Game Notes – 07/06/2025

If they (and we) are fortunate, defending MVPs Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge will end their respective seasons with somewhere north of 150 games played – an almost daily entry across six months of regular season baseball.  In contrast, the best pitchers will present their arms and offerings – if they (and we) are lucky – about 33 or 34 times a season.  This difference, then, explains some of the prestige and extra oomph that accompanies the anticipation and experience of an ace:  we, perhaps, look ahead a day or two in the schedule and realize, “Ooh, Sunday is showcasing Wheeler and Crochet and Fried and Skenes and Skubal,” and then joyfully imagine the lightning bolts and twisters about to befuddle the best hitters in the world.  The buildup is an essential part of the ace experience, that letting the imagination have a little extra time on the tilt-a-whirl.  And then, sometimes, the thrill of the ride carries over into the reality.

Zack Wheeler allowed a solo homer in an otherwise pristine complete game:  one baserunner, 28 batters faced with 12 of them going down by strikeout.

~There have been over 4,100 nine-inning complete games produced by Phillies pitchers in the modern era.  Of them, Wheeler’s is the 33rd to see that effort come with 27 or 28 batters faced (so, the minimum or one over the minimum).  Ranger Suárez (via a four-hit shutout on September 25, 2021) had been the most recent to do this.

~Of these more than 4,100 complete games, Wheeler’s is the 11th to come with at least a dozen strikeouts and no walks.  Pete Alexander was the first to do this, with 12 punchouts in 1915.  Vince Velazquez’s 16-strikeout gem from 2016 had been the most recent, before Wheeler added his line.

~There have been 20 lines in the modern era that have featured at least 12 strikeouts and no walks in a one-hitter or no-hitter.  Nap Rucker’s 14 strikeouts in a no-hitter in 1908 gets this train rolling.  Separating the cars by the extremity of dominance:  

Perfect Games 

1965    Sandy Koufax

2004    Randy Johnson

2012    Matt Cain, Félix Hernández 

No-Hitters

1908    Nap Rucker

2014    Clayton Kershaw

2015    Max Scherzer

2021    John Means

One-Hitters

1963    Gary Peters

1994    Bobby Witt

1998    Kevin Millwood, Kerry Wood

1999    Pedro Martínez

2000    Pedro Martínez

2001    Hideo Nomo, Mike Mussina

2012    R.A. Dickey

2013    Shelby Miller

2014    Madison Bumgarner

2025    Zack Wheeler

Tarik Skubal fanned 10 with no walks along his seven scoreless innings but came away with a no-decision for his effort.  

~This game is one of six Skubal has had in his career that’s featured no walks and double-digits in strikeouts (four of them have come in 2025).  These six in a Tigers career tie Skubal with Justin Verlander for the most.  The four this season are the most for any Tiger and tie for the 20th most by any pitcher since 1901.  Gerrit Cole’s seven in 2019 is the apex.  

~In 116.0 innings Skubal has struck out 148 and walked 14.  His per nine rates (11.48 and 1.09, respectively) have been produced in a first or second half in the All-Star era on four other occasions (minimum 15 starts in the “half”):

2000    Pedro Martínez in the second half (11.68 and 0.97)

2002    Curt Schilling in the first half (11.93 and 0.83)

2017    Corey Kluber in the second half (11.58 and 0.98)

2021    Jacob deGrom in the first half (14.28 and 1.08)

Paul Skenes worked five scoreless frames and added 10 strikeouts and no walks in a no-decision as the Pirates dropped a 1-0 affair to the Mariners.  

~Skenes is 4-7 with a 1.94 ERA.  The All-Star era offers up 88 pitchers – including Skenes – who before the break, tallied at least 15 starts and authored an ERA below two.  No one has accompanied such high volume run suppression with such a poor record.  The four worst winning percentages, as things currently look:

2025    Paul Skenes (.364 winning percentage with a 1.94 ERA)

1989    Mike Morgan (.429 with a 1.79)

1948    Dutch Leonard (.467 with a 1.97)

1968    Bob Veale (.467 with a 1.90)

~Skenes has 10 starts this season in which he’s posted a Game Score of at least 60 and either has taken a loss or emerged with a no-decision; no one this year else has more than seven such appearances.  Those 10 are the most in any season for a Pirates pitcher in the modern era, with Bob Friend (1963), Rick Reuschel (1985) and Óliver Pérez (2004) having nine.  Jacob deGrom’s 17 in 2018 are the most for any pitcher in the modern era, with that righty holding a commanding lead over everyone else; the next highest tally, 13, is shared by Jim Bunning (1967), Mike Scott (1986), Nolan Ryan (1987), José Rijo (1993) and Jeff Samardzija (2014).

~Career-wise, Skenes owns a 1.95 ERA (217 ERA+) in his 249.0 innings.  The ERA currently stands as the 12th lowest ever for a pitcher through his first two seasons (minimum 40 starts), with all 11 of the better marks having come from hurlers who made their debuts between 1874 and 1913.  Correspondingly, Skenes’ 217 ERA+ is the highest, ahead of Ed Reulbach’s 186 in 1905-1906 and Dwight Gooden’s 176 in 1984-1985. 

Max Fried allowed three runs in five innings but ultimately pocketed his 11th win on the year.  The southpaw (11-2) is the 18th Yankees left-hander in the All-Star era to have at least 11 by the break, with his 2.27 ERA being improved upon by two of the other 17:  

Lefty Gomez in 1934 – a 2.03 ERA and a 14-2 record

Ron Guidry in 1978 – a 1.99 ERA and a 13-1 record

Garrett Crochet struck out seven en route to his ninth win and an AL-leading 151 K’s.  The strikeout tally represents the sixth highest for any Red Sox pitcher before the All-Star break, behind Chris Sale’s 188 in 2018, Roger Clemens’ 186 in 1988, Pedro Martínez’s 184 in 1999 and Sale’s’ 178 in 2017 and his 153 in 2019.

Christian Walker homered to aid in the Astros’ 5-1 win over Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium.  Walker has 21 career longballs at the ballpark, a main engine to his 1.197 OPS there.  No player with at least 150 plate appearances at the famed space owns a better career mark, with the 34-year-old Walker’s 1.197 ahead of Brad Hawpe’s 1.065, Shohei Ohtani’s 1.056, Manny Ramírez’s 1.011 and Sammy Sosa’s 1.011.  Since we’re on the subject, the highest OPS by a player at the Astros home park (now called Daikin Park) with at least 150 plate appearances belongs to Chipper Jones and his 1.208.  Sosa also owns a top-five mark there, with his 1.023 the fourth best.  Joey Votto (1.124), Todd Helton (1.096) and Josh Hamilton (1.007) occupy the other spots inside the top five.

Bobby Witt, Jr. went 1-for-4 with his lone hit – a solo homer – extending his road-hitting streak to 26 games.  The streak, which is the longest ever by a Royal, is tied for the sixth longest by any player in any season this century.  Justin Morneau’s 34-game run from 2006 stands atop the mountain.

Randy Arozarena’s homer in the sixth inning provided the lone run in Seattle’s 1-0 win against Pittsburgh.

~Arozarena is the 19th Mariner to homer in a 1-0 win and the first since J.P. Crawford in early 2024.  

~This win gave the Mariners their third consecutive team shutout – something the club hadn’t ever previously produced.

Michael Busch singled and doubled and his Cubs rolled the Cardinals, 11-0.  The first baseman (slugging .566, the second highest mark in the NL)  is one of four qualifying Cubs with a .500 or better slugging percentage.  There’s been one other first half in the All-Star era that has witnessed a quartet of Cubs with at least 250 plate appearances and a .500 or better mark.

2019  

Anthony Rizzo (.519)

Kris Bryant (.552)

Willson Contreras (.556)

Javier Báez (.556)

2025

Kyle Tucker (.515)

Pete Crow-Armstrong (.550)

Seiya Suzuki (.561)

Michael Busch (.566)

Aaron Judge hit his 33rd homer of the year – tied for the 10th most by any player before an All-Star break (he also hit 33 in 2022 and had 34 last season*).  One of the players above Judge:  Cal Raleigh, whose 35 this season tie him for the fifth most.  Few seasons have seen a first half boom with two players having at least 33 longballs:

1969   Frank Howard (34) and Reggie Jackson (37)

1994   Matt Williams and Ken Griffey, Jr. (33 apiece)

1998   Sammy Sosa (33), Ken Griffey, Jr. (35) and Mark McGwire (37)

2001   Luis Gonzalez (35) and Barry Bonds (39)

2025   Aaron Judge (33) and Cal Raleigh (35)

*Judge is the only player with three separate seasons featuring at least 33 homers before an All-Star break.

Shinnosuke Ogasawara made his Major League debut, going the first two-and-two-thirds innings for the Nationals in a loss.  The left-hander is the eighth Japanese-born pitcher to make a start in 2025, more than any other season (the previous high of six came in six previous seasons, first in 1999 and most recently in 2024).

Byron Buxton homered to lead off the first and later singled and stole his 16th base of the year.  With 20 homers and those 16 steals, he’s one of 38 players in the past 50 seasons to have at least 20 and 16 before the All-Star break; he’s the only one of this collection to have a pristine SB%.  In 1987, Joe Carter had hit 20 homers and stolen 19 bags in 20 attempts for a 95.0% success rate, the previous high for this group.

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