Stats of the Week: Walk-off throw, 17-pitch ABs and more!
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Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (August 8-14).
What an ending: The Brewers won on Friday with a game-ending assist at home in a one-run game. The throw was 96.9 mph from Blake Perkins. That’s the third-fastest tracked game-ending OF assist under Statcast (2015), per MLB’s Jason Bernard. It trailed only Aaron Hicks on July 28, 2018 (98.7 mph) and Avisail Garcia on Sept. 22, 2017 (97.7 mph).
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Long plate appearances: J.P. Crawford's 17-pitch plate appearance on Saturday tied Darren Bragg on June 16, 1995 for the most pitches in a plate appearance by a Mariners hitter since pitch counts were first tracked (1988). Before Nathaniel Lowe last Thursday, there had not been a plate appearance of at least 17 pitches since Austin Meadows in the 2021 playoffs. This is the first season with multiple plate appearances of at least 17 pitches since 2018, when there were three.
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Woooooooo: Bryan Woo went at least six innings again on Sunday in his 23rd start. He’s now done so in every start this season, tied with Clayton Kershaw in 2019 for the most consecutive starts of at least six innings to start a season in the last 10 seasons. Woo’s is the longest such season-opening streak in Mariners history.
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Crushing Colson: Colson Montgomery hit his 10th career home run on Monday, in his 32nd career game. That is the third-fewest career games to 10 home runs in White Sox history, trailing 1934 Zeke Bonura (25 games) and 2014 Jose Abreu (26 games). The 23-year-old Montgomery is also the youngest player in White Sox history with at least 10 home runs in an 18-game span.
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Two-out magic: Before the Diamondbacks on Sunday, no team had scored at least 13 runs in a game, all with 2 outs, since the Brewers on May 23, 1999. Then the Mets did it on Tuesday as well. The Mets hit six home runs as part of their 13 runs. That’s tied for the most two-out homers by a team in a game in at least the Expansion Era (1961), with the Blue Jays on June 13, 2021, Cleveland on April 30, 2013, the Dodgers on May 23, 2002 and the Pirates on July 3, 1970.
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Polar Bear: Two of those home runs were hit by Pete Alonso, with the first being his 253rd to break a tie with Darryl Strawberry for the most in Mets history. The only other active players who lead a franchise all-time in homers are Mike Trout, Angels, Giancarlo Stanton, Marlins and Manny Machado, Padres.
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Roman Empire: Roman Anthony had a homer and four walks on Tuesday. At 21 years and 91 days old, he became the third-youngest player with at least a home run and four walks in a game in the last 125 seasons. Only Mel Ott on July 4, 1929 (20 years and 124 days) and Ted Williams on September 20, 1939 (21 years and 21 days) were younger.
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Brew Crew: The Brewers won their 11th consecutive game on Tuesday, their second 11-game win streak of the season. They’re the 14th team with multiple win streaks of at least 11 games in a season since 1900. The only other teams to do so in the last 90 seasons are the 2015 Blue Jays, 1954 Cleveland and 1946 Red Sox.
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Shotime: On Wednesday, Shohei Ohtani became the first starting pitcher to hit a leadoff triple since at least 1900. To be fair, this is something that pretty much only he could have done. It was the 18th time in his career that he hit leadoff in a game he started on the mound. All other starting pitchers since 1900 have combined to do this a grand total of three times, and all three of them -- Cesar Tovar in 1968, Al Dark in 1953 and Jim Jones in 1901 -- were position players who were only starting as pitchers for atypical reasons.
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Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 741 consecutive games entering Friday, dating to May 2, 2021. There have been only seven other streaks of at least 600 to begin in the divisional era (1969), per Elias. They belong to 1982-98 Cal Ripken Jr (2,632 consecutive games), 1975-83 Steve Garvey (1,207), 2000-07 Miguel Tejada (1,152), 1978-83 Pete Rose (745), 1981-86 Dale Murphy (740), 1973-78 Rose (678) and 1969-73 Sandy Alomar Sr. (661).