Stats of the Week: Jo, Polar Bear, Salas and PCA power up

Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (Sept. 11-17).

Jo: Jo Adell crushed a 116.8 mph home run on Sunday. That’s Cleveland’s hardest-hit home run under Statcast (2015) and its second-hardest-hit ball of any kind behind a 117.2 mph Jhonkensy Noel single on April 13, 2025. Adell currently has the hardest-hit ball this season for both the Guardians (this homer) and Angels (114.9 mph on May 22). Two players have finished a season with the hardest-hit ball for multiple teams in the same season under Statcast: 2023 Jake Burger in 2023 (White Sox/Marlins) and 2021 Jorge Soler in 2021 (Royals/Braves), per MLB’s Jason Bernard.

Walk this way: Tristan Peters worked an 18-pitch walk on Monday. That’s tied for the fifth-most pitches in a plate appearance since pitch counts have been tracked (1988). It’s also tied for the most pitches in a plate appearance ending in a walk in that span (Adam Kennedy on June 10, 2004).

“That one is on vacation!” Bryce Eldridge crushed a 461-foot home run on Tuesday. It was his third homer of at least 450 feet this season, the second-most by a Giants player in a single year under Statcast, behind only Austin Slater’s four in 2021. It’s also tied for the second-most by a player at age 21 or younger in a season, behind Elly De La Cruz’s four in 2023.

Polar Pete: Pete Alonso hit his 300th career home run on Tuesday at Citi Field. Alonso became the third player to hit his 300th home run against a team for which he previously played at least 1,000 games, per the Elias Sports Bureau. He joined Willie Horton (against the Tigers) and Torii Hunter (Twins). Alonso became the 20th player to hit his 300th against a team for which he had played at least one game.

Made for this: After hitting a walk-off home run to clinch a playoff berth on Friday, Junior Caminero hit another walk-off homer on Tuesday. At 23 years and 72 days, he became the second-youngest player in MLB history with two walk-off home runs in a four-game span (age the day of the second), per Elias. He was older than only Nick Kurtz on June 19, 2025, at 22 years and 99 days old.

Schwarbs: Kyle Schwarber hit his 45th home run of the season on Wednesday, his 232nd since joining the Phillies. That’s the second-most home runs by a player in his first five seasons with a team, behind only Babe Ruth (235 for the Yankees). And the season still isn’t over yet.

PCA: Wednesday’s game was Pete Crow-Armstrong’s sixth with at least 10 total bases this season. That’s tied with Nelson Cruz for the most in a season since at least 1900. He has 10 such games in his career. That’s tied with Hank Sauer and Ernie Banks for the third-most among Cubs in that span, behind Billy Williams and Sammy Sosa (12 each). Crow-Armstrong is up to 44 homers this season, the most by a lefty in a season in Cubs history and tied with Banks in 1955 for the most in a season at age 24 or younger in franchise history.

Rookie history: Ethan Salas hit the first two home runs of his career on Wednesday . At 20 years and 107 days old, he became the youngest catcher in MLB history with two home runs in a game. In the last 20 years, the only other players with at least one multihomer game at that age or younger are Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout. Talk about great company.

Sandy in the ninth: Sandy Alcantara, who leads MLB with 206 innings, got the save on Wednesday. He became the fourth pitcher to get a save on a day he entered with at least a share of the MLB lead in innings pitched (saves official since 1969), per Elias. He joined Orel Hershiser (May 1987), Phil Niekro (July 1978) and Andy Messersmith (May 1975). But finishing the season leading in innings and having recorded a save is an entirely different ballgame. The only pitcher to lead MLB in innings for an entire season in which he got a save is Niekro. Alcantara will very likely officially join that list at season’s end.

Current Ironman: Entering Friday, Matt Olson has played 935 consecutive games dating back to May 2, 2021. His streak is the 8th-longest in MLB history. The only other streaks of at least 700 consecutive games to begin in the divisional era (1969) are, of course, 2,632 (Cal Ripken Jr., 1982-98); 1,207 (Steve Garvey, 1975-83); 1,152 (Miguel Tejada, 2000-07); 745 (Pete Rose, 1978-83); and 740 (Dale Murphy, 1981-86).