Game Notes – 07/20/2025

When Jimmie Foxx hit 50 home runs for the Red Sox in 1938, his home environs at Fenway Park offered a seductive set of dimensions for the slugger – so much so that 70% of his round-trippers (35 of 50) came in the home whites.  Right now (but seemingly not for much longer), there are exactly 50 players in baseball history with at least 50 homers in a season.  Among them, no one saw a greater percentage of his longballs come at home than Foxx in 1938 (at the other end of the spectrum, Brady Anderson saw only 38% of his four-baggers in 1996 come at home, for the lowest percentage).  After Foxx, Hank Greenberg’s 1938 season slots in, with 39 of his 58 (67.2%) coming in front of the home fans.  Then, there’s Aaron Judge’s 2017 (63.5%) and José Bautista’s 2010 (61.1%).  Out of the whole 50, those four are the only four instances of a 50-dinger batter hitting at least 60% of his home runs at home.  

Through July 20, 2025, Eugenio Suárez – racing toward 50 bombs – has hit 65.7% of his while repping the Diamondbacks in Arizona.  

For the second straight game (and third time in five games), Eugenio Suárez belted a pair of homers.  The Diamondbacks’ third baseman:

~Became the sixth player for the franchise to have multi-homer lines in back-to-back games, joining Reggie Sanders (2001), Tony Clark (2005), Jean Segura (2016), Paul Goldschmidt (2018) and Christian Walker (2024).  

~Posted his sixth multi-homer game of the season – the fourth highest tally for the franchise, behind:  

Luis Gonzalez (8 in 2001)

Steve Finley (7 in 1999)

Yasmany Tomás (7 in 2016)

~Joined 14 others as third basemen to have at least six multi-homer games in a season, with a trio at the top having seven – Ken Caminiti in 1996, Adrian Beltré in 2004 and Álex Rodríguez in 2007.

~Lifted his home runs at home tally to 23 – the most in the Majors (Shohei Ohtani has 19 for the second most).  The team record for the most in a season belongs to the guy who hit more total longballs in one year than any other Diamondback – Luis Gonzalez, who had 26 of his 57 come at home in 2001.  Suárez’s 23 are the second most.  Hank Greenberg’s 39 in 1938 are the most for any player for any team.

~Leads the NL with 35 homers and paces the entirety of baseball with 85 RBI.  He’s one of 23 players ever to get to 35 and 85 through 100 team games and the first to do this since Baltimore’s Chris Davis (37 and 97) in 2013.  The only other player to do it in the 21st century:  Arizona’s Luis Gonzalez (40 and 99) in 2001.

In a no-decision, Detroit’s Tarik Skubal recorded 11 punchouts without a walk – the fourth time this season he’s had at least 11 in the former category and a zero in the latter.  

~There are 17 pitchers in the Modern Era – including Skubal – to have at least four games like this in a season, with Justin Verlander’s six in 2019 holding top honors.  A focus on the left-handers on the list boosts Skubal into a tie for the most, with Sandy Koufax (1965), Randy Johnson (2000, 2004) and Chris Sale (2019) the others to get to four.

~Skubal’s K:BB ratio for the season now stands at an MLB-best 10.25.  Only three qualifying pitchers since 1893 have finished a year with a better mark than Skubal’s current one:  righties Phil Hughes (11.63 in 2014) and Bret Saberhagen (11.00 in 1994) and southpaw Cliff Lee in 2010 (10.28).  

Garrett Crochet allowed a run over six innings to lower his ERA to 2.19.  The mark, which is the second lowest in the AL in 2025, is the eighth lowest for a Red Sox hurler in the Liveball Era through 101 team games (minimum 101.0 innings):

1.38     Pedro Martínez in 2000

1.65     Tim Wakefield in 1995

1.77     Tex Hughson in 1943

2.04     Dick Radatz in 1964 (0 starts)

2.07     Josh Beckett in 2011

2.13     Chris Sale in 2018

2.14     Dave Ferriss in 1945

2.19     Garrett Crochet in 2025

A Triple Crown race is a-brewing in the AL, with Crochet leading the league in strikeouts outright, tied for the league lead in wins and owning the second lowest ERA.  Skubal doesn’t quite have the volume of leadership statements, but his numbers are right there with Crochet’s.

Garrett Crochet v. Tarik Skubal

Crochet     11 wins, 2.1946 ERA, 165 K’s

Skubal       10 wins, 2.1853 ERA, 164 K’s

Kris Bubic went the necessary five to ultimately pick up the win, spinning zeroes in the runs column in each frame as Kansas City downed Miami.  The lefty is fourth in the AL with a 2.38 ERA, which is also tied for the fourth lowest for any Royal at the 100-game mark (minimum 100.0 innings).  Larry Gura’s 2.01 in 1980 is at the bottom, followed by Zack Greinke’s 2.08 in 2009 and Kevin Appier’s 2.12 in 1992.  Bubic matches with Seth Lugo, who had a 2.38 in 2024.  

Salvador Perez doubled and homered – the 81st time in his 14-year Royals career he’s posted a line with at least two extra-base hits.  Two batters have authored more such games for the franchise:  George Brett (165) and Hal McRae (105).  

In addition to Perez producing his 26th double of the year (third in the AL), Bobby Witt, Jr. collected his league-leading 33rd and Jonathan India churned out his 22nd (tied for 12th in the league).  Maikel Garcia, who did not have a two-base hit in this game, is tied for fourth with 25 doubles.  There are only five teams in baseball history who can claim four players finishing the season with 40+ doubles, including the 2011 Royals, who saw Billy Butler, Melky Cabrera, Jeff Francoeur and Alex Gordon all get to the mark, with all four finishing in the top-10 in the AL.

At Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays defeated the Giants, 8-6, to capture their 10th straight win at home and tie the franchise record for the longest such streak, matching the 1985 club’s 10-game run.  During that streak 40 years ago, the team outscored the opposition 58-19.  This year’s 10-game stretch has seen Toronto produce a 65-40 differential.  

Aaron Judge clocked his 351st career home run to tie Álex Rodríguez for sixth on the Yankees’ all-time list.  New York is the only franchise to have so many players hit at least 351 longballs for it.  

7    Yankees (Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Álex Rodríguez, Aaron                  Judge)

5    Red Sox (Ted Williams, David Ortiz, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans)

5    Braves (Henry Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Chipper Jones, Dale Murphy, Andruw Jones)

Wilyer Abreu authored his fourth multi-homer game of the year in Boston’s win.  There are 13 players in Red Sox history, including Abreu, to have at least four in a season and be younger than 27.  Jim Rice has the most such efforts in a year under these age parameters, with seven in 1977.  

Joe Ryan  fanned 11 without a walk and came away with a win after allowing a run over seven frames.  The righty improved his Triple Crown numbers to 10 wins (tied for third in the AL), a 2.63 ERA (seventh) and 132 strikeouts (fifth).  

~There are two Senators/Twins pitchers since 1920 with Triple Crown numbers as good or better than Ryan’s at this stage of the season (99 team games).  In 1967, Dean Chance had 12 wins, a 2.58 ERA and 134 K’s.  In 1973, Bert Blyleven owned 13 wins to go along with a 2.57 ERA and 160 punchouts.  

~Ryan’s K:BB line marked the 33rd time a Senators/Twins pitcher has reached at least 11 K’s without issuing a walk.  Even after all these years, Walter Johnson’s four lines still have not been surpassed, as he and Bert Blyleven are tied for the most.  This was Ryan’s first such effort.  

Jackson Chourio nabbed his 17th steal of the year, inching him closer to a second straight 20-homer, 20-stolen base season (he’s hit 16 home runs in 2025).  If he produces a 20-20 campaign this year, he’ll join Vada Pinson and Mike Trout as the only players in history to have two of them through an age-21 season. 

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