Stats of the Week: From rookie's 4-HR game to 41-year-old's 11-K game

Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (July 25-31).

Historic rookie: Nick Kurtz’s 19 total bases in his four-homer game on Friday tied the all-time record, set by Shawn Green on May 23, 2002, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. And Green in 2002 is the only previous player with four home runs and either six runs or six hits in a game (he had both), as Kurtz did. At 22 years and 135 days, Kurtz became by far the youngest of the 20 players with a four-homer game. He surpassed Pat Seerey at 25 years and 123 days on July 18, 1948. Kurtz’s was the first four-homer game by an A’s player and the first by a rookie.

Birthdays are important: At 41 years old on Sunday, Max Scherzer became the oldest pitcher in at least the last 125 seasons with at least 10 strikeouts on his birthday. He surpassed 37-year-old Randy Johnson in 2000. Scherzer now has two 10-strikeout games on his birthday (2018 & ‘25). That ties Stan Williams for most in at least the last 125 seasons.

Zeroes: Paul Skenes made his 22nd start on Sunday and has yet to allow a run in the first inning. That is tied for the second-most consecutive starts to begin a season without allowing a first-inning run in MLB history, per Elias. He trails only Bob Shawkey in 1923 (27). Sunday was his 45th career start, and his ERA went to 1.89 ERA for his career. That is the third-lowest ERA through a player’s first 45 career starts since earned runs became official in both leagues in 1913, trailing 1913-17 Ferdie Schupp (1.64) and 1914-15 Ernie Shore (1.78).

Burn(s) baby Burn(s): Chase Burns recorded his third straight game with at least 10 strikeouts on Monday. That is tied for the third-most consecutive outings with at least 10 strikeouts by a rookie since the mound moved to its current distance in 1893, per Elias. Only 1984 Dwight Gooden (five) and 1995 Hideo Nomo (four) had longer streaks.

Cutch: Andrew McCutchen hit a go-ahead home run for the Pirates on Monday night that was also his 10th home run of the season. McCutchen has reached at least 10 home runs in all 17 seasons of his career. He is one of 11 players to begin a career with at least 17 straight 10-homer seasons. The record belongs to Henry Aaron, who had 10 home runs in all 23 seasons of his career.

King Vaughn: Andrew Vaughn has had an outstanding start to his tenure in Milwaukee. He notched 21 RBIs in his first 15 games with the Brewers through Tuesday. That is tied for the third-most RBIs in a player's first 15 games with a franchise since RBI became official in 1920, per Elias. Mandy Brooks had 24 RBIs in 1925 for the Cubs and Reb Russell had 23 RBIs in 1922 for the Pirates. No player had reached 21s RBI in his first 15 games with a team since Joe Rudi in 1977 for the Angels.

Identical: Twins Taylor Rogers and Tyler Rogers were each traded on Wednesday, Taylor from the Reds to the Pirates and Tyler from the Giants to the Mets. They became at least the fifth pair of brothers to be traded on the same day, joining Bill and Dick Conway (1886), Rick and Wes Ferrell (1937), Hank and Ed Sauer (1949) and Hal and Danny Breeden (1970). Both the Conways and the Ferrells were traded together.

Wooooooo: Bryan Woo went at least six innings again on Wednesday night. He has done so in all 21 of his starts this season, the second-longest to start a season over the last 10 seasons, trailing 2019 Clayton Kershaw (23). It is also the longest such season-opening streak in Mariners history.

Geno: Eugenio Suárez was traded from the Diamondbacks back to the Mariners. At the time of the trade, he had hit 36 home runs on the season. That is the most home runs by a player in a season prior to a midseason trade in MLB history. The prior record was 34 by Mark McGwire in 1997 when he went from the Athletics to the Cardinals.

Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 728 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).