Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (August 29-September 4).
Bobby Baseball: Bobby Witt Jr. hit his 20th homer of the season on Saturday, giving him yet another season with at least 20 home runs and 30 stolen bases. Witt is the first player in MLB history with at least 20 homers and 30 stolen bases in each of the first four seasons of his career. In fact, his four such seasons are tied for the third-most in MLB history. The only players with more are Bobby Bonds (nine) and Barry Bonds (seven).
Crushing Colson: Colson Montgomery hit his 10th home run of August on Sunday against the Yankees. That ties Jose Abreu in April and June 2014 for most by a rookie in a calendar month in White Sox history.
Like a fine wine: Justin Verlander notched his 73rd career game with at least 10 strikeouts on Sunday against the Orioles. At 42 years and 192 days, Verlander became the oldest pitcher with at least 10 strikeouts in a game since Randy Johnson on Aug. 22, 2008 (44y 347d). The only other pitchers with at least one 10-strikeout game at that age or older in at least the last 125 seasons are Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan and Gaylord Perry.
Fresh Prince of the walk-off, pinch-hit homer: Will Smith hit a pinch-hit, walk-off home run for the Dodgers … again. It’s the fourth time he’s done so in his career, the second-most pinch-hit walk-off home runs in MLB history. Only Jason Giambi hit more, with six.
Shotime: Shohei Ohtani hit his 100th home run with the Dodgers on Tuesday. At 120.0 mph, it was both the hardest-hit ball of his career and by any Dodgers player under Statcast (2015). He hit it in his 294th game with the Dodgers. That’s the third-fewest games to 100 home runs with a franchise, behind only Mark McGwire (STL: 230) and Babe Ruth (NYY: 250). It was Ohtani’s 42nd home run out of the leadoff spot this season, the most in a season in MLB history, breaking a tie with 2023 Ronald Acuña Jr.
Young Junior: Junior Caminero hit his 40th home run of the season on Tuesday against the Mariners. He is the fourth-youngest player with a 40-homer season in MLB history, based on age on the final day of the season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Caminero will be 22 years and 85 days old on the last day. Only 1929 Mel Ott (20 years, 218 days), 2019 Ronald Acuña Jr. (21 years, 285 days) and 1953 Eddie Mathews (21 years, 349 days) were younger.
Miller Time: Mason Miller threw an immaculate inning on Wednesday using all sliders. Miller’s was the 63rd immaculate inning in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008). It was the first to not feature a fastball, based on Baseball Savant groupings (sinker, four-seamer, cutter), per MLB’s Jason Bernard. It was the third immaculate inning in that span with all pitches being of the same pitch type, joining Phil Maton on June 15, 2022, with his four-seamer and Josh Hader on March 30, 2019, with his sinker.
Soto Shuffle: Juan Soto drew his 115th walk on Wednesday. Soto now has five seasons with at least 25 homers and 115 walks. That’s tied with Jim Thome and Lou Gehrig for the fourth-most such seasons in a career, behind only Barry Bonds (13), Babe Ruth (10) and Ted Williams (9). Soto is the fourth player with at least 35 home runs, 25 stolen bases and 115 walks in a season all-time, joining Jeff Bagwell (1997, 1999), Chipper Jones (1999) and Barry Bonds (1993, 1996-98).
Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 760 consecutive games entering Friday, dating to May 2, 2021. There have been only five other streaks of at least 700 to begin in the divisional era (1969), per Elias. They belong to 1982-98 Cal Ripken Jr (2,632 consecutive games), 1975-83 Steve Garvey (1,207), 2000-07 Miguel Tejada (1,152), 1978-83 Pete Rose (745) and 1981-86 Dale Murphy (740).
