Brayan Rocchio hit his first career home run on Friday night against the Marlins in his 76th career game.
His 75 straight games without a home run was the 38th longest streak for a non-pitcher in team history and the fourth longest over the last 50 years. The team record is 539 games by Bill Wambsganss.
Longest homerless droughts to start a career for Cleveland over the last 50 seasons:
- Alex Cole, 204 games
- John McDonald, 93 games
- Mark Lewis, 84 games
- Rocchio, 75 games
- Yandy Diaz, 67 games
- Ezequiel Carrera, 61 games
- Jolbert Cabrera, 61 games
- Tyler Freeman, 56 games
- Richie Palacios, 52 games
- Chris Bando, 49 games
- Andy Allanson, 48 games
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:
- Will Brennan, 2022
- Steven Kwan, 2022
- Daniel Johnson, 2021
- Ezequiel Carrera, 2011
- Michael Brantley, 2009
- Joe Inglett, 2006
- Jody Gerut, 2003
- Coco Crisp, 2002*
- Dave Roberts, 1999*
- Bruce Aven, 1997
- Damian Jackson, 1996
- Alex Cole, 1990*
- Kevin Rhomberg, 1982
Bo Naylor collected three against the Royals in his 20th career game.
Dating back to 1990, he’s the 11th Cleveland rookie with multiple three-hit games through 20 career games, joining:
- Oscar Gonzalez, 2022
- Jason Kipnis, 2011
- Michael Brantley, 2009
- Joe Inglett, 2006
- Coco Crisp, 2002
- Richie Sexson, 1998
- Brian Giles, 1996
- Herbert Perry, 1995 (3 games)
- Mark Lewis, 1991 (5 games)
- Alex Cole, 1990 (4 games)