Stats of the week: A 105 mph OF throw, historic homers and more

September 8th, 2023

Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (September 1-7).

Here’s Ronny: Mets prospect Ronny Mauricio made his MLB debut on Friday and notched a hit in his first plate appearance. It wasn’t just any hit, it was 117.3 mph off the bat. That is the hardest-hit first career knock by any player to debut since Statcast began tracking in 2015, according to MLB.com’s Jason Bernard. The prior record belonged to Luis Robert Jr. at 115.8 mph in 2020.

A crushed home run: On Saturday at Dodger Stadium, Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a 121.2 mph home run that went 454 feet. That was the third-hardest-hit home run tracked by Statcast (since 2015), behind only two from, who else, Giancarlo Stanton. It was the sixth-hardest-batted ball overall, with only Stanton and Oneil Cruz ahead.

Talk about arm strength: Brenton Doyle’s 100.9 mph assist in the first inning on Saturday was tied for the fastest outfield assist of the year in MLB and the Rockies’ fastest-tracked OF assist under Statcast (2015). He now has six OF assists at 98.0 mph or faster, two more than anyone else in a season under Statcast. Then, in the ninth inning, he had a 105.7 mph throw to hold a runner, the fastest-tracked OF throw since ‘15, surpassing Aaron Hicks' 105.5 mph laser from April '16.

Guess who’s back (again): Since the end of July, Dominic Leone has pitched at Citi Field for the Mets (July 29), Angels (Aug. 26) and Mariners (Sunday). That 37-day span is the third-shortest since 1900 for a player to play at a venue for three different teams, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Only Mike Piazza at Sun Life Stadium, over 17 days in 1998, and Bobby Rhawn at Shibe Park, over 26 days in 1949, did so in shorter spans.

JULIOOO: With his 25th homer of the season on Monday, Julio Rodríguez became the first player in MLB history with at least 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases in each of his first two seasons of his career. Last year, he became the first to reach those marks in his first MLB season, meaning he was also the first to have the chance to do this a second time in his second season.

Grand events, continued: Royce Lewis hit another grand slam on Monday, marking his 13th career home run, fourth career slam and third of the season. Lewis became the second player with four grand slams within his first 13 career home runs, joining Chris Taylor, whose fourth slam was his 11th homer. Lewis is the fourth player -- and first rookie -- to hit three grand slams in a span of eight games or fewer, according to Elias. He joined Jim Northrup in 1968 (four-game span), Lou Gehrig in 1931 (five games) and Larry Parrish in 1982 (eight games).

Altuve’s four-inning span: With a ninth-inning homer on Monday and homers in each of the first three innings on Tuesday, Jose Altuve became the first player to homer in four straight innings his team played (including across games), per Elias. The three on Tuesday made him just the third player to homer in each of the first three innings of a game, joining Manny Machado (Aug. 7, 2016) and Carl Reynolds (July 2, 1930).

It takes two: On Tuesday, Austin Riley and Matt Olson hit back-to-back home runs for the seventh time this season. That tied Rich Aurilia and Barry Bonds in 2001 for the second-most instances of back-to-back homers by a teammate duo in a season, according to Elias. Only Andres Galarraga and Larry Walker in 1997 went back to back more, doing so eight times.

The Martian: On Friday, Jasson Domínguez became the sixth Yankees player to homer in his first career at-bat, joining Aaron Judge (Aug. 13, 2016), Tyler Austin (Aug. 13, 2016), Andy Phillips (Sept. 26, 2004), Marcus Thames (June 10, 2002) and John Miller (Sept. 11, 1966). With another home run Sunday and again on Wednesday, Domínguez also became the youngest player since at least 1901 to homer in at least three of his first five career games and the first Yankees player to do so.

And still unswept: Teams enter each series trying to win the series, but even just avoiding being swept is worth noting. To that end, the Orioles have now gone 84 straight series without being swept, entering the weekend. That’s the third-most consecutive series of multiple games without being swept, per Elias. They trail only the 1942-44 Cardinals (125) and 1903-05 Giants (106).