August 19, 2026
Stephen Vogt, who retired after the 2022 season, is making MLB’s fastest transition from player to manager since Larry Bowa, who retired in 1985 and managed the San Diego Padres in 1987.
The last player to make the transition to Cleveland’s manager within two years was Joe Adcock, who retired in 1966 and was named the Indians manager for the 1967 season (his only season as manager). Adcock also played for Cleveland in 1963.
I heard this stat on the Baseball Bar-B-Cast podcast and had to share, as it involved Cleveland.
Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly recently had a no-decision against the Dodgers, keeping him winless in 15 starts against Los Angeles – the third most starts without a win against a team in MLB history.
The leaderboard:
Mays’s teams (MIN, KCR, CIN) were 4-12 in his starts against Cleveland from 1999 through 2006. Ponson’s teams (BAL, KCR, TEX) were 4-10 against Cleveland from 1998 through 2009.
Two other pitchers have made at least 10 starts against Cleveland without a victory:
Turnbull is injured but on a rehab assignment, so maybe we’ll get to see him in September.
I also love that Jason Johnson joined the Indians after failing to beat them. He was winless in 10 starts when he signed in 2006, but then lost again later that year as a member of the Red Sox after Boston purchased him from Cleveland.
Four of Kevin Millwood’s starts against Minnesota occurred as a member of the Indians, although Cleveland actually managed to win two of those games as no-decisions for Millwood.
In total there have been 42 pitchers to make at least 10 starts against a franchise without a victory.
Gavin Williams struck out 10 Rays in his 10th career start on Saturday.
It was his second straight double-digit strikeout performance. He’s the 36th pitcher in MLB history with multiple 10-K games within his first 10 career games.
He’s also the 8th rookie in franchise history with multiple 10-K games, joining:
Andres Gimenez collected four hits including a home run against the Rays on Sunday afternoon.
It was the 32nd time in franchise history a second baseman had a four-hit game with a home run.
Here’s the list back to 2000:
Kipnis and Carlos Baerga share the franchise career record with five apiece.
Myles Straw’s infamous home run drought came to an end at 295 games on Friday when he homered off the Rays’ Jason Adam.
Long homerless streaks were fairly common in early days of baseball, but Straw’s streak is the sixth longest in franchise history over the last 100 years:
Daniel Norris of the Guardians and Pete Fairbanks of the Rays each allowed three runs despite not allowing a hit during the Rays 9-8 victory on Friday.
It was just the second time in MLB history opposing pitchers each allowed at least three runs without giving up a hit in the same game – and both instances involved Cleveland.
The previous incident occurred on May 9, 1943 when both starting pitchers – Al Milnar of the Indians and Bob Muncrief of the St. Louis Browns – accomplished the bizarre feat while also failing to record an out. Milnar walked all four batters he faced, all of whom came around to score. Muncrief then walked three with another reaching on an error before was pulled, with three runs scoring.
There was one other instance of this occurring twice in the same game by the same team, in 1938 when the Reds’ Johnny Vander Meer and Lee Grissom each allowed three runs without allowing a hit.
In just his 12th career game, Brayan Rocchio was inserted into the leadoff spot on Thursday and went 2-4 with 2 RBI.
Here’s the list of others who have been in the leadoff spot at some point within their first 12 career games dating back to 1980 (players who made their debut batting leadoff indicated by an asterisk:
Gabriel Arias is off to a rough start to his career, which recently reached the 100-game mark.
Here are the lowest batting averages (excluding pitchers) through 100 career games in franchise history:
Over the past three games, Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee and Logan Allen have combined to allow just one run in 19 innings of work.
Their one run allowed is the fewest combined runs allowed by rookie starting pitchers in three consecutive games in franchise history, breaking a record set by Bibee, Allen and Xzavion Curry earlier this year.
On a more depressing note, it was just the third time in franchise history the team won just one game in a three-game span in which its starting pitchers allowed one or fewer runs. The other instances:
In consecutive games against the Blue Jays, Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibee tossed seven shutout innings.
It’s the first time rookie starters pitched at least seven scoreless innings in consecutive games since Jeff Mutis and Albie Lopez in 1993 against the California Angels.
Mutis tossed a complete-game four-hit shutout, while Lopez tossed seven scoreless before giving way to the bullpen.
Here’s the full list of rookie starters to toss 7+ shutout innings in consecutive games, with their combined strikeouts in parentheses:
The 18 combined strikeouts by Williams and Bibee are also tied for the second most by rookie starters pitching in consecutive games. Here’s the leaderboard: