Historic Chases · 2026-08-13

The box scores did the talking last night: Cade Cavalli carried a NO-HITTER into the 7th — broken up by a single ▶︎ watch; Caleb Durbin hit a grand slam — his first ▶︎ watch.

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 14.0 games 18 days ago — it's 8.0 now. The Dodgers have gone 6-10 while the Padres went 12-4.

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 home runs and 3rd 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.

Also last night: Logan Gilbert (SEA) went 6.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch; Kyle Schwarber hit 2 home runs — and led off the game with a home run ▶︎ watch; The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Miami Marlins 13-1.

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.

Went deep more than once: Rafael Flores Jr. hit 2 home runs, driving in 6 — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch.

Lines of the night: Jake Bauers' tiebreaking single in the 9th put the Brewers ahead for good in a 5-4 win over the Dodgers ▶︎ watch; Braxton Ashcraft (PIT) went the distance — a complete game (3 hits, 1 run, 10 K) ▶︎ watch; Payton Tolle allowed two hits over 8.0 scoreless innings (4 K) ▶︎ watch; Walbert Ureña allowed two hits over 6.0 scoreless innings (5 K) ▶︎ watch; Keider Montero (DET) went 6.1 scoreless ▶︎ watch.

What changed from last season: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 12.3% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 65 in 527 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 322 rate comparisons across 62 men on this season's leaderboards, corrected for having looked that many times.