Stats of the Week: PCA's historic homers, Montes' debut, Walker's rare feat and more

Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (Aug. 28-Sept. 3).

PCA: Pete Crow-Armstrong’s 14 homers in August were the most by a player at age 24 or younger in a calendar month since Ken Griffey Jr. hit 15 in May 1994. On Sunday, he became the second Cubs player this year with five homers in a two-game span, joining Dansby Swanson. The Cubs are the second team in MLB history with two instances in one season, joining the 1947 Pirates, with Ralph Kiner doing it both times, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

North Side power: The Cubs hit a franchise-record nine home runs on Monday, marking the fifth time in MLB history a team hit at least nine in a game. They finished August with 62 home runs, the second most in a calendar month in MLB history behind only the Yankees’ 74 in August 2019.

What a debut: On Tuesday, Lazaro Montes became the sixth player in Mariners history to homer in his MLB debut, joining Kyle Lewis (2019), Kenji Johjima (2006), Greg Dobbs (2004), Alvin Davis (1984) and Jamie Nelson (1983). At 21 years and 314 days, Montes is the youngest on the list. Montes was the first Mariners player with multiple hits in his MLB debut since Ichiro Suzuki in 2001.

Walk(er) this way: Jordan Walker hit his 55th career home run on Tuesday. He’s yet to homer off a pitcher twice. His 55 homers off 55 pitchers is the second-longest streak of home runs off different pitchers to start a career, behind only Willy Adames’ first 57.

Rafi: Rafael Devers hit his 32nd home run of the season on Wednesday. From 2005-24, no Giants player hit 30 homers for the team in a season. In 2025, Willy Adames got there on the final day of the season. This year, Devers got there before September. His 65 extra-base hits through Wednesday were the most by a Giants player in the team’s first 140 games since 2004 Barry Bonds (66).

No. 200: Ronald Acuña Jr. hit the 200th home run of his career on Wednesday. He also has 225 stolen bases in his career. By hitting his 200th homer in his 904th career game, Acuña became the fastest player in MLB history by games to reach at least 200 home runs and 200 stolen bases. He surpassed Alfonso Soriano, who got there in 929 games.

Leadoff royalty: Wednesday was Carter Jensen’s sixth career leadoff homer. They have all been while playing catcher and all have come this year. That’s two more leadoff homers as catcher in a career than anyone else in MLB history.

Keeping runs off the board: Cam Schlittler allowed just one run on Wednesday... again. It was his 19th start this season allowing one or no runs, the most in a season in Yankees history. He broke a tie at 18 with Ron Guidry (1978), Whitey Ford (1964) and Jack Chesbro (1904). He has a 1.14 ERA on the road this year. That’s the third-lowest ERA in a pitcher’s first 16 road starts of a season since earned runs became official (1913), per Elias. He trails only Bob Gibson (1968, 0.81) and Claude Hendrix (1914, 0.94).

Super Sal: Sal Stewart leads MLB with 105 RBIs entering Friday. Just two rookies have led at least their league in RBIs for a season (RBI official since 1920): Walt Dropo (1950, 144 RBIs) and Ted Williams (1939, 144 RBIs), per Elias. Both led MLB. Will Stewart become the third? He hit his 30th home run on Saturday. Stewart is the 14th rookie in MLB history with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs in a season. The nine previous players to do it since the Rookie of the Year Award began (1947) all won it.

Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 922 consecutive games entering Friday, dating to May 2, 2021. His streak is the eighth longest in MLB history. The only other streaks of at least 700 consecutive games to begin in the divisional era (1969) are, of course, Cal Ripken Jr. (1982-98, 2,632 games), as well as Steve Garvey (1975-83, 1,207), Miguel Tejada (2000-07, 1,152), Pete Rose (1978-83, 745) and Dale Murphy (1981-86, 740).