Game Notes – 06/10/2025

In 1924, Herb Pennock went 21-9 for the Yankees to become the franchise’s first 20-game winning southpaw.  The honorific would be handed off – one Hall of Famer to another – to Lefty Gomez, who rang up a quartet of 20-win seasons in the 1930s (including a pair of Triple Crown campaigns, in 1934 and 1937).  The 40s were a fallow decade, with the “left-handed Pinstriper winning 20 games” motif resurrected by Eddie Lopat in 1951.  Whitey Ford twirled his way to a pair of 20-win seasons in the 1960s and then Fritz Peterson got the next decade rolling with a 20-11 season in 1970.  Between 1978 and 1985, Ron Guidry and Tommy John combined for five 20-win campaigns and then Andy Pettitte kept this narrative rolling with 21 victories in both 1996 and 2003.  Finally, CC Sabathia took care of the 2010s right away, going 21-7 in 2010.  Since then, no one else has come along to add his name to the tapestry, this vibrant thread twining across 10 decades of Yankees portsiders helping the club greatly in the pursuit of pennants.  Maybe Max Fried will be next.

Yankees southpaw Max Fried improved to 9-1 with a 1.84 ERA.  In the liveball era, Fried is one of 16 pitchers to have, through his team’s first 65 games, at least nine wins, a winning percentage of at least .900, and a sub-2.00 ERA.  Quite curiously, it’s a list dominated by left-handers, with 10 of the 16 pitching from the port side.  All 16 are shown below, with the lefties in italics:

2025    Max Fried        

2024    Ranger Suárez   

2019    Hyun Jin Ryu      

2017    Dallas Keuchel    

2016    Clayton Kershaw 

2016    Jake Arrieta

2013    Patrick Corbin

2013    Clay Buchholz

2010    Ubaldo Jiménez

2000    Randy Johnson

1978    Ron Guidry

1974    Gaylord Perry

1964    Whitey Ford

1959    Roy Face

1957    Bobby Shantz

1944    Gordon Maltzberger

Aaron Judge homered and singled while driving in three runs and his Yankees defeated the Royals, 10-2.  In addition to leading the AL in all three rate stat categories, Judge is the league’s top run-producer and is second in homers.  For today’s look at how he stacks up historically, let’s focus on his HR/RBI/OPS numbers:

1901-2025:  Through 65 Team Games, 24+ HR, 58+ RBI, 1.267+ OPS

1921     Babe Ruth          25/66/1.350

1928     Babe Ruth          30/70/1.290

1930     Babe Ruth          29/76/1.364

1932     Jimmie Foxx       28/79/1.272

1998     Mark McGwire    31/80/1.319

2001     Barry Bonds       33/61/1.362

2025     Aaron Judge       24/58/1.267

Jackson Chourio homered for his 84th career extra-base hit, with his latest coming at the age of 21 years and 91 days old.  Since 1901, Chourio is one of 19 players to have at least 84 at this exact age.  With his tally at this point, Chourio is tied with Vada Pinson and Robin Yount, one behind Al Kaline and two behind Ted Williams and Manny Machado.

Manny Machado went 3-for-5 with five RBI to pace the Padres to an 11-1 win over the Dodgers.  The 32-year-old, who now leads the NL with 81 knocks, continues to rub shoulders with some special company.  

~For all players through their age-32 seasons, Machado’s 1,981 hits tie him with Hall of Famer Eddie Collins for the 56th most.  

~For all players through their age-32 seasons, Machado’s 1,088 RBI are the 53rd most, five behind Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell’s tally.

~For all players through their age-32 seasons, Machado’s 3,454 total bases are 25th most.  He needs another 62 this season to catch and match Hall of Famer Babe Ruth’s total.

Ian Happ homered twice and drove in three runs to ignite the Cubs in an 8-4 victory.  The left fielder has six games this season with at least three RBI while batting leadoff – the most in the Majors and the fourth most in a season for any Cub since 1901.  In the latter POV, Happ trails Alfonso Soriano (10 in 2008, seven in 2007) and Rick Monday (seven in 1976).

Playing in his 401st career game, Gunnar Henderson doubled for his 175th career extra-base hit.  The tally at this exact stage is unmatched by any other player in Orioles franchise history.  

1901-2025:  Orioles Franchise, Most XBH Through First 401 Games

175     Gunnar Henderson

169     Cal Ripken, Jr.

159     George McQuinn

159     Manny Machado

159     Anthony Santander

Andrew Abbott spun a three-hit shutout as the lead role in Cincinnati’s 1-0 win over Cleveland.  

~Abbott became the third Reds pitcher this century to go the distance in a 1-0 win, after Aaron Harang in 2004 and Homer Bailey in that right-hander’s first no-hitter, on September 28, 2012.

~Through his 11 starts this season, Abbott holds a 1.87 ERA. Using his numbers as a reverse limbo stick, here’s his Redlegged company in the liveball era:

1920-2025:  Lowest ERA for Reds Through 68 Games (min. 11 GS)

1.34    Dolf Luque (1923)

1.35    Bucky Walters (1944)

1.56    Edinson Vólquez (2008)

1.73    Trevor Bauer (2020)

1.76    Pete Donohue (1922)

1.81    Dutch Ruether (1920)*

1.85    Johnny Cueto (2014)

1.87    Andrew Abbott (2025)*

*left-hander

José Ramírez singled to extend his on-base streak to 36 games.  The stretch ties for the 18th longest in Cleveland franchise history and is the longest for the club since Jason Kipnis reached safely in 36 straight in 2013.  For switch-hitters this century, Ramírez is tied with Rafael Furcal (2003), Jimmy Rollins (2005), Nick Swisher (2006), Mark Teixeira (2006) and Erick Aybar (2011) for the ninth longest run.   

Elly De La Cruz purloined his 20th bag of the season.  The 23-year old also has 25 extra-base hits.  A few notes:

~De La Cruz is one of three players this season with 20 and 25, along with Pete Crow-Armstrong (21 steals and 36 extra-base hits) and Bobby Witt, Jr. (21 and 33).  Three (or more) players with these numbers 68 games into a season is uncommon:

2025     Pete Crow-Armstrong, Elly De La Cruz, Bobby Witt, Jr.

2010     Carl Crawford, Álex Ríos, B.J. Upton

2007     Hanley Ramírez, José Reyes, Grady Sizemore

2000     Delino DeShields, Raúl Mondesi, Eric Young, Sr.

1994     Craig Biggio, Chuck Knoblauch, Kenny Lofton 

1990     Barry Bonds, Rickey Henderson, Chris Sabo

1973     Bobby Bonds, César Cedeño, Joe Morgan

1913     Home Run Baker, Rube Oldring, Tris Speaker

1911     Home Run Baker, Ty Cobb, Birdie Cree, Red Murray

~Reds players with De La Cruz’s numbers (or better ones) in the two categories 68 games into a season is also uncommon:

1973     Joe Morgan (30 SB & 25 XBH)

1974     Joe Morgan (31 & 25)

1976     Joe Morgan (22 & 27)

1987     Eric Davis (29 & 34)

1988     Chris Sabo (21 & 34)

1990     Chris Sabo (21 & 36)

1999     Mike Cameron (25 & 26)

2025     Elly De La Cruz (20 & 25)

~Young players with De La Cruz’s career numbers in the two categories is, again, uncommon.  

1893-2025:  122+ SB & 131+ XBH Through an Age-23 Season

Joe Kelley                133 SB     181 XBH

Jimmy Sheckard      180 SB     193 XBH

Sherry Magee          200 SB     218 XBH

Ty Cobb                   258 SB     243 XBH

César Cedeño         205 SB     279 XBH

Roberto Alomar       143 SB     173 XBH

Édgar Rentería        147 SB     175 XBH

Carl Crawford          169 SB     170 XBH

José Reyes              156 SB     155 XBH

Elly De La Cruz       122 SB     131 XBH

Rangers catcher Kyle Higashioka drove in five runs, as did Yankees backstop Austin Wells.  These two give the 2025 season 13 examples of a catcher having at least five RBI in a game.  The most in any full season in the modern era is 19, a tally shared by the 2000, 2003 and 2006 campaigns.  Five of the 13 this year – including these most recent efforts from Higashioka and Wells – have come from ninth-place hitters.  There’s an odd organization within these big-run producing games from ninth-place batters:  of the eight times this season a nine-hole hitter has driven in at least five runs, five of the lines have come from catchers and three from center fielders.  

Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk hit a two-run homer – the sixth straight game the backstop has driven in a run (and the ninth time in his past 10 games).  Kirk is one of 65 players in Blue Jays franchise history to have an RBI-streak of at least six games, with 20 of them getting to at least seven.  

Shane Smith allowed a run in six innings and came away with his third win of the season as the White Sox doubled up on the Astros, 4-2.  Now 13 games into his career, the first-year right-hander owns a 2.37 ERA (175 ERA+).  There have been seven NL/AL pitchers since 1893 to have finished their debut season qualifying for the ERA title and holding an ERA+ of 160 or better.  It all starts with Ed Reulbach, who flourishes with a 209 for the 1905 Cubs.  Following in his wake:  Vean Gregg (189 in 1911); José Fernández (176 in 2013); Jeff Tesreau (173 in 1912); Wilcy Moore (171 in 1927); Brandon Webb (165 in 2003); and Curt Davis (160 in 1934).  

Thanks to a 6-5 triumph, the Giants ran their winning streak to six games, with all the victories coming by a single run.  A winning streak this long and with this nature (all coming with a margin of one) was last seen in 1989, when the Angels rattled off six in a row.

Corbin Carroll tripled twice to raise his tally to an MLB-best eight three-baggers.  With 12 doubles and 19 homers, the Diamondbacks outfielder has an extra-base hit line from another era:

1901-2025:  Through 67 Team Games, 12+ Doubles, 8+ Triples, 19+ HRs

1927     Lou Gehrig (22, 8, 22)

1932     Chuck Klein (20, 11, 21)

1938     Ival Goodman (14, 8, 20)

2025     Corbin Carroll (12, 8, 19)

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