Historic Chases · 2026-08-12

The box scores did the talking last night: Alex Bregman hit 3 home runs — three-homer games happen roughly 15 times a season — his first career three-homer game ▶︎ watch; Corbin Carroll (305) passed Jay Bell (304) on the Diamondbacks' all-time RBI list.

No club in baseball has been hotter: the Red Sox have won 23 of their last 30, 2 clear of the next club among the 30 with a full 30 played. At its peak the run reached 27-3. They were 14 games under .500 on June 18 (29-43); they are 64-56 now. The Rays have won 9 straight, and are 9-1 in their last 10. Collapse watch in the NL West: the Dodgers' lead over the Padres was 15.0 games 18 days ago — it's 8.5 now. The Dodgers have gone 6-10 while the Padres went 13-4.

The so-what: Yordan Alvarez (HOU) is holding an AL Triple Crown — he leads the AL in average (.322), home runs (35) and RBI (87). Across both leagues he is 2nd in MLB in RBI. The three are not the whole of it: among the 67 qualified AL hitters he also has the highest on-base percentage (.436) and slugging percentage (.621), and the most hits (140), runs (80) and total bases (270) — 5 of the 9 other categories this site checks. OPS is on-base plus slugging, so leading both puts his 1.057 on top as well rather than making it a category of its own. No one has won a Triple Crown since Miguel Cabrera in 2012, and only 17 have ever been won. Hold all three to the end and it is one of the rarest seasons in the sport.

Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL), an ERA of 1.76, tied for 9th among the 4,338 qualified seasons since 1969 with Tom Seaver's 1.76 in 1971 and 13.80 strikeouts per nine innings, 2nd among the 9,603 qualified seasons on file and behind only Gerrit Cole's 13.82 in 2019; Dylan Cease (TOR), 13.09 strikeouts per nine innings, 5th. The earned run average rank is given from 1969 on because the lowest earned run averages were thrown before the mound was lowered in 1969, and a rank across those eras is not a comparison the numbers support.

Sweep watch: the Rays swept the Athletics (3 games) — their 4th sweep in 20 days. Only 11.2% of team-seasons since 1897 have swept 4 clubs inside 30 days — 340 of 3043. 2 other clubs were swept the same night.

History movers: Rays — Win Streak: 9 now, modern record 22 (Cleveland Indians, 2017).

Also last night: Adrian Houser allowed two hits over 6.0 scoreless innings (5 K) ▶︎ watch; Blake Snell struck out 10 over 6.0 IP (in the completed suspended game of August 11) ▶︎ watch; The Chicago Cubs beat the Washington Nationals 12-6.

Went deep more than once: Trent Grisham hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 ▶︎ watch.

Lines of the night: CJ Abrams (WSH) stole his 23rd base — one homer and seven steals from a 30/30 season; Corbin Carroll (100) passed Matt Williams (99) on the Diamondbacks' all-time home run list; Trent Grisham's tiebreaking double in the 7th put the Yankees ahead for good in a 10-5 win over the Mariners — and he hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 ▶︎ watch; Luis Campusano's walk-off single in the 11th beat the Brewers 4-3 ▶︎ watch; Luis Castillo allowed one hit over 7.0 scoreless innings (10 K) ▶︎ watch.

What changed from last season: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 12.4% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 65 in 523 this season); Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 23 in 119 this season; Junior Caminero (TB) — walk rate up from 6.4% to 12.5% (41 in 643 plate appearances in 2025, 65 in 521 this season). 3 of 330 rate comparisons across 64 men on this season's leaderboards, corrected for having looked that many times.