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Steven Matz, Anthony Kay, Robbie Ray, and Hyun Jin Ryu, the Toronto Blue Jays’ four starting pitchers against the Oakland Athletics May 3-6, have tied a major league record. OK, it is an obscure one, but a record nonetheless.
Matz, Kay, Ray, and Ryu have a total of 13 letters in their surnames, and according to STATS Inc. this is just the second time that four consecutive starters for an MLB team have had 13 or fewer combined letters since Sun-woo Kim, Byung-hyun Kim, Zach Day, and Aaron Cook started for the Colorado Rockies September 2-6, 2005.
The only time in the modern era that 4 straight starting pitchers for a team have had 13 or fewer combined letters in their surnames was the Rockies in September 2005:
— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) May 5, 2021
Kim (Sun-woo)
Kim (Byung-hyun)
Day (Zach)
Cook (Aaron) https://t.co/asxuH5RaIb
The Rockies’ starts spanned two series, three games against the Dodgers and one against the Padres. This means that Matz, Kay, Ray, and Ryu have the shortest combined surnames for starting pitchers in a four-game series in major league history.
The pitcher with the longest surname in Blue Jays history is Julian Merryweather at 12 letters, who started (opened) three games in 2020. The Blue Jays pitcher with the shortest surname is Seunghwan Oh.