Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (July 17-23).
Schwarbs: Kyle Schwarber hit his 33rd home run of the season on Saturday. That’s also his 220th since joining the Phillies. That tied Mark McGwire with the Cardinals for the second-most home runs by a player in his first five seasons with a team, behind only Babe Ruth (NYY: 235). And there’s plenty of season left.
Go the distance: Last year, Yoshinobu Yamamoto became the second pitcher to throw his first two career MLB complete games (regular season or playoffs) in the postseason, joining Josh Beckett (G5 2003 NLCS & G6 2003 World Series), according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Now, he has his first in the regular season, throwing one in the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday. Yamamoto became the first Dodgers pitcher with a complete game in either end of a doubleheader since July 3, 1992, when Bob Ojeda did so in Game 1 and Pedro Astacio did so in Game 2.
For three: Hunter Goodman hit three homers on Sunday — again. Goodman is the first player in Rockies history with multiple three-homer games in a season. The only other Rockies with multiple for a career are Larry Walker (three), Todd Helton and Carlos González.
Five-star leader: Pete Crow-Armstrong made yet another five-star catch on Monday. That’s a catch with a catch probability of 25% or below per Statcast. It was his 33rd career five-star catch, breaking a tie with Kevin Kiermaier for the most since Statcast began tracking these in 2016. Entering Friday, Crow-Armstrong is up to 35 of them. And remember, he’s just 24 years old.
Setting them down: Gerrit Cole racked up 11 strikeouts on Wednesday and did not issue a walk. It was his 29th game with at least 10 strikeouts since joining the Yankees, extending his franchise record. He now has six more such games than anyone else in franchise history. It was his 24th career game with at least 10 strikeouts and no walks. That’s fifth-most since at least 1900, behind Randy Johnson (36), Max Scherzer (31), Curt Schilling (27) and Clayton Kershaw (27).
Power: The Diamondbacks hit three home runs of at least 425 feet in the fifth inning on Wednesday — 431 feet from James McCann, 427 feet from Gabriel Moreno and 426 feet from Ryan Waldschmidt. It was the third time a team has hit three homers of at least 425 feet in an inning under Statcast, joining the Twins in the eighth on April 27, 2019, and the A’s on May 20, 2017, in the fifth.
Royalty: Salvador Perez hit his 317th career home run on Wednesday, tying George Brett for the Royals record. Perez is the fifth active player to lead a franchise in career home runs, joining Mike Trout for the Angels, Giancarlo Stanton for the Marlins, Pete Alonso for the Mets and Manny Machado for the Padres.
Maximum Muncy: Max Muncy hit his 20th home run of the season on Wednesday. It was his 229th since joining the Dodgers. That broke a tie with Ron Cey for the fifth-most home runs in Dodgers history. Muncy trails Duke Snider (389), Gil Hodges (361), Eric Karros (270) and Roy Campanella (242).
The streak that was: The Red Sox winning streak finally came to an end on Wednesday, after reaching 15 games, tying 1946 for the longest in franchise history. The Red Sox became the eighth team with a win streak of at least 15 games in the Expansion Era (1961). Their streak was also the third-longest in MLB history by a team under a manager who did not manage their opening game, per Elias. The only streaks longer were by teams before 1900 — the 1890 Phillies under Bob Allen and the 1884 St. Louis Maroons under Fred Dunlap, both at 16 straight.
Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 884 consecutive games entering Friday, dating to May 2, 2021. His streak is the 9th-longest in MLB history. The only other streaks of at least 700 consecutive games to begin in the divisional era (1969) are, of course, 1982-98 Cal Ripken Jr. (2,632 games), as well as 1975-83 Steve Garvey (1,207), 2000-07 Miguel Tejada (1,152), 1978-83 Pete Rose (745) and 1981-86 Dale Murphy (740).
