhaps most striking, Sugano has amassed eight strikeouts this season (for perspective, four different starters recorded at least eight strikeouts on Thursday). There hasn’t been a pitcher who matches some of the Sugano’s numbers at this stage of the season in a bit of time.
Through 18 Team Games: 2+ Wins, 4+ GS, ERA Below 4.00, Fewer Than 10 K’s, Last Six SP
2025 Tomoyuki Sugano (2-1, 3.43 ERA, 8 K’s)
2014 Scott Feldman (2-1, 1.69 ERA, 9 K’s)
2012 Derek Lowe (3-1, 3.00 ERA, 8 K’s)
2009 Joe Saunders (2-1, 3.51 ERA, 8 K’s)
2008 Liván Hernández (3-0, 3.00 ERA, 8 K’s)
2008 Mark Hendrickson (3-1, 3.97 ERA, 9 K’s)
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.