Stats Perform Offers a Look at the Series Opening Monday

From the offices of Stats Perform

PHILLIES (23-24) at MARLINS (22-24)

● The Marlins have had the largest improvement in the major leagues in opponents OBP this season (.343 in 2020, .300 this season) and the Phillies have had the fourth largest improvement (.348 to .312).

● The Marlins have gotten 23 starts from rookie pitchers, including tonight, the highest total in the major leagues.

● The Phillies have hit more than one home run in only one of their last 14 games (three against the Blue Jays on May 16).

● Brad Miller has had multiple hits in consecutive games, tying his longest streak over the last five seasons. He’s had three straight multi-hit games four times but not since July 2016 for the Rays.

● Garrett Cooper has hit safely in eight straight games, the third longest hitting streak of his major-league career. He had streaks of 14 games and nine games in 2019.

● Zach Eflin has the second best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the major leagues this season (11.4-to-1), behind Gerrit Cole (11.5-to-1). Trevor Rogers is the first Marlins pitcher to win six of his first nine starts of a season since Jose Fernandez in 2016.

ROCKIES (18-29) at METS (21-19)

➢ The Mets are 17-5 (.773) when scoring first this season, the third best record in the major leagues, behind the Cardinals (18-3) and Rays (19-5).

➢ The Rockies are only 11-11 when scoring first, the second lowest winning percentage, ahead of the Twins (12-13).

➢ The Rockies have scored 38.2 percent of their runs on home runs in home games this season (16th in the major leagues, just below the league average, 39.8%) but they are last in percentage of runs scoring on home runs in road games (30.2%).

➢ The Mets have the lowest slugging average in the major leagues (.341) and they are next to last in home run rate (one every 43.0 at-bats; Pirates, one every 51.2 at-bats)

➢ Dominic Smith has had the largest dropoff in slugging average among major-league batting qualifiers from last season (.616) to this season (.321).

➢ Charlie Blackmon is hitting .323 in May after he entered the month with a .184 batting average.

➢ Austin Gomber has a 1.88 ERA in three starts in Denver this season, but a 6.39 mark in road games. David Peterson has held opponents to a .188 batting average in his first pass through the lineup this season, but they are hitting .282 after his first pass

INDIANS (24-20) at TIGERS (18-28)

➢ The Indians have not only won the season series from the Tigers in each of the past five seasons, but they have won at least two-thirds of the games in each of those seasons. The Indians are 69-22 against Detroit since 2016, the most wins by one major-league team over another in that time frame.

➢ The Tigers hit a major-league low .199 in April but they have a .266 batting average in May, sixth highest in the major leagues. They have had the largest improvement in batting average in MLB this month.

➢ The Indians have had the second best increase in home run rate in the major leagues this season, going from one every 33.2 at-bats last season to one every 26.8 this season (Cardinals: 34.4 to 27.4).

➢ Amed Rosario had four hits yesterday after having a four-hit game on May 12 and a three-hit game on May 2. Rosario had only one game with multiple hits in April (two on April 28).

➢ Wilson Ramos still leads the Tigers with six home runs although he has not hit one since April 13. Ramos’s 88-at-bat homer drought is the third longest of his major-league career.

➢ Opponents have hit only .174 with runners in scoring position against Sam Hentges, but .432 in all other atbats. Spencer Turnbull is 0-6 with a 5.18 ERA in nine games against the Indians. He’s tied for the most losses by a pitcher against any major-league team since 2019 (Jakob Junis: 1-6 vs. Cleveland).

PADRES (30-17) at BREWERS (23-23)

➢ The Brewers have won six of the last seven games between these teams (a three-game sweep in April and three of four games in September 2019) and the Padres have not scored more than two runs in any of those games.

➢ The Brewers went 16-10 (.615) in April but they are only 7-13 (.350) in May. The only major-league teams with a larger drop in winning percentage this month are the Diamondbacks (.538 to .182) and Royals (.625 to .333).

➢ The Padres have won nine straight games, their longest winning streak since a 10-game streak in May 2009. San Diego has allowed four or fewer runs in 13 straight games, tied for the third longest streak in team history.

➢ Fernando Tatis, Jr. has hit 13 of the Padres 47 home runs this season, 27.7 percent, the highest rate for any player in the major leagues.

➢ Jackie Bradley, Jr. is hitting 122 points lower this season (.161) than last year (.283), the second largest dropoff for any major league batting qualifier (Marcell Ozuna: .338 to .209).

➢ Blake Snell threw six innings and 97 pitches in his last start, a season high for each category. Brandon Woodruff has gone at least six innings and allowed no more than two runs in each of his last eight starts, the third longest streak by a Brewers pitcher (Jeff D’Amico, 9 in 2000; Mike Fiers, 9 in 2012).

ORIOLES (17-29) at TWINS (17-29)

➢ These teams have had the second and third largest jumps in ERA from April to May in the major leagues this season: Mariners (+2.08, 3.75 to 5.83); Orioles (+2.01, 4.01 to 6.02); Twins (+1.33, 4.06 to 5.39).

➢ The Twins are 17-29 (.370) after finishing last year at 36-24 (.600), a drop of 230 points of winning percentage. No other major-league team has had its winning percentage drop by more than 100 points this year.

➢ The Orioles were 15-16 through May 5 but since May 7 they are 2-13 (.133), the lowest winning percentage in the major leagues.

➢ Anthony Santander returned from the injured list on Friday and went 6-for-13 with two doubles and a home run over the weekend in Washington.

➢ Max Kepler has had an extra-base hit in each of his last four games, tying the second longest streak of his major-league career, done two other times (both in 2017). His only longer streak was six straight games with an extra-base hit, in May 2019.

➢ John Means has a 1.70 ERA, the lowest by an Orioles pitcher through nine starts of a season since Jim Palmer had a 1.64 mark at that point in 1975, on his way to the A.L. Cy Young Award. Matt Shoemaker has allowed 10 home runs, tied for the sixth highest total in the major leagues this season.

CARDINALS (26-20) at WHITE SOX (26-19)

➢ The White Sox lead the major leagues in at-bats by rookies this season (401) and the Cardinals stand fourth (308).

➢ The Cardinals are the only major-league team that has already surpassed their home run total from last season. St. Louis hit 51 homers in 2020 (last in the major leagues) and has 55 this year (tied for 12th most).

➢ Tony LaRussa won 1408 games as Cardinals manager, the most in team history, and the 10th highest total by a manager for one team all-time.

➢ Tim Anderson is 2-for-21 over his last five games, dropping his season batting average from .331 to .297.

➢ Edmundo Sosa is 10-for-17 (.588) over his last five games after he had been 4-for-24 to that point of his career, in 27 games in the major leagues.

➢ Kwang Hyun Kim has allowed only four home runs in 65.1 innings in the major leagues, and he’s given up just one home run this season. Lance Lynn has a 1.55 ERA for Chicago, the lowest through a pitcher’s first seven starts for the White Sox since Tom Bradley had a 1.47 ERA at that point, in 1971.

MARINERS (21-26) at ATHLETICS (28-20)

➢ The Athletics have had the largest jump in slugging average this month, going from .378 in April to .462 in May, an improvement of 84 points. The Mariners have had the second largest decline, going from .375 to .334 (Diamondbacks: .418 to .349).

➢ The Mariners are hitting .200 as a team, 13 points lower than any other team in the major leagues.

➢ The Athletics are 5-8 against teams from the A.L. West this season and 23-12 in all other games.

➢ Ramon Laureano went 7-for-9 with two doubles and a home run on Friday and Saturday before going 0-for5 with three strikeouts yesterday.

➢ Mitch Haniger has scored 18.2 percent of the Mariners runs (32 of 176), the highest percentage for any major league player. Mark Canha is second, at 18.0 percent (37 of 205).

➢ Yusei Kikuchi has allowed nine home runs in 50 innings this season after he gave up only three in 47 innings last season. Kikuchi surrendered the third most home runs in the major leagues in 2019 (36). Frankie Montas has not allowed a home run in any of his last three starts against the Mariners.