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Houston Astros outfielder George Springer has hit home runs in four consecutive games to set a new franchise record for rookies, per Jose Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle.

Springer led off the top of the eighth inning in Monday night’s game against the Kansas City Royals with a shot over the left field fence off of reliever Luis Coleman. The home run capped a 4-for-4, three-RBI night for the young star and marked his fourth consecutive game with a long ball.

Springer crossed the plate five times in the contest, representing the most runs by an Astro in one game since Cody Ransom scored five times in a Sept. 20, 2007 game against the St. Louis Cardinals, per Ortiz. With his big night, Springer also managed to stretch his hitting streak to eight games. 

The 24-year-old rookie started his home run streak on May 21 with a solo shot off of Los Angeles Angels starter Jeff Weaver. He then added two home runs in Saturday’s contest against the Seattle Mariners before hitting a two-run shot off of Seattle’s Hisashi Iwakuma on Sunday. The last non-rookie Astro to hit a home run in four consecutive games was Lance Berkman in July 2010, per CBSSports.com.  

Since his Apr. 16 call-up from the Astros’ AAA affiliate in Oklahoma City, Springer has 37 hits in 35 games, including eight home runs. Oddly enough, seven of his eight home runs have occurred on the road, with only one so far at Minute Maid Park.

Springer has also collected six doubles and seven multi-hit games, not to mention a team-high (tied with Jason Castro) 25 RBI. The rookie’s .500 slugging percentage and .848 OPS are both tops on the Astros this season.

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Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Edwin Encarnacion has four multi-homer games in May, making him the first player since Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki in September 2010 to produce a quartet of multi-homer games in the same month, per MLB Stat of the Day on Twitter.

The unquestioned hottest hitter in baseball for a good portion of the month, Encarnacion has cooled off a bit over the last few days. He went 1-for-3 in Friday’s win over the Oakland Athletics, then 0-for-4 Saturday in another win over the A’s.

Still, the 31-year-old slugger owns excellent numbers for the month, highlighted by his 11 long balls and 24 RBI. He actually has a modest .256 batting average in May, but a .688 slugging percentage more than makes up for it.

Encarnacion has twice homered in three consecutive games this month, and nine of his 11 homers have come from those six games. The other two came in a May 15 contest against the Cleveland Indians, just three days before he started the second home run streak.

Despite suffering through an awful April, Encarnacion is now on pace for 42 home runs, 126 RBI and 97 runs, with a mildly disappointing .253/.329/.541 batting line. Between 2012 and 2013, he averaged 39 home runs, 107 RBI and 91.5 runs. 

Once known for his inconsistency and untapped potential, Encarnacion has morphed into one of the most reliable sluggers in the game.

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Per Jane Lee of MLB.com, Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Sonny Gray has become the first A’s player since at least 1914 to open a season with 10 consecutive quality starts. Gray ran his streak to 10 games with an eight-inning performance Thursday afternoon, allowing only a single earned run to the Tampa Bay Rays while striking out three.

In order for a pitcher to get a quality start, he must toss a minimum of six innings while allowing no more than three earned runs. Sixteen of Gray’s 20 career starts qualify, and three of the other four weren’t far off. He’s only had one truly bad outing, which came Aug. 25 against the Baltimore Orioles.

Through 10 starts and 68 innings in 2014, Gray has compiled a 5-1 record with a 1.99 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 55 strikeouts. On April 28 against the Texas Rangers, he recorded his first career complete game and first career shutout.

Gray is averaging just slightly less than seven innings of work per start this season, and his five wins are tied with the resurgent Scott Kazmir for tops on the Athletics’ staff. Gray has made 20 starts of a total 22 appearances in his major league career—10 starts in 2013 and 10 more thus far in 2014. 

The A’s have compiled a stout 7-3 record in the 24-year-old’s starts this season after going 6-4 in his outings last year. The team lost three of Gray’s first four career starts, but dating back to Aug. 31, 2013, Oakland’s record over his last 16 appearances is an impressive 12-4.

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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke held the New York Mets to one earned run Thursday night, thus setting an MLB record by allowing two earned runs or fewer in 22 consecutive starts, per ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin.  The previous record of 21 consecutive outings was shared by Greinke and Roger Clemens, the latter of whom accomplished the feat while pitching for the Boston Red Sox in 1990 and 1991.

Greinke started his streak on July 30, 2013, in Dodger Stadium, holding the New York Yankees to two earned runs in seven innings of work.  He took no decision in that start, while the Dodgers went on to win the game 3-2. 

Over his final 12 starts of 2013, including the July 30 game, Greinke allowed only 14 earned runs in 79.2 innings for a sparkling 1.58 ERA.  He tallied seven wins while dropping only one decision and struck out 73 batters for a rate of 8.25 K’s per nine innings pitched.

With Clayton Kershaw missing the first five weeks of the 2014 season, Greinke has truly been the Dodgers’ staff ace.  Through 10 starts, the right-hander is 7-1 with a 2.01 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 65:14 K:BB ratio in 58.1 innings.  

Granted, it’s only late May, but if Greinke continues pitching the way he has since late last season, he should work his way into the conversation for the NL Cy Young Award.  His 2.01 ERA and 10.03 K/9 mark are both better than the numbers he posted during his 2009 AL Cy Young season with the Kansas City Royals, and the Dodgers have enough offensive firepower to help the right-hander win 20 games.

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With his next home run, Los Angeles Angels first baseman Albert Pujols will break a tie with Hall of Famer Eddie Murray to take sole possession of 25th place on MLB‘s all-time home runs list. Pujols hit career homers No. 503 and 504 in Sunday’s 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, thus moving into a tie with Murray, who played for five different teams over 21 seasons.

Though they may temporarily share a place in baseball history, Pujols and Murray carry very different reputations.

Known for his longevity more so than his peak performance, Murray never won an MVP award and arguably had his finest campaign in 1981, when the season was shortened by a strike. His “Steady Eddie” nickname could perhaps be considered a dig of sorts, as the former first baseman’s detractors often mention that he was never quite an elite player, but rather an excellent compiler.

There’s some truth to the criticism, as Murray never hit more than 33 home runs in season, and never finished higher than third in his league in wins above replacement (WAR).

However, Murray’s peak years came during the power-depressed era of the early to mid-1980s, yet he still accumulated 504 home runs, 1,917 RBI (10th all time) and 3,255 hits (13th all time). He’s one of just four players with both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, the others being Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Rafael Palmeiro.

Murray finished top five in the MVP voting on six separate occasions, including each year from 1981 to 1985. He won three Silver Slugger awards at first base, traditionally an offense-heavy position. In 1977, Murray took home AL Rookie of the Year honors, after smacking 27 home runs for the Baltimore Orioles.

Of course, whatever case one might make for Steady Eddie, Pujols is what all fans want their Hall of Famers to look like. He has three MVP awards with a strong case for at least one more. A pair of rings. Six Silver Slugger awards across three different positions. A lifetime .320/.408/.597 batting line.

He may not quite be what he once was, but Pujols is still one of the most feared hitters in baseball, and he could retire today and make the Hall of Fame without any question.

With no such plans in his immediate future, the Angels slugger will keep assaulting the record books instead.

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Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista needs just one home run to take sole possession of fifth place on the all-time franchise homers list. With 179 dingers in a Jays uniform, Joey Bats is presently tied with Jesse Barfield in the No. 5 spot.

As a franchise that was founded in 1977, the Blue Jays unsurprisingly have modest totals atop the career leaderboards in many categories, including home runs. Carlos Delgado tops the homers list with 336, while Vernon Wells comes in second with just 223. Third-place Joe Carter (203) and fourth-place George Bell (202) may both be surpassed by Bautista before the end of the season.

More impressive than the raw number of home runs he’s hit is the fact that Bautista needed just 698 games in a Jays uniform to match Barfield in fifth place. Barfield, a respected slugger in his own right, played 1,031 games for Toronto. He hit one dinger for every 5.77 games spent in a Blue Jays uniform, while Bautista has thus far gone yard once every 3.91 games.

Barring a trade or catastrophic injury, Bautista should eventually climb to at least No. 2 on the franchise dingers list. Currently trailing second-place Wells by just 44 home runs, Bautista would need 172 more games to match the former Jays outfielder, if he maintains his pace of one every 3.91 contests.

Maintaining such an impressive pace is a lot to ask from any player, but with 11 homers and a .294 batting average through 45 games, Joey Bats looks as dangerous as ever.

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Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish struck out 11 batters in Friday’s 2-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, thus notching his 22nd double-digit strikeout performance through 69 career starts. Going back to 1914, former New York Mets hurler Doc Gooden is the only player to have more double-digit strikeout outings through the first 69 outings of his career, per MLB Stat of the Day.

While Darvish‘s 22 such outings are unquestionably impressive, Gooden had an astounding 27 at the same point in his career. Making his feat even more incredible, Gooden was only 19 years old at the time of his major league debut in 1984 and only 21 years old when he made his 69th appearance.

Known as much for his precipitous decline as his dominant early years, Gooden owns no shortage of early-career records, yet didn’t even come close to key milestones like 3,000 strikeouts and 300 wins.

Though Darvish figures to have more staying power than Gooden, the Japanese hurler will also have a hard time reaching the major pitching milestones. Having spent his first seven professional seasons in Japan, the 27-year-old Darvish not only got a relatively late start on his MLB career, but he also accumulated a ton of wear and tear on his arm.

With 20-win seasons increasingly rare and Darvish owning just 32 career victories, the 300-win mark looks nearly impossible. The 3,000 strikeout club—currently populated by 16 players—is a bit more attainable, as Darvish has shown an incredible penchant for the punchout with a career K/9 mark of 11.13.

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Monday evening, the New York Yankees’ Alfonso Soriano became the seventh player in major league history to reach 1,000 hits in both the American and National Leagues, per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch.

Soriano singled to center field on a 1-2 pitch off of New York Mets starter Bartolo Colon in the bottom of the second inning, then came around to score later in the frame on Brett Gardner’s second career grand slam as the Yankees took a 4-1 lead in the game.

The hit was also Soriano’s 1,000th in the American League, and that tally complements 1,077 more in the National League for a career total of 2,077. Only six other major leaguers have matched Soriano’s feat:

Frank Robinson: AL-1184, NL-1759

Dave Winfield: AL-1976, NL-1134

Vladimir Guerrero: AL-1375, NL-1215

Fred McGriff: AL-1347, NL-1143

Orlando Cabrera: AL-1035, NL-1020

Carlos Lee: AL-1240, NL-1033 

Soriano, a 16-year veteran, is on his second stint with the Yankees, as he came up in the organization in the late 1990s and played for the Bronx Bombers from 1999-2003. He was then sent to the Texas Rangers—with whom he’d spend two seasons—in the trade that brought Alex Rodriguez to New York.

Following a year with the Washington Nationals and six-plus seasons with the Chicago Cubs, the former second baseman landed back in New York last July, when the Cubs traded him to the Yankees.

As the Yankees’ designated hitter, Soriano did not start in the three games this past weekend in Milwaukee against the Brewers, and prior to Tuesday’s game, the slumping slugger had only three hits in his previous 20 plate appearances.

He may be showing his age at 38 years old, but Soriano slugged 17 home runs in just 58 games with the Yankees last season, showing that he’s still got something left in the tank.

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With Sunday’s two-run single in the third inning of a 5-2 loss to the Houston Astros, Adam Jones of the Baltimore Orioles recorded his 500th and 501st career RBI, according to Roch Kubatko of MASN Sports. Jones needed 981 regular-season games and 3,680 at-bats to reach the 500-RBI milestone. 

Jones has been a consistent run producer in the Orioles lineup for years now, recording 80 or more RBI in three consecutive seasons. His career-best total of 108 came during his 2013 campaign, when he also logged a personal-best 33 home runs and slashed .285/.318/.493.

Originally drafted by the Seattle Mariners, Jones was traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 2008. All but a dozen of his career RBI have been accumulated during his time with the O’s.

At 28 years old, the Orioles center fielder already has enjoyed a decorated career. Jones was both an All-Star and a Rawlings Gold Glove Glove recipient in the 2009, 2012 and 2013 seasons, adding a Silver Slugger Award to his collection in 2013.

Entering Sunday’s action, Jones has already broken into the top 10 in several statistical categories among Orioles outfielders all time. He sits at fifth in home runs (140) and ninth in RBI (489), while posting a .281 average during his time with the team. 

Jones did get off to a slow start this season, but it now seems like a distant memory. Heading into Monday’s contest against the Detroit Tigers, he’s 7-for-21 with three home runs and five RBI over the last five games.

All stats courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise specified. 

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After belting a fourth-inning home run off Jorge De La Rosa in Wednesday’s 9-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies, Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers became the fifth player in MLB history to hit 100 home runs for three separate teams, per Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN Stats & Info). 

Beltre joins the exclusive company of Darrell Evans, Reggie Jackson, Alex Rodriguez and Jim Thome as the only players to accomplish this feat. Thome is the most recent addition to the club, as he reached the milestone with the Philadelphia Phillies back in 2012.

Many of Beltre’s long balls were accumulated during his time with the Los Angeles Dodgers, as he totaled 147 homers there between 1998 and 2004. His best single-season total also came in L.A., when he amassed 48 in the 2004 season.

Beltre barely eclipsed the 100 mark with the Seattle Mariners, tallying 103 home runs from 2005 to 2009. He sits at 100 even with the Rangers entering Thursday’s matchup with the Rockies. The 35-year-old also added 28 to his career total during a one-year stint with the Boston Red Sox in 2010.

The Rangers third baseman is under contract with the team through 2015, with a vesting option for 2016, so he should see plenty of additional at-bats to build on his total.

Only time will tell whether Beltre can become the first player to hit 100 dingers for four separate teams. Between his age (35) and contract, he’d probably need a trade for that to happen, and the Rangers seem rather happy to have him around.

All stats courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise specified.

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