In 1963, outfielder Leon Wagner produced 26 home runs for his Angels club. It was a strong number, good enough to tie Daddy Wags for ninth in the AL, but was also a fairly steep drop from the previous season, when the first-time All-Star clocked 37. Wagner’s tally in ’63 is notable – historic, even – for its hippopotamus on one side, mouse on the other imbalance. Playing his home games at Dodger Stadium, a ballpark not exactly known for its “Come on in, make yourself comfortable” vibe to batters, Wagner hit two homers. Yep, 24 (or 92.3%) of his round-trippers came on the road, an unmatched percentage among the more than 4,600 AL/NL players in the modern era who’ve finished a season with at least 20 home runs.
Thanks to his latest power display on the road, Colorado Rockies backstop/DH Hunter Goodman is on his way to a 20-homer season in 2025 (he’s now at 13). 10 of those 13 (76.9%) have come while ringing the doorbell at some other club’s home – not so close to Wagner’s percentage, but potentially historic in its own right. After all, the past three decades have repeatedly signaled one refrain – Rockies hitters are supposed to flourish at home, not when their bats accompany suitcases.
In Washington, Colorado’s Hunter Goodman homered twice and drove in three runs to lift his club to a 6-4 win.
~With the effort, Goodman elevated his OPS on the road to .930 (he owns a .753 at home). This relationship between home and away gives him a tOPS+* of 118 when on the road. In this, Goodman is pointed in a direction few Rockies have ever gone – significantly better when away from Coors Field. In the Coors Field era (since 1995), the best road tOPS+ for any Rockies batter with at least 250 plate appearances as a visitor is Brad Hawpe’s 114 in 2006. That season, Hawpe posted a .966 OPS away from Coors compared to an .822 at home. Flipping the view, there are 99 Rockies since 1995 who had at least 250 plate appearances at home and produced a home tOPS+ of at least 114.
*Via Baseball Reference: tOPS+ is the OPS for the split relative to the player’s overall OPS, where a number greater than 100 indicates the batter did better than usual in this split.
~ As mentioned above, 10 of Goodman’s 13 homers have come on the road (76.9%). Among all Rockies to have hit 20 homers in a season, Brad Hawpe owns the highest percentage of his overall tally coming on the road. In 2006, Hawpe hit 16 of his 22 away from Colorado, or 72.7%.
Nick Kurtz’s two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth gave the Athletics a 3-1 walk-off win against the Astros and made Kurtz the ninth-inning homering hero for the second straight game. On Sunday in Kansas City, the 22-year-old broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the ninth with a solo shot. Looking backward, Kurtz is the first Athletic to, in back-to-back days, hit go-ahead homers in the ninth inning or later since Khris Davis on July 24 and 25 in 2018. Davis’ first broke a tie and gave the club a 13-10 lead in the top of the 10th; his second turned a deficit into a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth.
Trea Turner’s 18th career leadoff homer highlighted a 3-for-5, two-RBI day as Philadelphia defeated Miami, 5-2. Competing in his age-32 season, Turner possesses 179 homers to go along with 298 steals – a numerical combo that’s unprecedented for any shortstop (min. 50% of games at shortstop) at this stage of a career. Regardless of position, Turner is one of seven to be at both of these numbers through an age-32 campaign, joining second baseman Ryne Sandberg and outfielders Bobby Bonds, César Cedeño, Rickey Henderson, Eric Davis and Barry Bonds.
José Soriano and five relievers combined for an eight-hit shutout as the visiting Angels handed the Yankees a 1-0 loss in 11 innings. Before this effort, the Angels had never defeated the Yankees in a 1-0, extra-inning game on the road. For all teams against the Yankees, this outcome had been seen only eight previous times, most recently on September 10, 1990, when the Rangers did the work (also an 11-inning affair).
Aaron Judge singled and walked twice in the Yankees’ loss, a line that brought him to 100 hits on the season and shifted his OPS to 1.226. Dating back to 1901, Judge is one of 218 players to get to the century mark in hits through his club’s first 71 games. Among all of them, his 1.226 OPS through game #71 comes in as the ninth highest. A look at the top 10 by OPS:
| Player | Season | OPS | Hits |
| Rogers Hornsby | 1925 | 1.321 | 108 |
| Lou Gehrig | 1927 | 1.291 | 107 |
| Jimmie Foxx | 1932 | 1.285 | 104 |
| Larry Walker | 1997 | 1.275 | 107 |
| Mickey Mantle | 1956 | 1.249 | 100 |
| Lou Gehrig | 1930 | 1.245 | 102 |
| Stan Musial | 1948 | 1.235 | 115 |
| Lou Gehrig | 1936 | 1.233 | 110 |
| Aaron Judge | 2025 | 1.226 | 100 |
| Derrek Lee | 2005 | 1.211 | 105 |
Jake Mangum was 3-for-4 with three RBI in an up-and-down the lineup attack for the Rays as they defeated the Orioles, 7-1. The 29-year-old rookie has played 37 career games and has generated multiple hits and multiple RBI in five of them; he’s one of four players for the franchise to make that claim. Rocco Baldelli had five in 2003, Wil Myers’ five came in 2013 and in 2020, Yoshi Tsutsugo produced five.
Manny Machado drove in two runs for the Padres in their loss to the Dodgers – his third straight multi-RBI game.
~In June of 1987, Carmelo Martínez had at least two RBI in five straight games to establish the longest such streak in San Diego franchise history. A decade later, Tony Gwynn matched his former teammate.
~Machado has driven in 20 runs this month, tied for the most in the Majors (Pete Alonso also has that many). Wil Myers’ 33 RBI in 2016 is the high mark for any Padre in any June, ahead of Dave Winfield’s 31 in 1978. For any monthly split, Ryan Klesko’s 40 RBI in May of 2001 holds top billing.
Shohei Ohtani singled and doubled and drove in two runs to accompany his first start of the year on the mound (1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R).
~With a walk thrown into the mix, Ohtani reached safely three times in the game – something he’s done 19 times this season (second most in the Majors behind Aaron Judge’s 24). But, the Major League leader in runs did not cross the plate in this one: the first among these 19 in which he failed to score.
~This game marked the eighth time in his career Ohtani has produced a multi-hit, multi-RBI effort from the batter’s box while starting on the mound. In the modern era, Red Ruffing has the most such games, 37.
Lucas Giolito struck out 10 over six scoreless innings and the Red Sox blanked the Mariners, 2-0. In Boston’s previous game, they defeated the Yankees, 2-0. The last time the club produced back-to-back shutouts in which the offense provided no more than two runs was 2006, when they had consecutive 1-0 wins against the Royals. Looking ahead, the last time Boston did this in three straight was in 1990 (a 2-0 win followed by a pair of 1-0 victories, all against the Blue Jays).
Boston’s Roman Anthony connected for his first Major League home run.
~At 21 years and 34 days old, the right fielder is the youngest player for the franchise to homer since Rafael Devers (20 years, 335 days) on September 24, 2017.
~Following Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell, Anthony is the third different Red Sox batter this season to homer and be shy of a 23rd birthday. The last season to see the team have three players all with this claim calls back to a resonant trio: Dwight Evans, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice in 1974.
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.