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Posts tagged as “Phil Niekro”

Leadoff Home Runs Allowed

June 18, 2026

In Wednesday’s loss to the Brewers, gave up a leadoff home run to Christian Yelich.

It was the seventh time in his career he’s surrendered a leadoff homer, tying the franchise record, which was also tied by earlier this year.

Here’s the leaderboard:

Bibee and Williams also share the team record for most leadoff home runs allowed in a year with four (Bibee this year, Williams last year).

The rise in power hitters batting leadoff is a key factor in these lists featuring recent pitchers. Here’s what the leaderboard looked like entering the 2015 season:

At that point in time, Niekro and shared the team record for leadoff homers allowed in a season, both allowing three in 1987.

[Note: Leadoff home runs are sometimes defined as only being by the road team. For the purposes of this stat, I’m including the first batter of the game for each team.]

Worst SP ERA Thru 9 Games

April 7, 2025

Guardians starting pitchers have a 6.70 ERA through the team’s first nine games, the fifth worst in team history.

Year ERA SP
2009 9.28 , , , , ,
1997 8.39 , , , ,
1987 8.17 , , , ,
2001 6.89 Bartolo Colon, , , ,
2025 6.70 , , , ,

HBP and BB with Bases Loaded

July 21, 2024

In the fourth inning on Saturday night, loaded the bases against the Padres, then walked Luis Arraez and two batters later hit Jake Cronenworth.

It was just the ninth time in the last 100 years a Cleveland pitcher walked a batter and hit a batter with the bases loaded.

Everyone on the list except Williams and Feller did it to consecutive batters.

Eckersley’s meltdown was a historically embarrassing moment for the team. In the bottom of the 9th, with the Indians leading 2-1 at Chicago, rookie manager called up Eck – a rookie reliever making just his ninth career appearance. Eck promptly hit the first batter, tying the game, then issued a walk-off-walk to the next batter.