Stats of the week: Skenes vs. Ohtani highlights wave of triple-digit heat

Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (May 31-June 6).

Classic Arraez: Luis Arraez had four hits on Friday, which may just seem like an everyday performance from him at this point, but this game was historic. It was his fourth four-hit game in just his 24th game with the Padres, making Arraez the first player with at least four games with four-plus hits in his first 24 games with a franchise since 1900, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Leadoff Mookie: Mookie Betts’ leadoff homer on Sunday was the 52nd of his career. That’s the fifth-most in MLB history, behind only Rickey Henderson (81), George Springer (57), Alfonso Soriano (54) and Craig Biggio (53). Betts now has 32 leadoff homers with the Dodgers, four more than anyone else in franchise history (Davey Lopes, 28).

SOTO HOMER x2: Juan Soto hit two home runs on Sunday, marking his 20th career multi-homer game. That’s tied with Hal Trosky for the third-most multi-homer games by a player before turning 26 years old. He trails only Mel Ott (24) and Eddie Mathews (21).

King of the Gil: Luis Gil made his first start of June on Tuesday and picked up right where he left off in May, with his seventh straight start of at least six innings allowing one or no runs. That’s the most consecutive such outings in Yankees history. Gil’s .153 opponent batting average is the lowest mark through a pitcher's first 19 career starts in the live-ball era (1920), per Elias.

Birthdays are important: Royce Lewis homered on Opening Day before spending time on the injured list. He was activated on Tuesday and homered again, then hit a birthday home run on Wednesday. With that, Lewis became the first player in Twins/Senators franchise history to homer in each of his first three games played in a season.

Skenes Day: Through five MLB starts, Paul Skenes already has 11 strikeouts of at least 100 mph. That’s the most career 100.0+ mph strikeouts as a starting pitcher for the Pirates under pitch tracking (since 2008, including playoffs). The only others on the list are Gerrit Cole (six), Jared Jones (one) and Luis L. Ortiz (one). Skenes’ first-inning strikeout of Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday was the first strikeout by a starter under pitch tracking of: three pitches, three whiffs, all 100.0+ mph, per MLB’s Jason Bernard.

Ohtani’s revenge: In his next at-bat in the game, Ohtani went yard off a 100.1 mph fastball from Skenes. That’s the fastest pitch he has homered off of in his career. It’s also the second-fastest pitch a Dodgers player has homered off of under pitch tracking, behind only Max Muncy off of 101.2 mph on Aug. 13, 2022.

JULIOOO: Julio Rodríguez’s ninth-inning homer wasn’t just any longball. It came on a 102.5 mph pitch from Mason Miller. That’s tied for the third-fastest pitch hit for a home run under pitch tracking, with a Chas McCormick homer on June 3, 2023. It trails only Rafael Devers off 102.8 mph (Aug. 13, 2017) and Kurt Suzuki off 102.6 mph (June 18, 2016).

High velocity: As you may have begun to gather, velocity was definitely a theme on Wednesday. There were 63 pitches thrown Wednesday at 100.0+ mph, the fourth-most on a calendar date under pitch tracking, per Bernard. The only days with more were March 30, 2023 (82), June 9, 2023 (74) and July 26, 2022 (67).

Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 518 consecutive games entering the weekend, dating back 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).