Hello and welcome to the very first edition of Saturday Stat Smash! Major League Baseball returned just over a week ago now and a lot of crazy stats and numbers were put up. Every Saturday, I will be your bartender serving up the best and craziest statistics of the week.
There are no specific guidelines for the stats, just anything that I find the most impressive and interesting for the week. With that said, let’s dive into this cocktail of baseball statistics for the opening week of the MLB in 2021.
Yermin Lights it Up
If you still don’t know who Yermin Mercedes is, you’ve been living under a rock for the last week. The 28-year-old journeyman became the first player in modern MLB history to begin a season with eight consecutive hits. The rookie now leads the majors with 15 hits in six games, as of Friday. His current early-season slash line is .556/.571/.889. Mercedes walloped his second bomb on the season on Thursday, a 485-foot tank job. That is currently the longest homer of the season. The most impressive part of this is that Mercedes wouldn’t be getting at-bats if it were not for a late spring injury to Eloy Jimenez.
4️⃣8️⃣5️⃣ feet. 😳
— MLB (@MLB) April 9, 2021
Yermín Mercedes is incredible.
(MLB x @GoogleCloud) pic.twitter.com/87WAwc6hpp
Javy Golfs One Out
On Thursday, Javier Baez reached down for a pitch that was just barely off the ground. He smacked a pitch that was 0.86 feet above the ground, tied for the sixth-lowest home run pitch in the Statcast era (2008).
Javier Báez with a 2-run HR & the #Cubs now lead, 3-2! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Chm7GBhv1K
— Cubs Zone ™️ (@CubsZone) April 8, 2021
Akil Baddoo is a Baaad Man
Bomb. On the first pitch he saw in his MLB career, Akil Baddoo yanked it out of the park. Then on April 5, he hit the first grand slam of his career, and it doesn’t stop there.
Akil Badoo homers in his first MLB at bad.
— Ryan Field (@RyanFieldABC) April 4, 2021
On the first pitch.
Welcome to The Show, Kid. #DetroitRoots pic.twitter.com/POTHBTeWse
The next day, the Rule 5 Draft pick came up to the plate against the team that didn’t protect him on the 40-man roster in the tenth inning with the winning run on third. He smacked the pitch to right field to walk it off for the Detroit Tigers. He is the youngest Tigers hitter, at 22 years 233 day with a walk-off since Travis Fryman hit one in 1991.
AKIL BADOO WALKOFF! THE LEGEND CONTINUES pic.twitter.com/OILyu1jP0R
— jack (@jjackea) April 6, 2021
On April 7, he showed off his arm, the same arm that had had to undergo Tommy John surgery in 2019. He threw out Andrelton Simmons trying to stretch a single into a double.
.@AkilBaddoo can do it with the arm too. 👀 pic.twitter.com/ejXOOvgyl9
— MLB (@MLB) April 7, 2021
Bieber Fever
On Wednesday, Shane Bieber became the first pitcher in MLB history to start multiple seasons with back-to-back 12-strikeout games.
Back-to-back outings with 12 Ks. @ShaneBieber19 is automatic. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/JUuHmBDsiH
— MLB (@MLB) April 7, 2021
Don’t Call Him Peter
Pete Alonso became the fastest player in MLB history to reach 70 home runs on Tuesday, doing so in 220 games. Those 70 homers included the current rookie record of 53 in 2019.
Pete Alonso is the fastest player in @MLB history to reach 70 HR (220 G). pic.twitter.com/PK6pxvsC7A
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) April 7, 2021
Musgrove Makes History
On Friday night, Joe Musgrove did it! The hometown kid from El Cajon, California threw the first San Diego Padres no-hitter in their 53-year history. The Padres were the only team in the majors without a no-hitter. The only thing that kept Musgrove from perfection was a hit-by-pitch in the fourth inning of Joey Gallo. 25,756 fans were in attendance at Globe Life Field, a good bunch of them part of the Friar Faithful. Musgrove had 10 strikeouts on the night and threw 74 of his 109 pitches for strikes. He made his Padres debut last Saturday and struck out eight in six scoreless innings. All signs are pointing to very good things to come for the Padres and Musgrove.
.@ItsbuccnJoe59 tosses the first no-hitter of 2021! 👏 pic.twitter.com/wSSRbtUxHh
— MLB (@MLB) April 10, 2021
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Main Image Credit: Embed from Getty Images
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