Rice, Rece, Schwarber and more highlight wild week of dinger data

Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (July 5-11).

Grand salami: Between June 22 and Friday, the Brewers hit six grand slams in a 13-game span. The slams came from Brice Turang (twice), Rhys Hoskins (twice), Jake Bauers and Jackson Chourio. They became just the third team in MLB history with six grand slams in a 13-game span, joining the 2020 Padres and 1996 Expos, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Bucco power: The Pirates hit so many home runs on Friday that they ran out of fireworks. They crushed seven to tie a franchise record done four previous times. The seven included two grand slams, the fifth time they had multiple grand slams in a game. But perhaps the most impressive part was the performances from Bryan Reynolds and Rowdy Tellez, who each hit two home runs, including a grand slam. They became the first pair of teammates in MLB history to each hit multiple homers including a grand slam in the same game, per STATS.

Rice, Rice baby: Ben Rice put on a show at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, hitting a leadoff home run and then adding two more. He became the first Yankees rookie with a three-homer game and the third rookie MLB-wide with such a performance from the leadoff spot, joining Mike Yastrzemski on Aug. 16, 2019, and Andrew McCutchen on Aug. 1, 2009. It happened in his 17th career game, the fifth-fewest games into a career to a three-homer game, per Elias.

Don’t be surprised when your history book mentions me: The Twins’ Jose Miranda had quite a stretch from July 3 through Saturday. He had hits in 12 straight at-bats, tying the MLB record. It hadn’t happened since 1952, when Walt Dropo accomplished the feat. Before him, it was Pinky Higgins in 1938 and Johnny Kling in 1902.

The Fresh Prince: On Friday, Will Smith became the fourth catcher in Dodgers history with a three-homer game, joining Yasmani Grandal, Mike Piazza and Roy Campanella. On Saturday, he made it an even rarer feat by homering in his first at-bat. He became the third player in Dodgers history with a homer in four straight at-bats, joining 2015 Adrián González and 2002 Shawn Green, per Elias. He’s also the third player to do so as a catcher, along with 1996 Benito Santiago and 1973 Johnny Bench.

Extra-base hits abound: Rece Hinds made his Major League debut on Monday, and notched two extra-base hits. The next day, he added three more. Hinds became the first player since 1900 with five extra-base hits in his first two career games. Those included a 449-foot home run in his debut and a 458-foot home run in game two. He is the first player whose first two career home runs each went at least 445 ft since Statcast began tracking in 2015, per MLB’s Jason Bernard.

Strike you out: On Wednesday, Nick Pivetta struck out eight consecutive batters at one point during his start. That tied the Red Sox franchise record, and it was the second time this season Pivetta had done so. Pivetta is the second pitcher since 1900 to strike out at least eight straight batters in two games in the same season, joining 2021 Jacob deGrom, per Elias. The only other pitchers since 1900 to do this more than once in their careers are deGrom (four times) and Nolan Ryan (twice).

Leadoff Schwarbs: Kyle Schwarber’s eighth leadoff home run of the season on Wednesday tied Gunnar Henderson for the MLB lead. The two are chasing 2003 Alfonso Soriano’s 13, which is the MLB single-season record. But for Schwarber, he’s already rewriting the Phillies’ record books. He now has three of the top four single-season leadoff home run totals in Phillies history, with 11 in 2023, eight this year and seven in 2022. The only other player on that top four list is Jimmy Rollins with nine in 2007.

We have liftoff: The last time the Twins did not homer in a game was June 9. They’ve now gone 28 consecutive games with at least one home run, tied with the 2023 Braves for the second-longest streak in MLB history. They trail only the 2019 Yankees, who did so in 31 straight.

Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 550 consecutive games entering Friday, dating to May 2, 2021. There have been only six other streaks of at least 500 since 2000, per Elias. They belong to 2000-07 Miguel Tejada (1,152 consecutive games), 2018-22 Whit Merrifield (553), 2010-14 Prince Fielder (547), 2000-03 Alex Rodriguez (546), 2003-06 Hideki Matsui (518) and 2004-07 Mark Teixeira (507).