Historic scoreless streak, Ohtani (the pitcher) highlight stats of the week

Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (May 29-June 4).

Homeward bound -- in many forms: Ezequiel Tovar had himself a day on Friday, ending with two homers and a stolen base of home. His second homer was a walk-off, one of four on Friday which tied for the second-most on a day in MLB history. Tovar was the first player in history to have multiple home runs, with one coming as a walk-off, as well as a stolen base of home all in the same game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

What a stretch: Ronald Acuña Jr. had quite a four-game span through Sunday. He totaled five home runs and four stolen bases in just four games. He became the fourth player with at least five home runs and four stolen bases in a four-game span since the modern SB rule was adopted (1898), joining 2024 Shohei Ohtani, 1987 Eric Davis and 1958 Willie Mays. Acuña had seven walks in his span, the most of any on the list in those spans.

Nobody beats the Miz: Jacob Misiorowski pitched on Sunday and allowed an extra-base hit, his first since April 19. Over his last seven starts, Misiorowski has 66 strikeouts and just one extra-base hit allowed. He’s the only pitcher since at least 1900 with at least 55 strikeouts and no more than one extra-base hit allowed in a seven-game span. It was true of his previous seven starts entering Sunday, too.

Sunday run-day: The Yankees put on quite the show in the third inning on Sunday, scoring 13 runs without a home run on 11 hits. Those ended up being their only runs and hits of the game. The Yankees became the first team in MLB history to score 13 or more runs in a game with all of their runs and hits coming in the same inning, per Elias. Even without the hits part, it’s tied for most runs in a game, all in one inning, in MLB history, with the Phillies on April 13, 2003 and Braves on Sept. 20, 1972.

Harrison the hurler: Kyle Harrison had yet another great start for the Brewers on Tuesday, facing the Giants -- his first MLB team. Harrison’s 1.57 ERA is the second-lowest in a pitcher’s first 11 starts with the Brewers, behind only 2008 CC Sabathia at 1.43. Harrison finished the outing with 12 strikeouts, 10 of which came in the first four innings. That tied the franchise record for the first four innings of a game, done twice by Misiorowski and once by Corbin Burnes.

Zeros: Cristopher Sánchez’s scoreless streak finally ended on Wednesday, at a whopping 50 2/3 consecutive innings. That’s the fifth-longest since the mound was moved to its current distance in 1893 and the longest by a lefty on that list, according to Elias. He trails only 1988 Orel Hershiser (59 IP), 1968 Don Drysdale (58 IP), 1913 Walter Johnson (55 2/3 IP) and 1910 Jack Coombs (53 IP).

Schwarbs: Kyle Schwarber hit his MLB-leading 23rd home run of the season on Wednesday. That’s also his 210th since joining the Phillies. He has the fourth-most home runs by a player in his first five seasons with a team, behind only Babe Ruth (NYY: 235), Mark McGwire (STL: 220) and Ralph Kiner (PIT: 215). And there’s plenty of season left.

One is plenty: The Giants won, 1-0, on Wednesday in Milwaukee. The run came on Victor Bericoto’s first MLB home run. It was the third time in franchise history the Giants won a game 1-0 on a player’s first career home run, per Elias. Bericoto joined Darren Lewis on Aug. 7, 1991, and Bill Taylor on June 10, 1954. Taylor, like Bericoto, did it in Milwaukee (against the Braves).

Shotime: Shohei Ohtani made his 10th pitching start of the season on Wednesday and his ERA now sits at 0.74. That’s the third-lowest ERA in a pitcher’s first 10 starts since earned runs became official in both leagues in 1913, behind only 2021 Jacob deGrom (0.56) and 1966 Juan Marichal (0.59). But he’s Shohei Ohtani. He didn’t just lower his ERA with six scoreless innings. He also reached base safely five times, four of those while in the game as pitcher. He became the fourth player since 1900 to have a scoreless start of at least six innings and reach base safely at least five times in the same game, joining Mel Stottlemyre on Sept. 26, 1964, Mel Parnell on May 23, 1951, and Hod Eller on July 30, 1920. Those three threw shutouts.

Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 845 consecutive games entering Friday, dating to May 2, 2021. His streak is the ninth-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).