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The First Pitch: August 20, 2025
The Yankees go clubbing at their Spring home, matching a team record set earlier this year with nine home runs in a 13-3 rout of the Rays at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field. The power display includes back-to-back-to-back homers in the first inning from Aaron Judge (his 40th of the year), Cody Bellinger (see below) and Giancarlo Stanton, and three multi-homer efforts from Bellinger, Stanton and former Ray Jose Caballero—who hits the Yankees’ ninth and final blast of the night in the ninth.
Only four teams have hit nine homers in a game; the 2025 Yankees are responsible for two of those games.
The three consecutive homers hit by the Yankees in the first inning matches an MLB record previously set by the 2005 Rangers and 2019 Twins; all three of the Yankees’ occurrences have taken place in the first inning.
The Diamondbacks edge the Cleveland Guardians at Phoenix, 6-5, behind Corbin Carroll’s fourth multi-triple game of the season—tying the all-time record held by five other players, most recently Carl Crawford in 2004. Carroll’s 16 triples on the year lead all major leaguers; he’s on pace to become the first player to hit 20 or more triples in a season since 2007.
For the first time since 1985, the Astros are shut out in three straight games—but at least they make it close, unlike the hammering they suffered in their previous two blankings. At Detroit, the Astros and Tigers keep it scoreless through the first nine innings, before the Tigers finally scratch a 1-0 win in the 10th on Gleyber Torres’ two-out, bases-loaded walk.
Though he doesn’t get credit for the win, Detroit Tarik Skubal (see below) throws seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts—becoming the first pitcher to surpass 200 K’s on the year.
The all-time Houston record for consecutive shutout losses is four, last set in 1966.
It’s been a strange year for Arizona All-Star Ketel Marte. First, he was heckled at Chicago while playing the White Sox in June. Then during the All-Star Break, while he was helping the NL with a two-run double, his Scottsdale home was broken into, with numerous valuables stolen. Rather than return to Phoenix after the break, Marte instead went to his native Dominican Republic to vacation with his family, causing him to miss the Diamondbacks’ first two games after the Break—one of them a promotion with him featured as a bobblehead. While the team publicly stated that Marte’s absence was granted so he could deal with the home break-in, he was actually placed on the restricted list, without pay.
The Diamondbacks won the two games he missed—and the next one without him back in the dugout, but absent on the field—yet Marte’s fit of hooky has festered in the Arizona clubhouse and irked some of his teammates, who anonymously criticized him to the Arizona Republic. After a strong start to the year, the DBacks have struggled—and a losing streak toward the end of July, with Marte back in the lineup, initiated an intense sell-off of talent at the trading deadline, with sluggers Eugenio Suarez, Josh Naylor, and pitcher Merrill Kelly among those being dealt away. The DBacks’ postseason chances have been reduced to next to nil.
Marte apologized for his actions at the start of this week, and claims he has full support of his teammates, while DBacks coaches and management are praising him for speaking out about the situation. But given the recent criticism upon him, one has to wonder how much goodwill collateral Marte has left within the Arizona organization.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Hitters Edition)
5-3-4-3—Cody Bellinger, New York Yankees
The veteran slugger came into Tuesday’s game at Tampa batting a paltry .148 with a pair of home runs for the month of August—but he came to life against the Rays, leading the home run parade with two of the Yankees’ team record-tying nine in a 13-3 thrashing. Bellinger added a pair of singles for his first four-hit game of the 2025 season, rising his season batting average to .272.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Pitchers Edition)
7-3-0-0-2-10—Tarik Skubal, Detroit
Like Bellinger, the reigning AL Cy Young winner hasn’t had the best of Augusts—allowing 10 runs over 18.2 innings on the month. But against the offensively absent Astros, Skubal righted the ship with an excellent outing, his 10th this season pitching six or more frames with no runs allowed. He remains the AL’s ERA leader, with a 2.32 figure.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
1938: Lou Gehrig hits the 23rd—and last—grand slam of his career in the Yankees’ 11-3 win at Philadelphia over the A’s. Gehrig’s total will remain an all-time record until Alex Rodriguez breaks it in 2013.
1961: The Phillies lose their 23rd straight game with a 5-2 loss at Milwaukee in the first game of a doubleheader. They’ll win the nightcap to snap the slide, the longest in major league history.
2017: In a cool move by MLB, a game between the Pirates and Cardinals is played at Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in conjunction with the ongoing Little League World Series. Before a small but boisterous crowd of 2,596—most of them kids—the Pirates triumph, 6-3.
2020: The Padres become the first team to hit grand slams in four straight games as Eric Hosmer cleans the bases in the fifth inning of a 10-inning, 8-7 loss against Texas.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Happy birthday to:
Chicago Cubs rookie pitcher Cade Horton (24)
Korean-born San Francisco outfielder Jung Hoo Lee (27)
Todd Helton (52), Hall-of-Fame slugger of 17 seasons with the Rockies; all-time franchise leader in multiple batting categories; top NL hitter of 2000; lifetime .345 hitter at Coors Field
Andy Benes (58), 155-game winner primarily through 1990s; 1994 NL strikeout leader; 1993 All-Star
Tom Brunansky (65), dependable slugging source for the Twins during the 1980s; 271 career home runs over 14 seasons; batted .286 with two homers and 11 RBIs during Minnesota’s 1987 championship run
Mark Langston (65), hard-throwing lefty who amassed a 179-158 record; four-time All-Star; three-time league leader in strikeouts
Graig Nettles (81), popular third baseman for Yankees during core of 22-year career with six overall teams; six-time All-Star; recipient of two Gold Gloves; 390 career homers; 1981 ALCS MVP
Fred Norman (83), 16-year pitcher of 104 wins
Born on this date:
Al Lopez (1908) long-time catcher before becoming manager of 18 years with Indians and White Sox, frequently falling just short of Yankees in AL standings; did manage pennants in 1954 and 1959
Shameless Link of the Day
Want to know who were the 10 best hitters and pitchers from each league during the 1912 season? Find out here.
Join Us on X and BlueSky
Besides our growing and active presence on X, TGG has spread its social media wings to BlueSky for those who’ve found the X culture too toxic. For those who are wondering, we provide the same posts on both platforms, and they’re non-political. We’re just talking baseball.
Meanwhile, we’ve given up our fight trying to reactivate our Facebook page, which was hacked last year. The page remains up but is frozen in time, as we are unable to access it—and Facebook, in all its infinite lack of wisdom, continues to provide absolutely no customer support in the matter as they literally have none. All the more reason to join us on X and BlueSky.
And Now For Something Completely Different From TGG Co-Founder Eric Gouldsberry
From 1975-78, my father, Ray Gouldsberry, took photographs of the original San Jose Earthquakes soccer team, an ingeniously marketed collection of colorful players embraced by a growing, sports-starved community which constantly sold out ancient, cozy Spartan Stadium. Shortly after my father’s passing in 2019, I took the negatives of all the precious, invaluable photos he snapped, scanned them, and put together Our Life & Times with the Earthquakes: Images and Memories from the Glory Days of San Jose’s Original Pro Soccer Team. It’s not only a tribute to the Earthquakes and the North American Soccer League, but to my father for capturing all the wonderful memories we shared during our time as season ticket holders of the team through its entire existence (1974-84).
Much like baseball’s Deadball Era, Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes looks at a similar era in soccer history when the game in America was boldly attempting to blaze its own trail clad in flamboyance and imperfection, giving the NASL vivid character. As with those early times of baseball, historical images from the NASL remain scarce and elusive, making Ray Gouldsberry’s photographic collection of the Earthquakes and other star NASL players all the more cherished.
Although the Earthquakes are the primary focus of Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes, the book also spotlights the vibrant and turbulent history of the NASL and its legendary list of stars such as Pelé, Giorgio Chinaglia and George Best (who briefly played for the Earthquakes), all through my father’s photos and the treasure trove of memorabilia I collected during those years.
Formatted at 8.25” x 8.25”, running 200 pages plus cover and containing over 200 photos, 100 images of memorabilia, and a foreword by former Quake and U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Johnny Moore, Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes is available for purchase on Amazon. Read and enjoy!
To Whom It May Concern
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