Here¡¯s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (April 11-17).
Big Dumper: Cal Raleigh¡¯s home run on Friday was the 96th of his career. That broke a tie at 95 with Mike Zunino for most by a catcher in Mariners history (min 50% games at C). He¡¯s now up to 101 homers, chasing Mike Piazza¡¯s mark of 128 for most in the first five seasons of a catcher¡¯s career.
Just keep hitting: Jacob Wilson began the season with a 15-game hitting streak before finally being held hitless on Sunday. That was the sixth-longest season-opening hit streak by a rookie since 1900, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He trailed only 2016 David Dahl (17), 1975 Leon Roberts (17), 1941 Chuck Aleno (17), 2000 Juan Pierre (16) and 1945 Bobby Wilkins (16).
Welcome back: Garrett Crochet faced the White Sox in Chicago on Sunday, his first time matching up against his former team. He held his old team hitless through 7 1/3 innings. That tied Woody Williams on June 5, 2003, against the Blue Jays, for the third-longest no-hit bid in the expansion era (1961) by a pitcher in his first appearance vs. a former team, per Elias. The only such bids longer were Corey Kluber¡¯s no-hitter at the Rangers (5/19/21) and an 8 1/3-inning bid by Steve Renko at the A¡¯s (7/13/1979).
Hunting strikeouts: Hunter Greene is off to a stellar start so far this season. He¡¯s the fifth pitcher in the last 125 seasons with at least 30 strikeouts, fewer than five walks and no more than three runs allowed in his first four appearances of a season. He joined Joe Musgrove (2021), Corbin Burnes (2021), Dizzy Dean (1937) and Christy Mathewson (1908).
Zeroes: On Sunday, the Padres became the second team in MLB history to throw six shutouts in their first 16 games of a season, joining Cleveland in 1966. The Padres did not allow a run in their weekend series. There have now been 34 instances of a team shutting out its opponents for an entire series of at least three games since 1901. This was the first time the Padres did it and the first such series in MLB since Cleveland did so in August 2017.
Number one: A first-inning injury to Endy Rodr¨ªguez on Monday led to Henry Davis entering the game behind the plate. It was Paul Skenes day, meaning the pitcher and catcher were top Draft picks. Davis and Skenes became the first battery of No. 1 overall picks since the Draft was instituted in 1965.
Bobby baseball: Monday at Yankee Stadium was the second time in his career Bobby Witt Jr. homered in an at-bat that went at least 10 pitches. The only other Royals player with multiple such homers since pitch counts have been tracked (1988) is Mike Sweeney (two).
So many homers: MLB home run leader Tyler Soderstrom registered his third game with multiple homers on Tuesday. He became the fifth player with three multi-homer games in his team¡¯s first 17 games of a season, joining 2020 Teoscar Hern¨¢ndez, 2001 Carlos Delgado, 1974 Reggie Jackson and 1948 Ken Keltner. Soderstrom is the youngest player to do so.
Home sweet Petco: The Padres' 11-0 home start tied for the ninth-longest home win streak to start a season with the 2003 Royals and 1883 Athletics. They trailed only the 1880 White Stockings (21), 1886 Wolverines (18), 1884 Maroons (16), 2023 Rays (14), 1885 White Stockings (14), 2009 Dodgers (13), 1911 Tigers (12) and 1884 Gothams (12).
Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 638 consecutive games entering Friday, dating to May 2, 2021. There have been only seven other streaks of at least 600 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), 1981-86 Dale Murphy (740), 1973-78 Rose (678) and 1969-73 Sandy Alomar Sr. (661).