The Baseball Buffet for 10/17/2025

Issue #426

The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day!

⚾ Welcome! ⚾

The 204th day of the season featured game three of the NLCS and game four of the ALCS:

• MIL 1, LAD 3 - Shohei Ohtani got things going for the Dodgers with a leadoff triple in the bottom of the first, and Mookie Betts promptly hit a double to drive him in. The Brewers wasted little time in taking out opener Aaron Ashby in favor of flame-thrower Jacob Misiorowski. He went on to strikeout 9 over 5 innings of work, but lost steam in the sixth inning and the Dodgers scored two. Meanwhile, Tyle Glasnow pitched a good game (5.2 IP 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K), and four LA relievers didn’t allow any runs, including Roki Sasaki who secured the save. The Dodgers now have a commanding 3-0 lead in this series.

• TOR 8, SEA 2 - Josh Naylor got the Mariners on the scoreboard first with a solo HR in the bottom of the second. But Max Scherzer otherwise pitched pretty well (5.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 5 K) and the Blue Jays offense got going with five runs across the third and fourth innings. Andrés Giménez had a 2-run HR, his second homer in as many days, and hot hitting Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a solo HR in the seventh. Three Blue Jays’ relievers pitched scoreless innings to close out the game and tie up the series at two games apiece.

Active Leaders

I covered batting average yesterday, so what about hits, the numerator in that fraction? Here are the active leaders:

• 2,431 - Freddie Freeman

• 2,388 - Jose Altuve

• 2,266 - Andrew McCutchen

• 2,190 - Paul Goldschmidt

• 2,069 - Manny Machado

• 1,921 - Nolan Arenado

• 1,880 - Carlos Santana

• 1,822 - Xander Bogaerts

• 1,801 - Bryce Harper

• 1,772 - DJ LeMahieu

Which of these guys might reach 3,000? I’d say Freeman and Altuve both have a good shot, as they are 35 years old and still doing well. Manny Machado is only 32, so I’d say he’s got a good shot too.

Today’s Trivia Question

Continuing with a focus on hits, most baseball fans know the top-two all-time leaders. But after that… how many on the all-time top-10 hits leaderboard can you name? (Bonus points the closer you can get to naming them in the right order.)

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions are from baseball-reference.com.

📅 On October 17…

• 1911: The birth of the nickname “Home Run” for Frank Baker. “The Philadelphia Athletics score twice in the 11th inning to beat the New York Giants, 3-2, in Game 3 of the World Series. Frank Baker hits a home run in the 9th inning off Christy Mathewson to tie the score, 1-1. Baker will be tagged with the nickname "Home Run" Baker for his exploits.”

• 1979: Willie “Pops” Stargell leads the Pirates to the championship. “Willie Stargell hits a two-run home run to give the Pittsburgh Pirates a 4-1 triumph over the Baltimore Orioles and the World Series in seven games.”

• 1982: Robin Yount collects four hits… again. “Robin Yount records his second four-hit game of the World Series to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 6-4 victory in Game 5 and give his team a 3-2 lead overall over St. Louis. Yount is the first player ever to have multiple four-hit games in one World Series.”

• 1989: The Loma Prieta earthquake delays the World Series. “Minutes before Game 3 of the World Series between Oakland and the San Francisco Giants is scheduled to start, an earthquake hits the San Francisco Bay area, causing massive damage. The game is postponed and the Series will only resume 11 days later.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Buck Ewing (1859)

• Hall of Famer

• 18-year major league career, spanning from 1880-1897, mostly with the Giants but spending some time with four other clubs

• Quite versatile on the field, he played a lot as a catcher, but also played 1B, 3B, RF, and more

• A high-average hitter, he had 10+ triples in 11 seasons, including 15+ triples in five years with a career-high of 20 in 1884

• Also had speed on the bases, with a high of 53 SB in 1888

• Overall had 178 triples, 1,129 runs, a .303/.351/.456 slash line, and a 129 OPS+

Paul Derringer (1906)

• 15-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1931-1945, with the Reds, Cubs, and Cardinals

• Won 20+ games four times, including in 1939 when he had a 25-7 record and a 2.93 ERA

• Six-time All-Star

• Overall had a 223-212 record, a 3.46 ERA, and a 108 ERA+

Carlos González (1985)

• 12-year major league career, spanning from 2008-2019, mostly with the Colorado Rockies

• Led the NL in 2010 with a .336 average and 197 hits

• Three-time All-Star, and won three NL Gold Glove Awards in the OF

• Hit 20+ HR six times, with a high of 40 HR in 2015

• Early in his career he had 20+ SB four times

• Overall had 234 HR, 122 SB, a .285/.343/.500 slash line, and a 112 OPS+

Jim Gilliam (1928)

• 17-year major league career, spanning from 1946-1966, starting in the Negro Leagues for several seasons, then two years in the minors, followed by 14 years with the Dodgers

• Won the NL Rookie of the Year in 1953 after he had 125 runs, 17 triples, 21 SB, and a .278 average

• Was an All-Star in three seasons

• Scored 100+ runs four times, and had 20+ SB four times

• Played primarily 2B and 3B, with some time at LF

• Overall had 219 SB, 1,255 runs, a .266 batting average, and a .360 OBP

Red Rolfe (1908)

• 10-year major league career, spanning from 1931-1942, as a 3B for the Yankees

• Almost always hit second in very powerful Yankees' lineups, so scored often with 100+ runs in seven consecutive seasons, with a career high of 143 runs in 1937 and an AL-leading 139 runs in 1939

• Four-time All-Star

• Led the AL with 15 triples in 1936, and then with 46 doubles and 213 hits in 1939

• Had a career .289 average and .360 OBP

Currently active players who were born on October 17 include TOR Myles Straw, ATL Ha-Seong Kim, DET Rafael Montero, and COL Carson Palmquist.

Today’s Matchups

Today we have game four of the NLCS and game five of the ALCS (pitching stats are from the regular season):

• TOR vs. SEA at 6:08pm ET - With the series tied 2-2, we have one more game in Seattle, with the hosting Mariners going with Bryce Miller (5.68 ERA, 74 K in 90.1 IP) and the surging Blue Jays countering with Kevin Gausman (3.59 ERA, 189 K in 193 IP).

• MIL vs. LAD at 8:38pm ET - The Dodgers are in the driver’s seat, with a 3-0 lead in this series, playing at home, and with Shohei Ohtani (2.87 ERA, 62 K in 47 IP) taking the mound. Anything can happen though, and the Brewers did have the best record in baseball during the regular season. As of the time of this writing, they have not announced their starter, so it seems likely they will once again go with an opener for the first one or two innings.

⚾ Enjoy the games today! ⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

The top-10 all-time hits leaderboard is as follows:

• 4,256 - Pete Rose

• 4,189 - Ty Cobb

• 3,771 - Hank Aaron

• 3,630 - Stan Musial

• 3,514 - Tris Speaker

• 3,465 - Derek Jeter

• 3,435 - Cap Anson

• 3,420 - Honus Wagner

• 3,419 - Carl Yastrzemski

• 3,384 - Albert Pujols

There are plenty of others that you might have guessed were in that top-10, as there are 33 players in the 3,000-hit club.

Good Reads

Here I am providing one or more links to baseball articles I’ve enjoyed recently, whether by writers at MLB.com or elsewhere.

• 6 things to know about Scherzer's vintage performance, by MLB writers, 10/17/2025

• The best comeback attempts from 3-0 holes in playoffs, by Thomas Harrigan at MLB, 10/16/2025

• Ty Cobb never won the big one, by Mark Kolier at Almost Cooperstown, 10/17/2025

See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!

Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.

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