Game Notes – 06/11/2025

All the way back in June of 1929, Mel Ott (all of 20 years old) punished NL pitchers to the tune of a .339/.500/.711 slash line that featured an astounding 47 RBI.  The month featuring the start of summer has never since seen one player drive in as many runs as the iconic Giants outfielder.  Churning his way toward his first MVP, Hank Greenberg got close in 1935, plating 46.  In 1953, the less heralded Gus Bell gave Ott a stiff challenge with 45 RBI.  During his record-setting June in 1998 when he lifted 20 balls out of the yard, Sammy Sosa drove in 40 runs.  Just last year, Aaron Judge, during a scorching June that featured a .409/.514/.864 line, produced 37 RBI.  No matter who or what the circumstances, Ott still holds the belt.  

The 2025 Mets have 17 more scheduled games for this first summer month.  If Pete Alonso stays healthy and can approximate what he’s contributed since May gave way to June, Ott’s long-standing supremacy may be in jeopardy.

With a 1-for-2 day at the plate, Pete Alonso extended his hitting streak to eight games; during this run, he’s OPS’ing 1.470 and has eight extra-base hits and 17 RBI.  

~The surge has brought his RBI tally for the season up to an MLB-best 63.  Those 63 tie this Alonso with 2022’s Alonso for the most ever for any Met through 68 team games.  Todd Hundley (55 in 1996) and David Wright (55 in 2006) are tied for the third most.

~Alonso has 20 RBI this month – the record for any Met in any June belongs to Mike Piazza, who had 32 RBI in 2000.

Juan Soto homered and singled in the Mets’ win and in 10 games this month, has posted a 1.347 OPS with six extra-base hits and 12 walks.  In other words, he’s looking like the best version of Juan Soto again.  Soto has 421 career extra-base hits, one of 30 players in history to have at least 400 through his age-26 season (with his 421, he’s one ahead of Ty Cobb and three behind Lou Gehrig).  Among this collection, no one has more bases on balls than the current Mets star, with his 824 ahead of Mickey Mantle’s 799 and Mel Ott’s 704.

David Peterson worked a six-hit shutout with six strikeouts and no walks to lead the Mets to a 5-0 win over the Nationals.  The shutout – the first by a Mets southpaw since Steven Matz had one in July of 2019 – dropped the team’s ERA to 2.82 and lowered the club’s starters’ ERA to 2.84.  Both numbers orbit the best the franchise has ever been able to produce.

Mets Franchise:  Lowest Team ERA Through 68 Games

2.27   1968

2.75   1971

2.82   2025

Mets Franchise:  Lowest ERA for the Starting Staff (Full Season/To Date)

2.67     1968 season

2.82     1969 season

2.84     1985 season

2.84*    2025 season to date

*the 2.84 this season is currently the best in the Majors

In an 11-2 win, José Ramírez doubled in a run, scored a run and added one steal.

~With the double, Ramírez extended his on-base streak to 37 games.  The run ties the third baseman with Elmer Flick (1907), Tris Speaker (1923), Lou Boudreau (1947) and Jim Thome (1999) for the 14th longest in Cleveland franchise history, and is the longest for the club since Thome set the unmatched standard with a 55-gamer in 2002.  This century, Ramírez is one of nine switch-hitters to produce a streak of at least 37, and among them, is now matched with Lance Berkman (2004), Jorge Polanco (2019) and Jurickson Profar (2023) for the sixth longest.  

~With his steal, Ramírez reached 20 thefts for the year.

*Ramírez now has eight seasons in which he’s reached 20 steals while playing at least 67% of his games at third (assuming he maintains that percentage for the rest of the 2025 campaign).  No other player in the modern era can make such a claim; there are five players with six such seasons, with four of those fellas** having all of their seasons in the deadball era.  Paul Molitor – with six of his own – is the other chronological outlier. 

(**Art Devlin, George Moriarty, Harry Lord, Jimmy Austin)

* Ramírez is one of 19 players in the Guardians’ franchise history to have 20-plus steals through the club’s first 67 games of a season.  His 28 extra-base hits at this stage are the second most among the 19.  In 1994, Kenny Lofton had 35 stolen bases and 31 extra-base hits at the 67-game marker.

Jo Adell went deep in the Angels’ win over the Athletics and now has connected for six home runs in 10 games this month.  The Angels benchmark for most round-trippers in any monthly split belongs to Shohei Ohtani, who had 15 in June of 2023.  Ohtani’s 15 tie for the third most by any player in any June in the modern era, with Sammy Sosa’s 20 in June of 1998 the unmatched bar.  

Andrew McCutchen launched his 241st homer with Pittsburgh to break out of a tie with Roberto Clemente for third on the Pirates’ all-time leaderboard.  Aside from his place in that category, McCutchen also ranks among the Pirates’ all-time top seven in offensive WAR (sixth), doubles (seventh), RBI (seventh), walks (fifth) and extra-base hits (fifth).

Jesús Luzardo fanned 10 with no walks and improved to 6-2 on the year as the Phillies took care of the Cubs, 7-2.  The 27-year-old has four double-digit strikeout games this season – in the modern era, only Steve Carlton and Cliff Lee had more at this point in a season (68 team  games) among the club’s left-handers.  Carlton had six in 1972 and 1980 and Lee had six in 2011.

Batting first, Ronald Acuña, Jr. homered and singled twice to provide the starter fuel in Atlanta’s win over Milwaukee.  The outfielder – who has six homers and a 1.083 OPS in his 18 games this season – has accumulated nearly 3,000 plate appearances out of the leadoff spot in his career (he’s at 2,978) and owns a .921 OPS batting from there.  

1901-2025:  Highest OPS Batting Leadoff* Through Age-27 Season (min. 2,500 PA)

.921     Ronald Acuña, Jr.

.913     Mookie Betts

.858     Grady Sizemore

.854     Bobby Bonds

.832     Tim Raines

.830     Rickey Henderson

*For those who might be curious, under these same qualifications, Mike Trout owns the top OPS out of the two-hole, with a 1.014.  Frank Thomas is the master for the three-spot, with a 1.082.  Joe DiMaggio claims the highest mark cleaning up, with a 1.016.  After that, the qualifiers dwindle to so few that it’s not really useful to spotlight the top performers.

Eugenio Suárez connected for his third grand slam of the year and the Diamondbacks defeated the visiting Mariners, 5-2.

~Suárez’s three slams in 2023 tie for the most in any season for any Diamondback, matching Paul Goldschmidt’s output from 2013.  

~Suárez has five career slams with the Diamondbacks, second most for the franchise – Matt Williams had seven.

~14 of Suárez’s 19 homers on the season have come at home – 73.7%.  There’s only one player in the franchise’s history who posted at least 20 homers in a season and had a higher percentage of them come when wearing the home whites:  Chris Young, who saw 74.1% of his longballs in 2010 come at Chase Field.  

Brent Rooker pounded two home runs to raise his tally for the season to 15 – halfway to what would be his third straight 30-homer campaign for the Athletics.  There are eight players for the franchise who have posted three (or more) consecutive 30-longball years:

7    Jimmie Foxx (1929-1935)

4    Mark McGwire (1987-1990)

3    Dave Kingman (1984-1986)

3    José Canseco (1986-1988)

3    Mark McGwire (1995-1997)

3    Jason Giambi (1999-2001)

3    Miguel Tejada (2000-2002)

3    Khris Davis (2016-2018)

Suited up for his 15th big league game, Red Sox third baseman Marcelo Mayer hit a pair of home runs.  

~The 22-year-old is the 10th Red Sox rep to have a multi-homer line within his first 15 career games, joining a group that had been bookended by Ted Williams (1939) and Michael Chavis (2019).  

~By age, Mayer (22 years, 181 days) is the 25th youngest Red Sock to have a double (or triple)-longball day at the dish.  He’s the youngest since Rafael Devers (21 years, 337 days) on September 26, 2018.  At 19 years and 253 days old on September 16, 1964, Tony Conigliaro is the youngest.

Aaron Judge popped one out and patient-ed his way to a walk and the Yankees toppled the Royals, 6-3.  Judge has 163 games with at least one home run and at least one walk – only Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig have more such games while performing for the Pinstripes.  

Jose Altuve doubled and singled to raise his career hit tally to a nice, explorable 2,300.  

~Altuve is the 78th player to have collected at least 2,300 knocks through an age-35 season.  He’s one of two active players among this 78, joining Freddie Freeman and his 2,342 hits (Freeman is also playing in his age-35 campaign).  With exactly 2,300, Altuve is, for the moment, tied with Honus Wagner on this list.

~Among the 78 players in history to have at least 2,300 hits through their age-35 seasons, Altuve is one of eight to have amassed at least 1,500 games at second base.  That full subset looks like this, organized by most to fewest hits:

2,855    Rogers Hornsby

2,679    Roberto Alomar

2,576    Eddie Collins

2,535    Nellie Fox

2,470    Robinson Canó

2,438    Charlie Gehringer

2,312    Red Schoendienst

2,300    Jose Altuve

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