SUNDAY NOTES a la BILLY-BALL

Tasty nuggets for your Sunday brunch

THE BILLY-BALL BUFFET

The Dodgers lead the majors with a .266 BA, and they lead the majors in BA w/RISP hitting .301, despite going 1-25 (.040) in their last two games and 6-47 (.128) in their last five games….The Yankees are now 4-6 on Saturdays….In four starts this season, Clayton Kershaw has a 5.17 ERA with eight strikeouts and a 1.660 WHIP. The only number that matters is that Kershaw has 2976 strikeouts. When he reaches 3000, he will be just the 20th pitcher to reach that round-numbered milestone. Chris Sale will be next; he has 2510 Ks….Jacob deGrom pitched 7.0 shutout innings yesterday to lower his 2025 ERA to 2.12, 6th in the A.L./8th in MLB. deRemarkable has now logged 10 straight starts of 5.0+ IP and 2-or-fewer runs, the longest such streak in WSH/TEX franchise history (beg. 1961)….On June 6, at Comerica Park, pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones, in his Detroit Tigers debut, crushed a home run on the first pitch he saw. Jones’ father and older brother both played for the Detroit Lions….The Red Sox have allowed 1^st inning runs in 26 games this season. They are 9-17 in those games.….In 83.1 IP, Tarik Skubal has struck out 105 batters. That’s great. He’s also walked only seven. That’s stupendous…. On May 19, the Rays were 21-26, marking their lowest point of the season. Since then, this remarkable franchise has gone 13-4, the best record in baseball. They’ve gone 11-2 at home. This is after the Rays lost to the Marlins yesterday, 11-10. The Marlins had lost 48 consecutive games in which they allowed 10+ runs. That streak is nothing. The Twins have 108 straight when allowing 10+ runs….On this date in 1934, the Cincinnati Reds became the first MLB team to use an airplane to travel from one city to another. They flew from Cincinnati to Chicago….How good is Aaron Judge? After going 0-4 yesterday (Garrett Crochet struck him out three times), he is 92-236, hitting .390. If Judge’s “slump” continued to 0-70, making him 92-306, he would still be over .300, hitting .301….

More after this commercial break.