Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (Sept. 4-10).
Fish are friends: Griffin Conine hit his 20th career home run on Saturday. He and his father Jeff for the Marlins are the 10th father/son duo with at least 20 career homers each for the same franchise, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. They joined Bobby/Barry Bonds (SF), Cecil/Prince Fielder (DET), Dave/Shelley Duncan (CLE), Felipe/Moises Alou (SF), Gus/Buddy Bell (CIN), Hal/Brian McRae (KC), Ken Griffey Sr./Jr. (CIN), Randy/Todd Hundley (CHC) and Tony/Eduardo Perez (CIN).
PCA: On Monday, Pete Crow-Armstrong became the eighth player in MLB history with at least 40 home runs and 35 stolen bases in a season at least once, joining Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuña Jr. (2), Alfonso Soriano, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds (2) and José Canseco. With 41 homers, Crow-Armstrong has the second-most in a season at age 24 or younger in Cubs history behind 1955 Ernie Banks’ 44 and the second-most by a lefty in franchise history behind Billy Williams’ 42 in 1970.
Keeping runs off the board: Cam Schlittler allowed just one run on Tuesday … again. It was his 20th start this season allowing one or no runs, extending his franchise record for the most in a season in Yankees history. He has a 2.01 ERA, the fourth-lowest ERA in a pitcher’s first 30 starts of a season by a Yankee since earned runs became official (1913) and lowest since Ron Guidry (1.77) in 1978.
Nobody beats the Miz: After his start on Tuesday, Jacob Misiorowski is up to 1,010 pitches of at least 100 mph this season. The next most by a pitcher in a season under tracking (2008) is 673, by Jordan Hicks in 2018. That 673 is also the next most by a team other than this year’s Brewers -- by Hicks’ Cardinals that year.
Big time power: Lazaro Montes crushed a 474-foot home run on Tuesday. That’s the Mariners’ second-longest home run under Statcast (2015), behind a Jarred Kelenic 482-footer. It’s also the longest by anyone at T-Mobile Park in that span.
Electric Elly: Elly De La Cruz's relay throw on Tuesday was 102.0 mph, per Statcast. That’s by far the fastest assist by an infielder under Statcast, surpassing his own 99.8 mph, twice. Only 10 outfielder assists have been faster in that span, including the playoffs. De La Cruz also hit a 444-foot homer in the game. He became the first player with a 440-foot-plus home run and a 100-plus mph assist in the same game under Statcast, per MLB’s Jason Bernard.
Schwarbs: Kyle Schwarber hit his 44th home run of the season on Wednesday. That’s his 231st 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 (NYY: 235). And the season isn’t over yet. His 43rd, on Monday, was the fifth time in his career that Schwarber homered in a game that ended 1-0. That tied Ted Williams for the most such homers all-time, per Elias.
George of the (concrete) jungle: George Lombard Jr. hit his first career grand slam and the Yankees’ first of the season on Wednesday. At 21 years and 99 days, that’s the third-youngest a Yankees player has been when hitting a grand slam, per Elias. Lombard was older than only Mickey Mantle, twice: at 20 years and 280 days on July 26, 1952, and again three days later.
Jackson Prime: Jackson Chourio hit a home run and had a stolen base on Wednesday, the 65th and 60th of his career, respectively. He’s the sixth player with at least 65 home runs and 60 stolen bases before turning 23. He joined Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Trout, Andruw Jones and Ronald Acuña Jr.
Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 929 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, 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).