Game Notes – 06/30/2025

The NL roster for the 1920 season counted eight clubs; in order of finish that year:  the Robins (Dodgers), Giants, Reds, Pirates, Cubs, Cardinals, Braves, Phillies.  From that season to the one currently being unfurled, each franchise can crane its metaphorical neck from one end to the other, gazing at the flashes and streaks and booms of pitching prowess that have made its days a little more enjoyable:  like, for instance, the clubs’ career ERA leaders (minimum 150 games started) in this 106-season sample size.  Following that same order from above, the names toll like this:  Clayton Kershaw, Juan Marichal, José Rijo, Doug Drabek, Lon Warneke, Mort Cooper, Greg Maddux … and the righty continuing to make an impression in so many corners of the Phillies’ chronicles, Zack Wheeler.

Zack Wheeler struck out 10 with no walks to highlight his eight scoreless innings.  

~During his six seasons with the Phillies, Wheeler has 10 outings featuring double-digit strikeouts and no walks.  The 10 tie him with Cliff Lee for the most for the team in the modern era.  

~Wheeler’s sterling day came in his 150th career start with Philadelphia and lowered his career ERA with the franchise to 2.86.  There are five other pitchers who can claim at last 150 starts and a sub-3.00 ERA for the franchise, with all but one having done their work in the 19th century and/or early on in the 20th. 

2.18    Pete Alexander (1911-1917, 1930)

2.48    Tully Sparks (1897, 1903-1910)

2.67    Charlie Ferguson (1884-1887)

2.83    Eppa Rixey (1912-1920)

2.86    Zack Wheeler (2020-2025)

2.93    Jim Bunning (1964-1967, 1970-1971)

~Wheeler is second in the NL with a 0.907 WHIP.  Last season, he paced the circuit with a 0.955 mark.  Pete Alexander (1915-1916) is the only Phillies pitcher to lead the NL in the category in consecutive seasons.  Those two campaigns for the Hall of Fame right-hander more than a century ago also represent the only back-to-back sub-one WHIP seasons a qualified Phillies hurler has produced.  

~Wheeler closed his June with a 0.58 ERA in five starts.  Of the 2,000 Phillies pitchers in the liveball era to have made at least five starts in any monthly split, only two have emerged with a lower ERA:  Cliff Lee in June of 2011 (0.21) and Lee in August of 2011 (0.45).  Chris Short’s 0.70 in May of 1964 comes in fourth, while Dutch Leonard’s 0.73 in June of 1948 completes the low-five.

Andrew Heaney (6.2 IP, 3 H) and Spencer Horwitz (leadoff homer in the first, a double) tag-teamed the Pirates to a 7-0 win against the Cardinals.  It’s the second time this season the Pirates offense produced a longball to open the game and ultimately needed nothing else as the pitching side tossed a shutout.  On April 17, Oneil Cruz did the blasting while Heaney (7.1 IP) and two others worked the shutout in a 1-0 win.

Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. drove in three of the Blue Jays’ five runs as they squeezed out a one-run win against the Yankees.  The 26-year-old has 50 career games with at least three RBI, tying Jesse Barfield, Lloyd Moseby and Adam Lind for the seventh most games in Toronto history.  As with so many career marks for the franchise, Carlos Delgado poses at the top – in this case, with 114 such efforts.  

Wilyer Abreu drove in five runs, thanks to a grand slam and an inside-the-park scoot.  The five RBI are a season high for the 26-year-old and represent his 11th multi-RBI game of the year.  He and Trevor Story (who had three RBI in Boston’s 13-6 win) are tied for second on the team with the 11 multi-RBI games, behind the since departed Rafael Devers and his 14.  Regardless of whether they are still donning Red Sox colors or not, no one in 2025 is going to climb all the way to the peak for this sort of thing.  Jimmie Foxx (1938) and Vern Stephens (1949, 1950) are tied for the single-season high mark for multi-RBI games with Boston, each producing 43 of them.  This century, David Ortiz’s 40 in 2004 are the most.

Ramón Laureano singled and produced three doubles as the Orioles outlasted the Rangers in 11 innings, 10-6.  The right fielder is the second Oriole this season and 93rd player in Browns/Orioles history to have a three double effort, with four of the names being associated with a quartet of two-base hits.  Charley Lau first reached that height, in 1962, and was then matched by Dave Duncan in 1975 and Albert Belle twice in 1999.

~In each of his past six games, Laureano has produced a notch in both the runs and hits columns.  In the Orioles’ portion of the franchise’s history (since 1954), the longest single-season streak resides in the bat and feet of a quintet of players, all of whom got to nine.  

1967   Brooks Robinson 

1991   Cal Ripken, Jr.

1997   Brady Anderson

2003   Brian Roberts

2008   Nick Markakis

The Rangers’ 10-6 loss in 11 innings marked the club’s fourth straight extra-inning affair (they’ve lost three of the four); the streak ties for the longest in franchise history, with the 2002 team submitting to four in a row (and losing three of four) in mid-September of that season.

In the Diamondbacks’ 4-2 win over the Giants, Eugenio Suárez hit his 26th home run of the season – his 11th in June.  The longballs have come in monthly bunches for the third baseman, who had 10 in March/April.  

Most HR in any March/April, Diamondbacks

13    Luis Gonzalez (2001)

10    Eugenio Suárez (2025)

Most HR in any June, Diamondbacks

12    Luis Gonzalez (2001)

11    Eugenio Suárez (2025)

Cal Raleigh’s Major League-best 33rd homer of the year complemented a sac fly from his bat as the Mariners’ catcher boosted his big league-leading RBI tally to 71.  

~There are 16 batters in the All-Star era to get to or beyond 33 longballs before the break.  Right now, Raleigh is matched with the following players at exactly 33 (the number inside the parentheses indicates the player’s season-ending tally)

1961    Roger Maris (61)

1987    Mark McGwire (49)

1994    Matt Williams (43 – in 115 team games because of the strike)

1994    Ken Griffey, Jr. (40 – in 112 team games because of the strike)

1998    Sammy Sosa (66)

2021    Shohei Ohtani (46)

2022    Aaron Judge (62)

~Players to have 33+ round-trippers and at least 71 RBI through their respective teams’ first 84 games:

1921    Babe Ruth (36 & 91)

1928    Babe Ruth (35 & 81)

1932    Jimmie Foxx (34 & 103)

1961    Roger Maris (34 & 82)

1998    Mark McGwire (37 & 87)

1998    Ken Griffey, Jr. (34 & 74)

1998    Sammy Sosa (33 & 81)

2001    Luis Gonzalez (35 & 85)

2001    Barry Bonds (39 & 71)

2025    Cal Raleigh (33 & 71)

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