The 2025 Cubs – first in the NL Central, pouring out 5.49 runs per game (second best in the Majors) – can look themselves in the mirror and see four qualifying players with an OPS+ of at least 140: Kyle Tucker comes in with a 155, Michael Busch holds a 148, Seiya Suzuki claims a 147 and Pete Crow-Armstrong owns a 142. That’s a lot of high numbers for one team, no matter what lens is affixed to the viewfinder – as things stand in 2025 (they are the only club with as many as four), when framed against all Cubs teams going all the way back to 1876, when compared to what any club has been able to produce for one full season.
There are but 12 National or American League teams who withstood the rigors of a season to emerge with at least four qualifying players holding an OPS+ of at least 140. Three-quarters of them emerge from the murkiness of the 19th century, including a pair from the Cubs franchise (teams in 1876 and 1884). That leaves just three that have done their work in the modern era.
The 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers – full of those Boys of Summer names – make the list, thanks to Roy Campanella, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges and Duke Snider. The humming Big Red Machine in 1976 – via George Foster, Ken Griffey, Joe Morgan and Pete Rose – join ‘em. And then there’s the 2003 Red Sox – no nickname, no pennant, but with more extra-base hits than any other team in history – with Bill Mueller, Trot Nixon, David Ortiz and Manny Ramírez.
That’s it. And now (in a few months), maybe, the 2025 Cubs.
As part of the potentially special core, Crow-Armstrong and Suzuki are accumulating some special numbers elsewhere, spinning their counting stats up and up and up.
Pete Crow-Armstrong (two-run home run) and Seiya Suzuki (solo shot) accounted for all the Cubs’ scoring as Chicago edged Pittsburgh, 3-2. The two are tied for second in the NL with 57 RBI, while Crow-Armstrong is fifth in the league with 18 homers and Suzuki is tied for sixth with 17. These two are two of 17 Cubs in the modern era to have at least 17 & 57 through 69 team games, but the only two to do it in the same season. There aren’t a lot of teammates who have gotten to this bar at this point in a season; and as with so many cases, when bopping numbers for teammates are explored, the chronology begins with a pair of Yankees from the 1920s and 1930s.
1901-2025: Teammates With 17+ HR & 57+ RBI Through 69 Games
1928 Yankees Lou Gehrig & Babe Ruth
1929 Yankees Lou Gehrig & Babe Ruth
1930 Yankees Lou Gehrig & Babe Ruth
1931 Yankees Lou Gehrig & Babe Ruth
1932 Yankees Lou Gehrig & Babe Ruth
1947 Giants Walker Cooper, Willard Marshall & Johnny Mize
1949 Red Sox Vern Stephens & Ted Williams
1950 Red Sox Vern Stephens & Ted Williams
1954 Dodgers Gil Hodges & Duke Snider
1955 Dodgers Roy Campanella & Duke Snider
1961 Yankees Mickey Mantle & Roger Maris
1962 Giants Orlando Cepeda & Willie Mays
1970 Braves Henry Aaron & Rico Carty
1970 Reds Johnny Bench & Tony Pérez
1993 Tigers Cecil Fielder & Mickey Tettleton
1996 Mariners Jay Buhner & Ken Griffey, Jr.
1997 Rockies Andrés Galarraga & Larry Walker
1999 Rangers Juan González & Rafael Palmeiro
2000 Dodgers Eric Karros & Gary Sheffield
2000 Mariners Edgar Martínez & Álex Rodríguez
2001 Rockies Todd Helton & Larry Walker
2025 Cubs Pete Crow-Armstrong & Seiya Suzuki
Chicago right-hander Jameson Taillon (6.1 IP, 2 R) recorded his fifth win in his past five starts. The 33-year-old is the fifth Cubs hurler this decade to string together a streak at least this long. Kyle Hendricks had a run of eight straight in 2021, while Yu Darvish (2020) and Marcus Stroman (2023) each produced seven-game start=win streaks. Last season, Shota Imanaga won six in a row. Taillon’s streak is tied for the longest active one in the Majors, with Minnesota’s Joe Ryan and Houston’s Framber Valdez (↓) also having won each of their past five starts.
Framber Valdez packed 12 strikeouts into a five-inning stint that yielded the left-hander his seventh win of the year.
~In his previous start, the southpaw fanned 11. With this encore, Valdez is one of two dozen Astros pitchers to produce back-to-back (or more) outings with at least 11 K’s. The storyline goes back to Don Wilson in 1967, who had two straight outings that fit the bill and peaks with Gerritt Cole’s five-game run in 2019. As for whittling down to just look at left-handers, Valdez is one of two to do this, after Randy Johnson and his three-game streak during his short stint with the club in 1998.
~Dating back to 1901, Valdez is the 21st pitcher (with all 21 examples occurring in the 21st century) to rack up at least a dozen strikeouts in an outing lasting no longer than five innings. He’s the second rep from 2025, after Arizona’s Eduardo Rodríguez did it on April 5.
Making his Major League debut, Jacob Misiorowski cannonballed into the pool with a line featuring no hits over five scoreless innings, four walks and five strikeouts. The 23-year-old is the 18th Brewer to start and win his big league debut – he’s the eighth to do so while emerging with no runs allowed. This smaller group includes the startling debut of Steve Woodard, who worked eight innings of one-hit ball and struck out 12 on July 28, 1997. Woodard’s performance drew a Game Score of 91, the third best mark for any debut in the modern era.
The Yankees nosed past the Royals, 1-0 – New York’s fourth 1-0 win of this season. Those four are the most in the Majors and tie for the most for the franchise through 67 games, matching the 1968 team. These Yankees are the 42nd club in the modern era to have at least four through 67 games, with the 1909 Athletics having, by far, the most – eight. Getting back to the Bronx Bombers, that 1968 team shares the franchise high mark for most 1-0 wins in a full season, with six. The 1908 team also had a half dozen. Before 2025, the last time the Yankees had four in one season was 1976, when they ended the year with exactly that many.
Jeff McNeil (three-run homer) and Brandon Nimmo (solo home run) led the way in the Mets’ 4-3 win over the Nationals and continued a recent trend of these two providing some significant pop to the lineup. Each has four homers this month (tied for second on the team), with McNeil (10) outpacing his partner, Nimmo (8) in the RBI category. There are 14 players in the Majors who can claim at least four homers and at least eight RBI this June – the Mets have four of them:
Mets (4): Pete Alonso, Juan Soto, Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil
Cubs (2): Michael Busch, Ian Happ
Diamondbacks (2): Ketel Marte, Eugenio Suárez
Angels (1): Jo Adell
Rockies (1): Hunter Goodman
Yankees (1): Aaron Judge
Padres (1): Manny Machado
Astros (1): Isaac Paredes
Mariners (1): Cal Raleigh
Tarik Skubal improved to 7-2 as the Tigers’ lefty worked seven scoreless innings and struck out six. Seven wins, a 1.99 ERA, 111 strikeouts: for the 2024 AL Triple Crown winner, all three numbers place him among the top five in the league in 2025 and aligned, represent a line that has some, if not much, precedence. For the entirety of the liveball era, Skubal is one of 30 pitchers to have – through 70 team games – at least seven wins, at least 111 strikeouts, and an ERA below two. Sandy Koufax is the first to appear, meeting the criteria in every season from 1963 through 1966. Aside from Koufax, the other left-handers to join Skubal in the club within the club: Sam McDowell (1968), Vida Blue (1971), Frank Tanana (1977), Ron Guidry (1978), Steve Carlton (1980), Randy Johnson (2000), Clayton Kershaw (2016) and Shane McClanahan (2022).
The Rangers got home runs from Jake Burger, Evan Carter, Adolis García, Sam Haggerty, Wyatt Langford and Josh Smith in a 16-3 pummeling of the Twins. It’s the third time in the franchise’s history that the club received longballs from so many players. On May 21, 2005 they had homers from seven in an 18-3 win over the Astros. On September 11, 2007 in the first game of a doubleheader, they had six in a 13-6 win against the Tigers.
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.