Historic Chases · 2026-08-14

Overnight: nothing — Kyle Schwarber (PHI) held flat, and flat bends the projection down. Schwarber has struck out 177 times, projecting to 233. Mark Reynolds' record is 223. That pace would be the most strikeouts in any season since 1901. League strikeout rates have roughly doubled since 1980, so the all-time list is not an even comparison. But he's doing damage too: he leads MLB in home runs (37) — one every 11.7 at-bats. The strikeouts are the price of the power.

No club in baseball has been hotter: the Red Sox have won 22 of their last 31, 2 clear of the next club among the 30 with 30 games played. At its peak the run reached 27-3. They were 14 games under .500 on June 18 (29-43); they are 65-57 now. The Padres have won 6 straight, and are 8-2 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 7-10 while the Padres went 13-4.

The so-what: Yordan Alvarez (HOU) is holding an AL Triple Crown — he leads the AL in average (.323), home runs (36) and RBI (88). He leads the AL in all five of batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, home runs and RBI — every one of them, among the 67 qualified AL hitters. Leading all five has been done four times in the AL since 1920, most recently by Frank Robinson in 1966. He did not have all five a night ago — he held four. 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: Brandon Pfaadt has not allowed a run in his last 14 innings; Grant Taylor has not allowed a run in his last 13 innings; Yordan Alvarez homered for the first time since July 28, ending a 13-game drought — his 36th of the season.

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: Ben Malgeri (DET) and Miguel Vargas (CWS) traded two-homer games — the first career multi-homer game for each ▶︎ Malgeri ▶︎ Vargas.

Start streaks: Chris Sale (ATL) has struck out 8 or more in each of his last four starts (11, 9, 8, 9).

Lines of the night: CJ Abrams (WSH) stole his 24th base — one homer and six steals from a 30/30 season; Dylan Beavers' tiebreaking single in the 7th put the Orioles ahead for good in a 6-5 win over the Rays ▶︎ watch; Michael Massey's tiebreaking single in the 7th put the Royals ahead for good in a 7-6 win over the Angels ▶︎ watch; Clay Holmes allowed one hit over 6.2 scoreless innings (3 K) ▶︎ watch; Brandon Pfaadt allowed two hits over 7.0 scoreless innings (7 K) ▶︎ watch.

What changed from last season: Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 24 in 120 this season; Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 12.2% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 65 in 531 this season); Junior Caminero (TB) — walk rate up from 6.4% to 12.5% (41 in 643 plate appearances in 2025, 66 in 526 this season). 3 of 322 rate comparisons across 62 men on this season's leaderboards, corrected for having looked that many times.