3 milestone to watch for in the second half, what happens to the batting king for the third year in a row? The strikeout rate is historic
Jul 18, 2025
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It may be the first time in history, or it may be a rare record in recent years. Let's summarize three things.
First of all, there is a historical record that Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees is aiming for. It is the total bases sector. The record for a single season was 457 hits by the Yankees Babe Ruth in 1921. Ruth played 152 games that year, hitting 59 homers, 44 doubles and 16 triples in 693 at-bats. Of the 204 hits, 119 long balls remain the most in a season.
Judge finished the first half with a 258-base hit. He was 34 hits ahead of Los Angeles Dodgers Shohei Ohtani (224 hits). With 35 home runs, 24 doubles and two triples, he has 61 long balls, and he is also No. 1 in this category.
Based on the number of team games, Judge has 435 hits when applying his pace so far. Ruth's record is hard to beat, but Sammy Sosa's 425 hit in 2001, the best record in the 21st century, is new. Ohtani hit a 411 hit last year, setting a record of 400 hits in 24 years since Sosa, which is also a pace that can be exceeded. Judge's career high is a 392-base hit last year.
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Since moving to the Yankees in 1920, Ruth has effectively given up pitching and devoted himself to hitters, creating four 50-homer seasons. Among them, he played in two games as a pitcher in 1921 and struck out two in nine innings. In other words, Ohtani can break the record of most strikeouts in a season by 50 home run hitters.
In fact, there is no need to look at the history of the home run-strikeout record. Ohtani has already written two 40-homer-100 strikeout seasons (2021 and 2023) that no one can reach. Since he struck out 10 in the first half of this season, if he exceeds 50 home runs, he will set a record of 50 home runs-10 strikeouts for the first time in history. Ohtani, who still has to build up his starting pitcher in the second half of the year, seems to be able to strike out 50 in the season if he reaches the level of throwing five innings. In other words, he can challenge the milestone of 50 homers and 50 strikeouts.
In fact, there are more players to watch than Judge and Ohtani. 'Batter without striking out' is San Diego Padres Luis Arraez.
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Araez has about 18 to 19 strikeouts in the season if she maintains her current pace. Since 1900, when the modern baseball rules were established, the minimum strikeout record for batters who exceeded the prescribed at-bats in a season is three by Yankees Joe Siwall in 1932. That year, he struck out three in 576 at-bats. It's a hard number to imagine in these days.
Even so, Araez's record of minimum strikeouts is historic. Gwynn was the last player to score less than 20 strikeouts in a season based on a batter who filled the regular at-bats. He struck out 18 in 505 at-bats in 1998. Araez's ability to contact remains.
However, Araez's batting average this season is not like the batting champion for the third consecutive year. He only hit .279 (102 hits in 365 at-bats) in 90 games in the first half. The batting average of .300 seems extremely difficult this year. Araez, who had few strikeouts, had a small walk, so his on-base percentage in the first half was only 0.314. Both the batting average, on-base percentage, and OPS are at the level of 'career'.
Arraez's average batting speed (85.6 miles), barrel ratio (0.8%), and hard hit ratio (15.7%) are all life lows. In other words, there is no injury and the swing form has not changed, but he has not been able to hit hard. He shot one for 20 in the last five games of the first half.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
