Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (April 17-23).
He has power: Munetaka Murakami hit his 10th home run of the season on Wednesday in just his 24th career MLB game. He has four more home runs than any other Japanese-born player in his first 24 MLB games, ahead of Ohtani, who had six in his first 24 games as a hitter. Murakami also hit a home run in five straight games through Wednesday, tied for the longest streak by an MLB rookie all-time and tied for the White Sox franchise record.
Rushing onto the home run leaderboard: Dalton Rushing hit two homers on Monday to bring his season total to seven. It was just his eighth game of the year. That tied 2016 Trevor Story for the second-most in a player’s first eight games of a season since at least 1900, behind only 1976 Mike Schmidt, who had eight.
What a start: Nolan McLean made his 13th career start on Tuesday, and had a perfect game bid through five innings … again. McLean is the first pitcher in at least the expansion era (1961) with multiple perfect bids of at least five innings in his first 13 career starts, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. They’ve both been this season -- with the other coming on April 3. McLean is the third pitcher in at least the expansion era with two perfect bids of at least five innings in his first five starts of a season, joining 1988 Kelly Downs and 1966 Juan Marichal, per Elias.
Churn up the walks: Nick Kurtz has drawn a walk in 13 consecutive games through Wednesday. That’s tied with 1929 Mickey Cochrane for the fourth-longest streak in Athletics history. He only trails 1993 Rickey Henderson, 1933 Max Bishop and 1905 Topsy Hartsel, at 15 each.
How low can he go?: With another scoreless outing on Wednesday, José Soriano now has a 0.24 ERA. That's the lowest ERA in a pitcher's first six starts of a season since earned runs became official in both leagues in 1913, minimum 30 IP. Soriano is also the first pitcher since at least 1900 to allow one or no total runs in his first six starts of a season, excluding openers.
The Greatest Sho: Shohei Ohtani made his fourth pitching start of the season on Wednesday and did not allow a run. He has thrown 24 innings this season and has allowed just one earned run. It is the fifth time a Dodgers pitcher has thrown at least 20 innings and allowed one or no earned runs in his first four appearances of a season since earned runs became official in the National League in 1912. He joined 2016 Kenta Maeda, 1985 Fernando Valenzuela, 1981 Valenzuela and 1916 Wheezer Dell.
Ouch: In a streak that ended on Tuesday, rookie JJ Wetherholt was hit by a pitch in five consecutive games. That tied 1903 Doc Gessler for the second-longest such streak since at least 1900. Only Carlos Quentin had a longer streak, with six straight in 2008.
Wood work: With a 112.2 mph opposite-field home run on Wednesday, James Wood now has four oppo home runs with at least a 110 mph exit velocity this season, tied for second-most in a season under Statcast (2015), behind only 2017 Aaron Judge (five). It’s only April. Speaking of which … three have been this month, tied with June 2017 Judge for the most in a calendar month in that span.
Miller time: Mason Miller has been on another level this year. Through his appearance on Thursday, he’s thrown 33 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings dating to last season. That’s the longest active streak in MLB and tied for the longest streak in Padres history, per Elias. He is tied with 2006 Cla Meredith. Miller’s 75.6% slider whiff rate is the highest whiff rate by a pitcher on a single pitch type in his first 12 appearances of a season under pitch tracking (2008), with a minimum of 65 pitches of type thrown.
Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 808 consecutive games entering Friday, dating to May 2, 2021. His streak is the 11th-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).