On this Fathers Day weekend, some news and notes for Red Sox fans on the week that just wrapped up:
- This past week, Orioles rookie pitcher Tyler Wilson held the Red Sox scoreless through 8.0 IP. Wilson is the fourth rookie starter to hold an opponent scoreless through eight or more innings this season (also Steven Matz, Zach Davies, and Jameson Taillon). Wilson’s was the first such performance against the Sox by any Orioles pitcher at Fenway Park since Mike Boddicker on June 30, 1985.
- With two more on Saturday, the Red Sox Xander Bogaerts has 99 hits over 67 games. That puts Bogaerts on pace for 239 hits this season. The Red Sox single season record for hits is 240 by Wade Boggs in 1985. Boggs is followed by Tris Speaker (222 in 1912), Boggs (214 in 1988), and Adrian Gonzalez, Dustin Pedroia, and Jim Rice, each of whom collected 213 hits in 2011, 2008, and 1978, respectively.
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The Braves Freddie Freeman hit for the cycle last Wednesday, becoming the first player to do so this season. It was the 33rd cycle hit in an extra-innings game since at least 1913, with the single to complete the feat coming in the 11th inning. Coincidentally, the first Red Sox player to hit for the cycle was also a Freeman—though his first name was John, and he went by “Buck” (shown right). An original member of the first Red Sox club in 1901, Buck Freeman‘s cycle took place June 21, 1903 at the Cleveland Indians in Mahaffey Park. Later that same year, Freeman would effectively be Boston’s MVP in the first World Series, going 9-for-32 (.281) with three triples and four RBI over the eight-game series. The Sox most recent cycle came off the bat of Brock Holt last June 16 at Fenway Park.
- On Friday, in their 67th game of the season, the Pirates were shutout for the first time. The Bucs were the last club in the majors to be blanked this season. With Pittsburgh, the Red Sox are one of just five MLB clubs to be shut out no more than twice this season (also the Athletics, Rockies, and White Sox).
- The Red Sox have managed double-digit hits in 40 of their first 66 games this season. Since 1913, only the 1939 and 2003 Sox clubs have had more games of 10+ hits. Each of those seasons Boston had 41 such games.
- 42-year-old Ichiro Suzuki has had at least two hits in each of his last five starts, making him the oldest player with that long a streak since Carl Yastrzemski in the summer of 1983 when Yaz was 43 years old.
- With his 521st career home run this week, David Ortiz tied “Mister Ted Williams,” as Big Papi calls him. With four more doubles, he’ll match Williams’ Fenway record of 319. In Fenway history, only Yastrzemski had more (382). Ortiz is four from his 1,157th extra-base hit, which will tie him with Yaz at No. 12 on baseball’s All-Time XBH List.
- Carl Crawford was designated for assignment by the Dodgers this past week, effectively ending his playing time with the team, though not his paychecks. Crawford is still owed over $12 million for the rest of this season and will be paid $21 million in 2017. In all, baseball has been very, very good to Crawford with estimated lifetime earnings of more than $170 million. This week Evan Longoria surpassed Crawford to become the longest tenured player in Rays history at eight years, 73 days.
- As of end of play on Saturday, Dustin Pedroia has grounded into 12 doubles plays. No player in baseball has done it more often this season.