Game Notes – 05/26/2025

For all the enjoyment a Major League ballgame can provide when its young stars showcase their extraordinary physical gifts – those unimaginable blends and demonstrations of reflex and reaction time and flexibility and adjustment – the opportunity to savor something with a different profile can be equally alluring.  Historically, this appreciation has come in the form of the game’s (time to insert cliché) wily veterans on the mound.  Days long gone when their fastballs could streak past bats and confronting a present when the crack and zip on their breaking pitches have been dulled, they, nevertheless, can still sometimes summon the stuff that beguiles and befuddles. 

After coming over to the American League from the Negro Leagues in 1948, the one-and-only Satchel Paige turned in four shutouts during his time in the circuit, the first coming when he was 42 years and 37 days old.  Perhaps the most remarkable of the four came a month after he turned 46, when the righty put on a magic show for a full 12 innings in a 1-0 win for his St. Louis Browns.   Paige would go on to win a few more in his time as a starter for the Browns, including one final gift to the baseball world near the end of the 1953 season, when he was 47 years and 77 days old.  

Baltimore’s Charlie Morton assembled six innings of two-run ball to pick up his first win of the year.  At 41 years and 195 days old, the right-hander became the oldest starter to record a win for the franchise since 47-year-old Satchel Paige – behind seven frames of three-run ball – led the St. Louis Browns to a win over the Tigers on September 22, 1953. 

Orioles right fielder Ryan O’Hearn delivered a 3-for-4 afternoon in Baltimore’s win and is now slashing .340/.426/.542 as one of four qualifiers in the Majors posting a .300/.400/.500 line.  O’Hearn is the first Oriole since Chris Davis in his astounding 2013 season to hold a  .300/.400/.500 line 53 team games into the year (with at least 160 plate appearances).  Others to do this in the 21st century for the club:  Melvin Mora in 2003 and 2004; Brian Roberts in 2005; Adam Jones in 2009. 

In the Dodgers’ win over the Guardians, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith combined to go 4-for-7 with three walks and a homer.  These two are two of the other three players to be at .300/.400/.500 for the year (Aaron Judge is the fourth).  They are one of a few pairs of LA teammates in the Dodger Stadium era to be at all these marks through a third of the season.

1962-2025:  Dodgers Teammates at .300/.400/.500 Through 54 Games (min. 160 PA)

1977     Ron Cey and Reggie Smith

2000     Gary Sheffield and Shawn Green

2024     Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts

2025     Freddie Freeman and Will Smith

Leading off the first inning, Shohei Ohtani whacked his Major League-leading 19th homer of the year.

~Ohtani leads the Majors with five home runs to lead off a game and is at least on pace to make a run at the club’s single-season record of 12 set by Mookie Betts in 2023.  

~Ohtani’s 19 homers through 54 team games tie for the second most for any Dodger.  Gil Hodges had 20 in 1951, while Roy Campanella (1955) and Cody Bellinger (2019) each had 19.  

~Ohtani scored three runs in this latest display and leads the Majors with 57 for the year.  The last member of the franchise to have that many or more through 54 team games was Willie Keeler with 59 runs in 1901.  Ohtani is the first to do this as a member of any team since 2000 when Colorado’s Todd Helton and Seattle’s Álex Rodríguez each had 57.  Aside from these four referenced players, only 19 others in the modern era have gotten this high at this exact stage.  

José Ramírez doubled twice to extend his hitting streak to 19 games – the longest for the Cleveland franchise since Michael Brantley hit safely in 19 consecutive games in 2018.  When the focus and lens are fitted to peer only at switch-hitters for the franchise, Ramírez ascends to the summit as the franchise’s only switch-hitter to produce a streak this long.  

Wilmer Flores drove in his 44th run of the season (fifth in the Majors) – the most for any Giant through 54 team games since Barry Bonds had 54 RBI in 2001.  

Kevin Gausman spun eight innings of five-hit, one-run ball as the Blue Jays defeated the Rangers, 2-1.   The right-hander also fanned six with no walks.  Gausman has made four straight starts with a zero in the walks column and is now one such appearance away from tying the franchise high mark that he set in 2022.  

Blue Jays – Longest Streak of Starts with No Walks (min. 5.0 IP in Each Start)

5     Kevin Gausman (2022)

4     David Wells (2000)

4     Esteban Loaiza (2001)
4     Roy Halladay (2005)

4     Roy Halladay (2006)

4     Jesse Litsch (2008)

4     Mark Buehrle (2015)

4     Robbie Ray (2021)

4     Kevin Gausman (2025)

Francisco Lindor’s sac fly in the bottom of the ninth lifted the Mets to a 2-1 win against the White Sox.  New York’s initial run came via a Juan Soto sac fly in the eighth.  This contest marked the 11th in Mets history that saw a win accompany a box score that featured all the team’s runs coming on sacrifice flies.  This is the fourth of the 11 that saw the team produce two:

April 25, 1989   Sac flies from Lenny Dykstra and Kevin McReynolds to beat the Braves, 2-1

Aug. 6, 1999     Sac flies from Edgardo Alfonzo and Benny Agbayani to beat the Dodgers, 2-1

April 17, 2010   Sac flies from José Reyes and Jeff Francoeur to beat the Cardinals, 2-1 (in 20 innings)

May 26, 2025    Sac flies from Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor to beat the White Sox, 2-1

In his second start of the year, White Sox right-hander Adrian Houser finished with six innings of three-hit, no-run ball.  This stellar effort followed Houser’s season debut, a dazzler with six innings of two-hit, no-run ball.   He’s the second White Sox hurler ever to open his season with back-to-back appearances featuring six-plus innings, no runs and no more than three hits allowed.  In 1987, José DeLeón opened with six-and-two-thirds innings of one-hit ball and followed it up with seven-and-two-thirds innings of three-hit work. 

Tampa Bay’s Zack Littell gave up a run in six-and-a-third innings and more importantly for this note, issued no walks.  The right-hander has been stingy with the free passes, issuing one or zero walks in each of his past seven appearances.  In 2022, Corey Kluber had 11 straight starts featuring at least five innings and no more than one walk, the longest such sustained stretch in Rays franchise history.

Eugenio Suárez belted his 15th homer of the year to help Arizona to a 5-0 win over Pittsburgh.  As had been the case for 11 of his previous 14 jacks, this one came at home.  There have been 31 players since 1901 to have a year in which they hit at least 20 homers and had at least 80% of them come at home.  A couple of notable items from this:

~The highest percentage among this collection comes from New York’s Tommy Henrich, who had 20 of his 22 (90.9%) four-baggers in 1938 come inside Yankee Stadium.  Of the 31 players being referenced here, there are seven Yankees representatives*, including Henrich a second time in 1949.  Which leads us to a second point.

~Of the 31 players on this list, Henrich and Mel Ott (1930, 1944 and 1945) are the only two to appear multiple times.  Maybe Suárez maintains (or raises) his current 80% and joins for the second time, after his 80.8% from 2017, when he slugged 21 of his 26 home runs in front of the home crowds in Cincinnati.   

*Aside from Henrich:  Bobby Murcer (1973); Bill Dickey (1938); Don Mattingly (1989); Brian McCann (2014); Matt Nokes (1992)

In an Angels’ loss, Zach Neto hit his fourth career homer to lead off a game, with all four of them coming in this May of 2025.  It’s the second time in a recent stretch where an Angel has gone a bit crazy in this category in a month, following Taylor Ward’s four game-opening homers in September of 2024.  Before Ward, there were three members of the franchise on record with a trio in a single month:  

Brian Downing in April of 1987

Mike Trout in September of 2012

Mickey Moniak in May of 2023

Cody Bellinger singled twice and drew a walk to continue his resurgence in May of 2025.  After posting a .638 OPS through April 30, the 29-year-old has a 1.024 in May.  With Aaron Judge having a 1.200 this month, this May could be the first since 2022 to see Yankees teammates each own a mark of at least 1.000 (min. 75 PA) in the same May.  That year, it was Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.  Before them, the last May to see this was 2017, when it was Judge and Brett Gardner.  The last May to feature two Yankees at 1.000 and not include Aaron Judge – 2005, when it was Gary Sheffield, Tino Martinez and Álex Rodríguez.

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