Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (June 8-14).
Kershaw mastery: Last Thursday, Clayton Kershaw went seven scoreless. It was his 63rd career scoreless start of seven innings. That tied Don Sutton for the most such starts by a Dodger since 1900. Don Drysdale is next on the list, with 53.
Another good start: Bobby Miller was impressive again on Saturday, going six scoreless innings. Miller is just the second Dodgers pitcher since at least 1901 to go at least five innings and allow one run or fewer in each of his first four career appearances, joining 2016 Kenta Maeda.
Young and powerful: Francisco Alvarez hit his 12th home run of the season on Saturday. That’s the most home runs by a primary-position catcher at age 21 or younger in his first 45 games played in a season, one ahead of 1969 Johnny Bench’s 11. Alvarez’s 12 long balls are already the fourth-most in age-21 season or younger by an AL/NL catchers, behind only 1969 Bench (26), 1973 Darrell Porter (16) and 1968 Bench (15).
Crawford on the mound: Brandon Crawford played 1,564 games in the field, all at shortstop, before debuting on the mound on Sunday. That’s the second-most fielding games at only one position prior to a player’s first career pitching appearance among players to debut since 1900, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Only Mark Grace had more, with 2,113 games at first base before pitching on Sept. 2, 2002. In that 2002 game, David Ross hit his first career homer off Grace. In the opposing dugout on Sunday? Ross, managing the Cubs.
Multiple multi-homer efforts: Crawford took the mound because of quite the offensive outpouring. With Joc Pederson and Thairo Estrada, it was the third time the Giants have had two players with multiple homers in the same game at Oracle Park, joining Moises Alou and Pedro Feliz on May 25, 2005, and Rich Aurilia and José Cruz on April 7, 2003. And no visiting team has done it, so it was the third time a team has had two players with multiple home runs in the same game at Oracle Park.
Decisive walk-off: Nolan Jones left no doubt in ending the game Sunday, crushing a 472-foot walk-off home run. That’s the longest walk-off homer tracked by Statcast (since 2015), surpassing Byron Buxton’s 469-foot walk-off on April 24, 2022. He has two 470-plus-foot homers this month, tied for the second most in a calendar month tracked by Statcast, behind only Trevor Story’s three in September 2018.
Miller shines: Bryce Miller went six innings on Monday, allowing a run on just one hit -- a solo homer. It was the fourth time he’s gone at least six innings and allowed two hits or fewer. Miller is the first pitcher since at least 1901 to go at least six innings and allow two hits or fewer in at least four of his first eight career appearances.
The streak that was: The A’s won seven straight games before losing Wednesday. They entered the streak with a .194 winning percentage. That’s tied for the longest win streak by a team to enter with a sub-.200 winning percentage, at least 25 games into a season, according to Elias. The A’s tied the 1895 Louisville Colonels, who were at .192 at the start of their streak, and the 1885 Detroit Wolverines, who were at .190.
Acuña can’t stop hitting long home runs: With his 461-foot homer on Wednesday, Ronald Acuña Jr. now has 11 home runs of at least 460 feet in his career. That’s two more than anyone else in MLB since the start of 2018 and the second most by any player tracked by Statcast (since 2015), behind only Giancarlo Stanton’s 18. His six 450-plus-foot homers are the second-most before July in a single season under Statcast behind Stanton’s eight in '15. The most in a season in that span is 10, by Stanton in '17.
Ohtani continues to be one of one: Shohei Ohtani’s home run Wednesday had a 116.1 mph exit velocity -- and it went to the opposite field. It was the hardest-hit opposite-field homer by a lefty tracked by Statcast, by a lot. The prior such mark was 113.0 mph by Joey Gallo on Sept. 25, 2017. It was Ohtani’s eighth home run with at least a 116 mph exit velocity since the start of 2021, second-most in MLB in that span, behind only Stanton, with 10. Nobody else has more than three.