Game Notes – 07/27/2025

For those within a certain age range, Dwight Gooden’s 1985 season resonates like no other.  The alchemy of age, dominance, the fact that his curveball seemed to (to me, at least) hop upward before crashing down, being in New York, the heights and the depths of the numbers, all of it – it’s an elixir that cannot be replicated.  As part of the joyful absurdity, there was that 1.53 ERA, the lowest in the big leagues since Bob Gibson’s famed 1.12 in 1968.  Doc’s teeny-tiny number came in his second season, making him one of 24 pitchers since 1893 to produce a figure below two in a freshman or sophomore campaign while making at least 20 starts.  Almost all of these streaking and soaring expressions came within the very limited span of 13 years, from 1902 through 1914.  On this shelf, there lives one pitcher who managed the feat in BOTH his first and second years – Cubs right-hander Ed Reulbach, who owned a 1.42 in 1905 and  followed it up with a 1.65.  

Once past 1914, the only other claimants, beside Gooden for the Mets in 1985:  Bullet Rogan for the 1921 Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro National League and Paul Skenes, who already has his 2024 banked with a 1.96 and is now flirting with the idea of joining Reulbach as the only two-timers.  

Paul Skenes tossed up zeroes in all six of his frames and picked up the win as the Pirates blanked the Diamondbacks.  

~Skenes lowered his MLB-leading ERA to 1.83.  There are 28 individual seasons in the NL or AL in the Liveball Era that showed enough innings to qualify for the ERA title and finished the season with an ERA below 1.90 (this 28 does NOT include the seasons from Shane Bieber or Trevor Bauer in 2020, when neither pitcher reached 80.0 innings).  Right now, Skenes’ 1.81 would rank in a tie for 21st, matched with Hal Newhouser (1945) and Sam McDowell (1968).  Looking at all 28 by their age-season, Skenes would be one of four to be in an age-23 or younger campaign, joining Dwight Gooden (20) in 1985, Vida Blue (21) in 1971 and Dean Chance (23) in 1964.  All three of those guys took home a Cy Young Award.  

~Skenes is holding batters to a .184 batting average.  19 NL/AL pitchers since 1893 (and excluding representatives from 2020) have finished a year with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title and a BAA so low.   Pedro Martínez’s .167 in 2000 is the lowest any of the 19 has gone.  The full list of names, arranged by decade, looks like this:

1910s    Dutch Leonard (1914)

1940s    Tommy Byrne (1949)

1950s    Herb Score (1956)

1960s    Al Downing (1963), Sandy Koufax (1965), Bob Gibson, Dave McNally, Luis Tiant (all 1968)

1970s    Nolan Ryan (1972)

1980s    Sid Fernandez (1985)

1990s    Nolan Ryan (1991), Hideo Nomo (1995), Pedro Martínez (1997)

2000s    Pedro Martínez (2000)

2010s    José Fernández (2013), Max Scherzer (2017), Blake Snell (2018), Justin Verlander (2019)

2020s    Blake Snell (2023)

Making a start on his 41st birthday, Max Scherzer struck out 11 with no walks.  

~Scherzer is the ninth oldest pitcher to post a line featuring 11+ K’s and no free passes.  Four of the older options come from Nolan Ryan, who owns the honors for the most advanced age, a 15-strikeout effort coming at the age of 43 years and 198 days old on August 17, 1990.  Randy Johnson occupies three other slots, and Rich Hill takes care of the other.  Hill’s line, coming on May 25, 2021 (with 13 K’s), had been the most recent of the eight.

~Pitchers to have a no-walk game with at least 11 strikeouts on any birthday, dating back to 1901:

Chris Carpenter on April 27, 2005 when he turned 30

Gerrit Cole on September 8, 2019, when he turned 29

Spencer Schwellenbach on May 31, 2025 when he turned 25

Max Scherzer on July 27, 2025 when he turned 41

~Scherzer is one of 140 pitchers in history with at least 400 starts.  He owns the best K% among them and the best K-BB%.  The top five marks for each look like this:

K%

29.3     Max Scherzer in 2,913.0 innings

28.6     Randy Johnson in 4,135.1 innings

27.7     Pedro Martínez in 2,827.1 innings

27.2     Clayton Kershaw in 2,802.1 innings

25.3     Nolan Ryan in 5,386.0 innings

K-BB%

22.8     Max Scherzer 

21.0     Pedro Martínez

20.9     Clayton Kershaw 

19.8     Randy Johnson 

18.1     Curt Schilling in 3,261.0 innings

Carlos Rodón allowed four hits in five-and-a-third innings and got the win as the Yankees prevailed over the Phillies.  The lefty leads the AL with a .189 batting average-against.  There are only two qualifying pitchers in Yankees history to have finished a season with a lower mark than Rodón’s current one – they were both referenced in the Skenes’ note:  Tommy Byrne with a .183 mark for the 1949 club and Al Downing with a .184 in 1963.  Like Rodón, Byrne and Downing threw from the left side.

Noah Cameron finished his day with five scoreless innings and a win as Kansas City took care of Cleveland, 4-1.  The 25-year-old rookie left-hander now owns a 2.44 ERA in 14 starts this season and, at this stage, is on pace to clear the 20-start bar.  Entering 2025, there were 404 first-year hurlers since 1920 who navigated their way through at least 20 starts in that debut season.  Six of them worked to an ERA below 2.50:

1.96    Paul Skenes in 2024 (23 GS)

2.19    José Fernández in 2013 (28 GS)

2.34    Mark Fidrych in 1976 (29 GS)

2.38    Jim Turner in 1937 (30 GS)

2.46    Bruce Ruffin in 1986 (21 GS)

2.49    Milo Candini in 1943 (21 GS)

In the Royals’ victory, 25-year-old third baseman Maikel Garcia homered and 25-year shortstop Bobby Witt, Jr. doubled.  For the year, Witt is third in the AL with 52 extra-base hits while Garcia is tied for 16th with 41.  There aren’t a whole lot of examples of teams seeing both their third baseman and shortstop both be in their age-25 or younger seasons and finish a campaign with at least 50 extra-base hits – few enough that they won’t take up a whole lot of space in these notes.

50+ XBH & 100+ Games at 3B / SS

1928 Giants (Freddie Lindstrom and Travis Jackson)

1941 Indians (Ken Keltner and Lou Boudreau)

2006, 2007 & 2008 Mets (David Wright and José Reyes)

2006 & 2007 Marlins (Miguel Cabrera and Hanley Ramírez)

2007 Brewers (Ryan Braun and J.J. Hardy)

2008 Diamondbacks (Mark Reynolds and Stephen Drew)

2017 Astros (Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa)

2018 Indians (José Ramírez and Francisco Lindor)

Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio doubled twice to extend his hitting streak to 20 games. He’s the seventh player in franchise history to hit safely in at least 20 straight and at 20, Chourio is tied with Corey Hart (2010).  Chourio is still 21 years old, which brings another interesting consideration into the feat he’s currently sculpting.  No Brewer still looking ahead to his 22nd birthday had ever produced a 20-game streak, with Robin Yount’s 16-gamer in 1976 and Gary Sheffield’s 16-game run in 1990 tied for the previous longest.  This century, Chourio and Freddie Freeman (a 20-game run in 2011 for the Braves) are the only players shy of being 22 who’ve produced a 20-game hitting streak.  

~Chourio is tied for seventh in the NL with 49 extra-base hits.  Last season, he finished the year tied for 29th with 54.  There are five players in history who have churned out at least 50 extra-base hits in each of their first two seasons while also being in age-21 or younger campaigns; so, with his next double/triple/homer (assuming it occurs in 2025), Chourio will be aligned with this quintet.

1939-1940    Ted Williams  

1952-1953    Eddie Mathews

1956-1957    Frank Robinson

1958-1959    Orlando Cepeda

2018-2019    Ronald Acuña, Jr.

Shea Langeliers cleared the fences in the Athletics win on Sunday, pushing his home run tally to 17 for the year.  He’s one of two Athletics catchers (at least half of their games behind the plate) to hit at least 17 homers in three straight years, joining Gene Tenace from 1974-1976.  The two in a year-by-year comp:

Tenace        26 HR in 1974, 29 in 1975, 22 in 1976

Langeliers   22 HR in 2023, 29 in 2024, 17 in 2025

CJ Abrams scored three runs, stole three bases and led off the game with a homer to jolt his Nationals to a 7-2 win.  The full line offered the third example of an Expos/Nationals leadoff hitter producing a box score with a homer and three (or more) steals, after a pair of Tim Raines productions in 1981 (both came in May of that year).  In both of Raines’ big days, his homer did NOT arrive in the first inning.

~Abrams has five leadoff homers this season, tied for the fourth most in a year for the franchise.  Brad Wilkerson (2004) and Alfonso Soriano (2006) share the high mark, with nine apiece.  Kyle Schwarber hit seven in 2021 and just last season, Abrams hit five.  

Manny Machado produced the 25th four (or more)-hit game of his career and raised his career tally of knocks to 2,022.  Only two third basemen have owned more through their own age-32 seasons.

Most Hits Through an Age-32 Season, 3B’men (1,000+ Games at Third Through That Season)

2,033    Adrian Beltré

2,028    Ron Santo

2,022    Manny Machado

1,987    Buddy Bell

1,967    George Brett

A Mike Trout two-run homer in the fifth inning gave the Angels’ great his 1,000th and 1,001st career RBI.  Trout has not maintained the extraordinary pace he paved earlier, but this milestone still offers a signal toward how rare his career has been.  He’s one of 28 players in history to collect at least 1,000 RBI and 1,000 walks through his age-33 season.  Trout’s career 171 OPS+ slots him in a tie for the fifth highest among this already exclusive collection.  The top-10 looks like this:

1,000 BB & 1,000 RBI Through an Age-33 Season, Organized by Highest OPS+

213    Babe Ruth

190    Ted Williams

184    Lou Gehrig

175    Mickey Mantle 

171    Stan Musial

171    Mike Trout

168    Frank Thomas

167    Jimmie Foxx

165    Albert Pujols

164    Barry Bonds

Cal Raleigh went yard for the 41st time this season. 

~The tally matches Raleigh with Roger Maris (1961), Reggie Jackson (1969), Mark McGwire (1999) and Luis Gonzalez (2001) for the eighth most ever for a player through his team’s first 106 games.  

~The tally also represents one of the four highest in history for a player who had a year in which he played at least half of his games behind the dish.  Salvador Perez’s 48 in 2021 comes in at the top, followed by Johnny Bench’s 45 in 1970 and Javy López’s 43 in 2003.  At 41, Raleigh’s predecessors are Roy Campanella in 1953 and Todd Hudley in 1996.  

Mets third baseman Ronny Mauricio generated a homer, two doubles and a single out of the ninth spot in the order – the 50th example since 1901 of a batter hitting ninth and having at least four hits with at least three of those knocks going for extra bases.  Five of the lines pre-date the DH rule, including one from Babe Ruth in 1915.  There are two other submissions from a pitcher since 1973, both from Micah Owings in 2007. 

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