Cleveland Baseball History

OPS vs No. 3 Hitters

February 19, 2023

Considering the era in which he played, Corey Kluber‘s appearance on this list is remarkable.

Lowest OPS allowed to No. 3 hitters (min. 100 batters faced):

Johnny Allen, 1938 – .448
Kluber, 2016 – .451
Sam McDowell, 1965 – .489
McDowell, 1968 – .489
Bob Lemon, .1952 – .505
Early Wynn, 1953 – .513

The No. 3 hitters with the most plate appearances against Kluber that year:

Miguel Cabrera, 13
Eric Hosmer, 9
Mike Trout, 7
Evan Longoria, 7

Trout was the only No.3 hitter to homer off Kluber that year.

In total, No. 3 hitters batted .149 with a .206 OBP against Kluber in 2016.

Cory Snyder’s Strikeouts

February 10, 2023

When his Cleveland career came to a close in 1990, Cory Snyder had the most three-strikeout games in franchise history by a wide margin:

Snyder, 49
Bob Feller, 29
Max Alvis, 28
Larry Doby, 22
Brook Jacoby, 21
Pat Seerey, 21

He’s since been surpassed by Jim Thome (86 games), but remains in second place.

Entering 2023, Feller is now in 12th place on this list.

One-Pitch At-Bats

February 9, 2023

Amed Rosario enters 2023 with a .478 batting average when putting the ball in play since joining Cleveland.

Dating back to 1990, that’s the highest average among Cleveland hitters with at least 100 one-pitch at-bats:

Rosario, .478
Ellis Burks, .429
Russell Branyan, .423
Shin-Soo Choo, .423
Roberto Alomar, .419
Jim Thome, .408

And here’s the bottom five, among 64 qualified players:

Aaron Boone, .259
Mark Lewis, .263
Felix Fermin, .269
John McDonald, .270
Mike Aviles, .272

The MLB average over this span is .335.

Three-Pitch Strikeouts

February 6, 2023

Only 11.3% of Carlos Santana‘s strikeouts were on three pitches, the team’s lowest rate dating back to 2000.

Here’s the top six, among players with at least 200 total strikeouts in that span:

Carlos Santana, 11.3%
Jim Thome, 12.4%
Travis Hafner, 12.5%
Ryan Garko, 12.8%
Travis Fryman, 12.9%
Matt LaPorta, 13.0%

Civale Starts Game 3

January 9, 2023

Excluding the WC round (which obviously made this more common), Aaron Civale is the 4th pitcher in MLB history to make postseason debut as a SP in a winner-take all game, joining:

1980 – Marty Bystrom, PHI (won)
1974 – Doyle Alexander, BAL (lost)
1924 – Curly Ogden, WSH (won)

Another Gonzalez Walk-Off

October 15, 2022

With his walk-off single against the Yankees in Game 3, Oscar Gonzalez tied the single-season and career records for postseason go-ahead RBI in the 9th inning or later with three.

The others:

David Ortiz
Pete Rose
J.D. Drew
Carlos Correa
Cody Bellinger

Only Ortiz had all three in a single year (2004).

Gonzalez’s go-ahead RBI:

Game 3 vs TB: walk-off HR in 15th
Game 2 vs NYY: go-ahead single in 10th
Game 3 vs NYY: walk-off single in 9th

Kwan Postseason HR

October 11, 2022

Steven Kwan is the third rookie in franchise history with a postseason home run, joining Oscar Gonzalez (earlier this postseason vs Rays) and Asdrubal Cabrera (2007 against the Yankees).

Here’s a link to Cabrera’s off Chien-Ming Wang.

And here’s Kwan’s off Gerrit Cole: