From bros to Cole to epic throws, wild stats from the week

Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (July 13-19).

It’s a sibling thing: On Friday, Bo and Josh Naylor became the first pair of brothers to homer in the same game for the same team since Justin and B.J. Upton for the Braves on Sept. 27, 2014. But they didn’t just homer in the same game – they did so in the same inning. The Naylors became the sixth pair of brothers to homer in the same inning since 1900, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. They joined the Uptons (4/23/2013 & 4/6/2013, ATL), Billy and Cal Ripken (5/28/1996 & 9/15/1990, BAL), Hank and Tommie Aaron (7/12/1962, MLN), Lloyd and Paul Waner (9/15/1938 & 9/4/1927, PIT) and Rick and Wes Ferrell (7/19/1933, Rick (BOS) & Wes (CLE)). For the Ferrells, Rick’s homer was off his brother Wes.

Four hits for Arraez again: Luis Arraez continues to lead the Majors with a .376 batting average. Saturday was Arraez’s sixth four-hit game of the season. That’s the most in a season in Marlins history, breaking a tie at five with Hanley Ramírez in 2007. And Arraez did so by July 15.

Another Yankees record for Cole: Last season, Gerrit Cole set a Yankees single-season record with 257 strikeouts. On Sunday, he set a franchise mark with his 24th game with at least 10 strikeouts since joining the Yankees, surpassing Ron Guidry’s 23. Cole now has 44 games with at least 20 swings and misses since the start of 2018, the most in MLB in that span, one ahead of Max Scherzer’s 43.

50 for all: The AL East has been on a torrid pace all season, and it hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. With Boston’s win on Sunday, every AL East team has at least 50 wins -- and each got there before playing its 95th game. The 2023 AL East is the first division to have each of its teams reach 50 wins in fewer than 95 team games.

Big name reaches the bigs: Christian Encarnacion-Strand debuted on Monday, becoming the longest full name on record in Major League history. Considering both first and last names (and including the hyphen within the latter), the Reds prospect gets credit for 27 characters. That easily beats out the Twins’ Simeon Woods Richardson, who debuted with a 22-character name in 2022. The research considers the name the player chooses to go by – so Trout is Mike, not Michael – and any spaces or hyphens either within the first name or last name itself, but not between first and last, are counted.

Wilmer’s world: Wilmer Flores had quite the two-game stretch from Monday to Tuesday, with two doubles and a homer in the first game, which was suspended and resumed Tuesday, and then two homers in Tuesday’s scheduled game. That’s eight total bases in each game. Flores became the first Giants player with at least eight total bases in back-to-back games since Barry Bonds on April 2-3, 2002.

Young and powerful: Francisco Alvarez hit his 18th and 19th home runs of the season on Tuesday. That’s the second-most home runs by a primary-position AL/NL catcher in his age-21 season or younger, behind only 1969 Johnny Bench’s 26. It was his third multi-homer game, tying Ed Kranepool for second most before turning 22 in Mets history, behind Darryl Strawberry’s four.

Offensive outpouring: There were plenty of runs scored across the board on Tuesday, at levels we haven’t seen since the 1800s. Twelve teams scored at least 10 runs, tied with May 30, 1884, for the second-most instances on a single day all-time, behind only July 4, 1894’s 13, per Elias. There were four games on this day where both teams scored at least 10 runs, tied for the most such games on a single day all-time, with July 9, 1894 and July 4, 1894.

Unswept: Teams enter each series obviously with a win in mind, but even just avoiding being swept is worth noting. To that end, the Orioles have now gone 70 straight series without being swept, entering the weekend. That’s the eighth-most consecutive series of multiple games without being swept, per Elias. They trail only the 1942-44 Cardinals (125), 1903-05 Giants (106), 1922-24 Yankees (83), 1904-06 A’s (74), 2003-05 Braves (72), 1997-99 Padres (72) and 1921-23 Browns (72).

High velo: Elly De La Cruz set a record on Sunday with a 97.9 mph throw, the fastest-tracked assist by an infielder under Statcast (2015), surpassing Oneil Cruz’s 97.8 mph on July 14, 2022. And then, on Thursday, he broke his own record, with a 99.8 mph relay throw. He now has four assists at 95.0 mph or harder, the most by an infielder in a single season under Statcast.