Game Notes – 08/20/2025

The 1904 Athletics – pitching staff residence for a trio of Hall of Famers – saw their starters average 5.93 strikeouts per nine innings.  Under the lights shining on the current environment, that figure may look, feel, sound … anemic, blah, laughable, but for the era, it was anything but.  Thanks in large part to the efforts of their three immortals, Rube Waddell, Charles Bender and Eddie Plank, the 5.93 stands as the best any starting staff produced between 1901 and the end of the deadball era, 1919.  From 1920 through 1960 (the last year before expansion), the best mark any starting staff compiled came from the 1960 Dodgers (home to Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale), whose cumulative efforts brought forth a mark of 7.37. 

Then, between 1961 and 1993 (the last year of the leagues’ East-West divisional structure), the top mark had climbed all the way to 8.00, courtesy of David Cone, Sid Fernandez, Dwight Gooden and the rest of the 1990 Mets starters.  Since then, 172 different starting staffs have ended a season with a rate above that 8.00 (this accounting doesn’t include any of the numbers from the 60-game season in 2020).  The best now resides at 10.54, a figure from the 2019 Astros (a nod to Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander).  The number is so far beyond the apex from the first two decades of the 20th century as to feel from another side of the galaxy; still, it’s kinda cool to be able to connect these two summits.  

As for how this season is looking, the 2025 Phillies starting staff – with Zack Wheeler, Jesús Luzardo and Cristopher Sánchez leading the charge – roars as the leader, currently sporting a 9.60 that would rank as the 17th highest ever, and a new high bar for the franchise.  

Jesús Luzardo fanned a season-high 12 batters and issued no walks to pace the Phillies in an 11-2 win over the Mariners.  

~Luzardo is fourth in the NL in strikeouts per nine, with a 10.55 mark. His lefty teammate, Cristopher Sánchez, holds down the 10th spot in the category, at 9.69.  No Phillies left-hander has ever qualified for the ERA title and finished a season with a mark as high as either of these current hurlers possess, with Cliff Lee’s  9.21 in 2011 the standard for now.  Similarly, the current Phillies duo is threatening to become just the third set of qualifying left-handed teammates to finish a year with posts of at least nine.  The 2016 White Sox featured Chris Sale and Carlos Rodón; a year later, Sale was with the Red Sox and teamed up with Drew Pomeranz to accomplish the feat.

~With Luzardo’s line, the Phillies have gotten four outings this season in which their initial hurler reached at least a dozen K’s and didn’t issue any walks (Zack Wheeler has two and the aforementioned Sánchez has one).  There are 10 teams in the Modern Era to be able to claim at least four of these efforts in a season, with the 2018 and 2019 Astros sharing the badge for the most, with seven.  

Trea Turner singled four times and tripled once in the Phillies’ win.  The current Major League leader in knocks (with 158), Turner is batting .378 in August, with 31 hits in 82 at-bats.  Can the shortstop get to 50 hits this month?  If he does, he’ll be the first player for the franchise to reach 50 in any monthly split since Jimmy Rollins had 52 in September/October of 2005 and the first to do this in an August since Von Hayes collected 51 in 1984.  

Kyle Schwarber singled, doubled and lofted his 45th home run in a five-RBI day for Philadelphia.  

~NL History:  Most HRs Through 127 Team Games

55    Barry Bonds (2001)

53    Sammy Sosa (1999)

51    Mark McGwire (1998, 1999)

49    Sammy Sosa (2001), Giancarlo Stanton (2017)

48    Sammy Sosa (1998)

47    Luis Gonzalez (2001)

45    Kyle Schwarber (2025)

~Schwarber joined the Phillies for the 2022 season and in his 592 games with the franchise, has six where he’s homered and driven in at least five runs.  Despite the short-ish stint with the club, those six tie him with Chase Utley (1,551 games with the Phillies) for the eighth most since 1901.  The top seven, with their total number of games with the franchise in parentheses.

1901-2025:  Phillies With Most Games of at Least One HR and at Least Five RBI

14    Chuck Klein (1,405)

13    Mike Schmidt (2,404)

13    Ryan Howard (1,572)

11    Del Ennis (1,630)

10    Pat Burrell (1,306)

7      Gavy Cravath (1,103)

7      Bobby Abreu (1,353)

For the 61st time in his career, George Springer led off the first inning with a home run.  The 35-year-old has done this more times than anyone in history except for Rickey Henderson, who still holds a lead of 20 over Springer.  This leadoff homer gave Springer 22 with the Blue Jays, which ties him with Devon White for the most in franchise history.  As for his 39 during his time with the Astros, Springer is third on that franchise’s list, behind Craig Biggio (53) and Jose Altuve (41).

Detroit’s Charlie Morton won his ninth game of the year after working six innings of two-run ball with eight strikeouts.  

~At 41 years and 281 days old, Morton is one of three pitchers in Tigers history to start and win a game after turning 41.  Morton now has two while Kenny Rogers claimed 29 and Bill Donovan had one.

~Morton has thrown 123.2 innings and fanned 130 batters (9.5 strikeouts per nine).  There are 87 pitchers in history who qualified for the ERA title in an age-41 or older season, with five of the 87 finishing a campaign with a K/9 of at least 9.0:

11.3   Nolan Ryan in 1989

10.6   Nolan Ryan in 1991

10.2   Nolan Ryan in 1990

9.3     Nolan Ryan in 1988

9.2     Roger Clemens in 2004

Hurston Waldrep (7.0, 4 H, 7 K’s) picked up the win as the Braves edged the White Sox, 1-0.  The 23-year-old is now 4-0 with a 0.73 ERA in 24.2 innings this season, with all of this work coming since August 2.  Looking through the Braves’ monthly splits in the Liveball Era, there are three examples of a hurler in an age-23 or younger season amassing at least 25.0 innings and a sub-one ERA.  In September/October of 1926, Foster Edwards posted a 0.72 in 25.0 innings.  Much more recently, Michael Soroka owned a 0.79 in 34.0 innings in May of 2019 and Alex Wood authored a 0.90 in August of 2013 over 30.0 innings.

Giancarlo Stanton’s pinch-hit homer in the top of the 10th inning gave the Yankees a 5-3 lead in an eventual 6-4 victory.  Entering this season, the slugger had compiled 429 homers, with none of them coming as a pinch-hitter.  This year, two of his 15 have been delivered in the role, with this one making him the first Yankee since Brian McCann in 2014 to deliver a pinch-hit, go-ahead longball in extra innings.    

~The 35-year-old Stanton now has 444 career homers – there are 21 players in history to claim at least 450 through their age-35 campaigns, with Mike Schmidt (458) the closest within reach to Stanton.  

In the Yankees’ win, both their leadoff hitter (Trent Grisham) and number nine batter (Austin Wells) posted multi-homer games.  The franchise has seen one other instance of both the very top and very bottom of the order producing multiple longballs.  On September 16, 2020, DJ LeMahieu hit two while batting first and Kyle Higashioka hit three batting ninth.  

Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers hit his 28th home run of the season.  He’s now seven shy of matching Terry Steinbach’s mark from 1996 for the most longballs by an Athletic with at least half his games behind the plate.  A record of the best marks for all positions/roles (using the 50% rule) for the franchise looks like this:

C       Terry Steinbach with 35 in 1996

1B     Jimmie Foxx with 58 in 1932

2B     Jed Lowrie with 23 in 2018

3B     Matt Chapman with 36 in 2019

SS     Miguel Tejada with 34 in 2002

LF      Khris Davis with 43 in 2017

CF     Dwayne Murphy with 33 in 1984

RF     Reggie Jackson with 47 in 1969

DH    Khris Davis with 48 in 2018

P       Blue Moon Odom with 5 in 1969

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