Historic Chases · 2026-08-31

Overnight: Kyle Schwarber (PHI) added 2 strikeouts. Schwarber has struck out 196 times, projecting to 230. 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 (40) — one every 12.4 at-bats. The strikeouts are the price of the power.

No club in baseball has been hotter: the Phillies have won 21 of their last 30, 2 clear of the next club among the 30 with 30 games played. They were 10 games under .500 on April 24 (8-18); they are 78-60 now. Collapse watch in the NL East: the Braves' lead over the Phillies was 9.0 games 18 days ago — it's 4.0 now. The Braves have gone 9-8 while the Phillies went 13-2.

The so-what: Yordan Alvarez (HOU) is holding an AL Triple Crown — he leads the AL in average (.316), home runs (37) and RBI (94). Across both leagues he is 2nd in MLB in average, 3rd in MLB in home runs and 4th in MLB in RBI. The three are not the whole of it: among the 70 qualified AL hitters he also has the highest on-base percentage (.433) and slugging percentage (.603), and the most total bases (296) and walks (96) — 4 of the 9 other categories this site checks. OPS is on-base plus slugging, so leading both puts his 1.036 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. Three categories, one player: that is what makes it one of the rarest things on the board.

Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL), an ERA of 1.73, 6th among the 4,338 qualified seasons since 1969 and 13.23 strikeouts per nine innings, 4th among the 9,603 qualified seasons on file, behind three seasons, led by Gerrit Cole's 13.82 in 2019; Dylan Cease (TOR), 12.99 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.

HISTORY LAST NIGHT: Mookie Betts reached 300 career home runs; Jeff McNeil reached 1,000 career hits; Merrill Kelly reached 1,000 career strikeouts.

Lines of the night: CJ Abrams (WSH) stole his 27th base — one homer and three steals from a 30/30 season; Alex Bregman hit 3 home runs — three-homer games happen roughly 15 times a season — his first ▶︎ watch; Daylen Lile's go-ahead home run in the 7th put the Nationals ahead for good in a 6-3 win over the Marlins — and he hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch; Trevor Story's walk-off single in the 10th beat the Mariners 9-8 ▶︎ watch; Jacob deGrom allowed one hit over 7.0 scoreless innings (8 K) ▶︎ watch.

Also last night: Ian Seymour struck out 10 over 6.1 IP ▶︎ watch; Michael King went 6.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch; Robert Stock went 5.1 scoreless ▶︎ watch.

Went deep more than once: Daylen Lile hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch; Ryan Jeffers hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 ▶︎ watch.

Found velocity: Ryan Gusto's four-seamer averaged 96.1 mph — his hardest start of the season, 2.0 mph over his 10-start baseline.

What changed from last season: Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 24 in 137 this season; Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 11.7% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 71 in 607 this season); Nolan Arenado (AZ) — strikeout rate up from 12.2% to 22.9% (49 in 401 at-bats in 2025, 104 in 454 this season); Taylor Ward (SEA) — home-run rate down from 6.2% to 1.5% (36 in 579 at-bats in 2025, 7 in 476 this season). 4 of 808 rate comparisons across 156 qualified hitters and pitchers, corrected for having looked that many times.

For the second straight night: The Chicago Cubs hung 17 runs on the Milwaukee Brewers (17-3)

Milestones reached last night: Rafael Devers (SF) reached 30 HR.