Game Notes – 09/24/2025

In his entry for “tater,” Paul Dickson (The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, Third Edition, 2009), mentions that “the term may have originated in the Negro Leagues as potato but took on new life when George Scott made a habit of calling his home runs “taters” after coming to the Boston Red Sox in 1966.”  Dickson then includes this snippet from a Sports Illustrated piece:  “The grin some grownups get when they think of George Scott, late of the Red Sox, examining his bats to see which ones had taters in ‘em.”

Taters, dingers, big flies, four-baggers, round-trippers, etc., etc., etc.  No matter the descriptor, a swing and a long drive beyond the reach of any glove (at least on the field) has a resonance, a grin-inducing, goose-bumping effect.  

In a somewhat historic convergence, Kyle Schwarber, Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh each hit a pair of home runs.  Let’s approach each individually and then tie the trio together.

~Schwarber tied Hack Wilson (1930) and Ken Griffey, Jr. (1997, 1998) for the 20th most longballs in a season and moved to within two of matching Ryan Howard (2006) for the Phillies’ single-season record.  

~On a single-season, most homers by position accounting, Schwarber claims the starring role at DH, his 56 two ahead of David Ortiz’s 54 in 2006 and Shohei Ohtani’s 54 in 2024.  

~Judge hit his 50th and 51st longballs of the year, giving him four seasons with at least 50.  He’s the fourth player to have that many:

Babe Ruth       (1920, 1921, 1927, 1928) 

Mark McGwire (1996-1999)

Sammy Sosa   (1998-2001)

Aaron Judge    (2017, 2022, 2024, 2025)

~Judge tied Mickey Mantle for the second most multi-home run lines (46) in Yankees history.  No player for any team has produced more than Judge through his number of career games, (1,141), with Ralph Kiner having 39 for the second most.

~Thanks to his three-hit evening, Judge lifted his average to an MLB-leading .328.  Of the 54 players in history to bang out 50 homers in a season, two of them also captured their league’s batting crown:  Jimmie Foxx in 1938 when he batted .349 with 50 home runs and Mickey Mantle, whose Triple Crown campaign in 1956 featured 52 home runs and a .353 mark.  

~Raleigh’s two round-trippers lifted him to Mt. Olympus (home run edition), as the Mariners’ backstop posted the 10th 60-homer line in history.  Chronologically, the climb to this historic height looks like this:

1927   Babe Ruth hits 60

1961   Roger Maris hits 61

1998   Mark McGwire hits 70 and Sammy Sosa hits 66

1999   Mark McGwire hits 65 and Sammy Sosa hits 63

2001   Barry Bonds hits 73 and Sammy Sosa hits 64

2022   Aaron Judge hits 62

2025   Cal Raleigh hits 60 

~Raleigh’s night gave him 11 multi-home run games this season, tying Hank Greenberg (1938), Sammy Sosa (1998) and Aaron Judge (2022) for the most ever.  Before Raleigh in 2025, the most ever for a switch-hitter in a season had sat with Mickey Mantle, who had eight in 1961.  

~(Judge’s 51 + Schwarber’s 56 + Raleigh’s 60) + (Shohei Ohtani’s 53) = 2025 as the third season to feature a quartet of batters getting to the 50-level, with the two others looking like this:

1998:  Mark McGwire (70), Sammy Sosa (66), Ken Griffey, Jr. (56), Greg Vaughn (50)

2001:  Barry Bonds (73), Sammy Sosa (64), Luis Gonzalez (57), Álex Rodríguez (52)

Edmundo Sosa did his teammate Schwarber, Judge and Raleigh one better by going deep three times on Wednesday.  The 29-year-old became the 29th Phillie to hit at least three in a game, a lineage that dates back to 1884 when right fielder Jack Manning hit three.  Sosa is the first shortstop on this list of 29 and overall, is the 27th shortstop to hit three (no one has hit four) – this family tree starts with Tony Lazzeri in 1927 (Lazzeri started his big game at third, hit his first home run and then shifted to shortstop).

In all, the Phillies tallied eight home runs in their win against the Marlins and established a new franchise record.  Less than a month ago, the club had hit seven to tie the previous high.  

Washington’s James Wood homered twice to get to 30 on the season and become the 51st player ever to reach the number in an age-22 or younger season (he’s one of three to do this in 2025, following Junior Caminero for the Rays and Nick Kurtz for the Athletics).  Wood is the third Expo/National to make this club, after Bryce Harper (42 in 2015) and Juan Soto (34 in 2019).  

José Ramírez doubled twice and drove in two runs to help the Guardians to a 5-1 win over the Tigers.  

~Ramírez reached 3,000 total bases for his career, with his 3,002 second to Earl Averill’s 3,200 for the most in Cleveland franchise history.  

~Ramírez is the 78th player ever to reach the milestone through an age-32 season, and is part of a select collection when positions are thrown into the shaker.

Through an Age-32 Season, 3,000+ Total Bases & 1,000+ Games at Third, by Most TB

3,712    Eddie Mathews

3,602    Manny Machado

3,449    Adrian Beltré

3,431    Ron Santo

3,162    George Brett

3,074    Nolan Arenado

3,014    Chipper Jones*

3,002    José Ramírez*

*Jones and Ramírez are two of seven switch-hitters on the big list of 78, along with Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray, Roberto Alomar, Ted Simmons and Pete Rose.

~Ramírez’s two doubles gave him 725 extra-base hits in his career to couple with his 283 stolen bases.  He, Barry Bonds and Álex Rodríguez are the only players to get to these two tallies through an age-32 season.

~Cleveland took a one-game lead over Detroit for first in the AL Central.  Via the Guardians’ press notes, the club became the first team in big league history to overcome a deficit of at least 15.5 games to tie or take the lead in the division or league; the previous standard bearers:  the 1914 Boston Braves, who wiped away a deficit of 15.0 games.  

~This Guardians team has assembled a Major League-best 3.32 ERA in the season’s second half; Cleveland is tied with Milwaukee for the best winning percentage (.635) since the break.

Making what should be his final appearance of the 2025 campaign, Paul Skenes (6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R) shifted his line to show a 1.97 ERA (218 ERA+), a 0.948 WHIP and a 29.5 strikeout percentage.  For all NL/AL qualifying pitchers since 1893 in age-23 or younger seasons, Skenes slots in with …

~ … a tie for the 24th lowest ERA, matched with Carl Lundgren in 1902.  If the 19th century and Deadball Era are removed from the equation, Skenes’ 1.97 comes in as the fourth lowest, behind Dwight Gooden’s 1.53 in 1985, Dean Chance’s 1.65 in 1964 and Vida Blue’s 1.82 in 1971.

~… the third best ERA+, behind Dutch Leonard’s 279 in 1914 and Dwight Gooden’s 229 in 1985.

~… a tie for the fourth lowest WHIP, matched with Addie Joss’ mark from 1903.  Those two trail Dutch Leonard’s 0.886 in 1914, Walter Johnson’s 0.914 in 1910 and Harry Krause’s 0.939 in 1909.

~… the sixth highest K%, behind marks from José Fernández in 2016, Kerry Wood in 1998, Dwight Gooden in 1984, Jack Flaherty in 2019 and Óliver Pérez in 2004.  

Jesús Luzardo fanned 10 with no walks, his fourth game this season with double-digit K’s and no free passes.  Those four tie Luzardo with Cliff Lee (2013) for the most by a Phillies southpaw in a season in the Modern Era, with those two tied with a few others for the ninth most by any left-hander since 1901.  Over in the other league this year, Tarik Skubal authored seven of these lines to establish a new high mark for portsiders.  Overall, this season has seen 26 of these performances by lefties, more than any other season since the AL joined up with the NL in 1901 (the previous high – 21 – came in 2014 and was matched in 2016 and 2019).

Garrett Crochet padded his campaign with another gem:  eight innings of three-hit, no-run, no-walk ball with six strikeouts.  The southpaw’s Triple Crown line features an AL-best 255 strikeouts, 18 wins (second in the league) and a 2.59 ERA (third).  Using his Triple Crown numbers as the baseline, there are three Red Sox pitchers to match or improve on them:  right-handers Smoky Joe Wood (1912) and Pedro Martínez (1999, 2000).  

Max Fried polished his campaign with another sparkler:  seven innings of four-hit, one-run, two-walk ball with seven strikeouts.  The southpaw’s Triple Crown line features an AL-best 19 wins, 189 strikeouts (sixth in the league) and a 2.86 ERA (fourth).  Using his Triple Crown numbers as the baseline, there are seven Yankees pitchers to match or improve on them:  right-handers Jack Chesbro (1904), Jack Powell (also 1904) and Russ Ford (1910) and portsiders Lefty Gomez (1937), Whitey Ford (1963) and Ron Guidry (1978).

Byron Buxton led off the game with a home run, the ninth time he’s done this in 2025.  In Senators/Twins history, only Jacque Jones produced more jolts at the top of a contest – 11 in 2002.  

Shohei Ohtani scored his 143rd run of the year, tying Babe Herman (1930) for the third most in a season for any member of the Dodgers franchise.  Ahead of those two, a pair of 19th century base ballers:  Hub Collins with 148 in 1890 and Darby O’Brien with 146 in 1889.  The 1930s saw Herman and 20 others across the big leagues reach 143 in a season; since then, Ohtani and 10 others have done it:

1949    Ted Williams (150)

1985    Rickey Henderson (146)

1993    Lenny Dykstra (143)

1997    Craig Biggio (146), Larry Walker (143)

1999    Jeff Bagwell (143)

2000    Jeff Bagwell (152)

2001    Sammy Sosa (146)

2007    Álex Rodríguez (143)

2023    Ronald Acuña, Jr. (149)

2025    Shohei Ohtani (143)

… We’ll finish with a final homer-related note – one that has a reference to that tater-hitting fella, George Scott.  

Tyler Soderstrom connected on his 25th home run, giving his 2025 Athletics two players in age-23 or younger seasons with at least 25 (Nick Kurtz, in his age-22 campaign, has 33).  There are a dozen other teams with this claim, including one additional Athletics example:  the 1987 team featuring Mark McGwire and José Canseco.  The rest:  

Teammates With 25+ HR in an Age-23 or Younger Season

1938 Yankees      Joe DiMaggio & Joe Gordon

1955 Braves         Henry Aaron & Eddie Mathews

1966 Red Sox       Tony Conigliaro & George Scott

1977 Expos          Gary Carter & Ellis Valentine

1978 Expos           Andre Dawson & Ellis Valentine

1987 Rangers       Pete Incaviglia & Rubén Sierra

1992 Rangers       Juan González & Dean Palmer

2003 Rangers       Hank Blalock & Mark Teixeira

2007 Brewers       Ryan Braun & Prince Fielder

2017 Rangers       Joey Gallo & Rougned Odor

2021 Blue Jays     Bo Bichette & Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.

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