In Wednesday’s loss to the Brewers, Gavin Williams 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 Tanner Bibee earlier this year.
Here’s the leaderboard:
- Josh Tomlin, 7
- Corey Kluber, 7
- Bibee, 7
- Williams, 7
- CC Sabathia, 6
- Bob Feller, 6
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:
- Sabathia 6,
- Feller, 5
- Charles Nagy, 4
- Scott Bailes, 4
- Phil Niekro, 4
- Greg Swindell 4
At that point in time, Niekro and Rich Yett 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.]