Brandon Lowe headshot

Brandon Lowe

Pittsburgh Pirates · 2B · through 2026-10-31

Milestone watch

Why he matters right now

Brandon Lowe is 8 from 200 career home runs

He sits at 192 — one of the counting milestones the sport stops for.

This has been his headline for 78 straight days.

The case in 30 seconds

  • 192 career home runs, 8 from 200 career_watch ledger (live-verified before publication)
  • 152 152 hits, past his previous best of 132 in 2021 year-by-year record, 6 prior seasons since 2019 (MLB Stats API, cached)
  • 35 10th in home runs at 35 on MLB's season leaderboards MLB season leaderboard (the league's own top-10 board of qualified players, not this site's roster)

The honest caveat

A milestone is arithmetic on a career, not a statement about this season. Reaching it depends on playing time between now and then, which nothing here predicts.

Every claim above, with its source (3)
  1. 192 career home runs, 8 from 200 career_watch ledger (live-verified before publication)
  2. 152 hits, past his previous best of 132 in 2021 year-by-year record, 6 prior seasons since 2019 (MLB Stats API, cached)
  3. 10th in home runs at 35 on MLB's season leaderboards MLB season leaderboard (the league's own top-10 board of qualified players, not this site's roster)

Other cases this page considered and did not lead with: Brandon Lowe has already passed his career best in hits; Brandon Lowe is top-10 in the majors in home runs.

The evidence

Situational splits

SplitABAVGHRRBIOPS
vs RHP 391 .279 2777 .910
vs LHP 193 .223 819 .648
Home 308 .266 2056 .848
Away 276 .254 1540 .797
Day 235 .264 1539 .850
Night 349 .258 2057 .806

2026 season, MLB Stats API. A split with no plate appearances is omitted rather than shown as zeroes.

150G
584AB
152H
.260AVG
35HR
96RBI
2SB
292B
13B
.824OPS

Chasing .400

.260Current AVG
137Consecutive hits needed to reach .400
122-for-100Needed over next 100 AB
—Rest-of-season AVG to finish .400 (82-for-0)

Status: IMPOSSIBLE

Milestone tracker

ChaseTargetCurrentPaceNeeded from hereStatus
.350 AVG .350 .260 .260 — IMPOSSIBLE
.380 AVG .380 .260 .260 — IMPOSSIBLE
.400 AVG .400 .260 .260 — IMPOSSIBLE
.406 AVG .406 .260 .260 — IMPOSSIBLE
.466 AVG .466 .260 .260 — IMPOSSIBLE
50 HR 50 35 35 15 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
60 HR 60 35 35 25 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
62 HR 62 35 35 27 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
70 HR 70 35 35 35 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
73 HR 73 35 35 38 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
200 Hits 200 152 152 48 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
225 Hits 225 152 152 73 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
250 Hits 250 152 152 98 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
262 Hits 262 152 152 110 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
50 SB 50 2 2 48 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
80 SB 80 2 2 78 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
100 SB 100 2 2 98 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
130 SB 130 2 2 128 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
50 2B 50 29 29 21 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
60 2B 60 29 29 31 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
67 2B 67 29 29 38 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
20 3B 20 1 1 19 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
25 3B 25 1 1 24 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
36 3B 36 1 1 35 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
125 RBI 125 96 96 29 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
150 RBI 150 96 96 54 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
175 RBI 175 96 96 79 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
191 RBI 191 96 96 95 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE

How likely is the finish?

0%finishes with 40+ home runs
0%finishes with 50+ home runs
0%finishes with 60+ home runs

His rate of 53.350 home runs per 1,000 plate appearances is read as 49.280 after regressing toward the league's 30.200 — a leaderboard selects for players who have outperformed, so an unregressed rate projected forward overstates every one of them. That puts the expected finish at 35.0, against a straight team-game pace of 35. Exact beta-binomial over 0 remaining plate appearances, averaged across playing-time scenarios. Calibrated against Retrosheet finishes: within 7 points of observed frequency in every band, and within 2 in three of five. It is a model, not a measurement.

Home run pace vs the benchmark seasons

36730162 gJudge 62Bonds 7335
Cumulative home runs by team game against straight 62 (Judge 2022) and 73 (Bonds 2001) paces. The homepage checkpoint card uses the exact game-by-game Retrosheet curves; these reference lines are straight-line paces.
0.2%of comparable chases reached 40 HR
0.0%of comparable chases reached 50 HR
0.0%of comparable chases reached 60 HR

Empirical: seasons within ±2 HR of his total at the same team-game checkpoint (n=493); median finish 35. Retrosheet.

Recent game log

Derived nightly from the snapshot ledger — each row is the difference between consecutive days; multi-day rows are labeled.

DateOppResultABHHRRBIRSBBBKAVG
2026-09-24 St. Louis Cardinals W 2-1 31 0 10 01 2 .262
2026-09-23 St. Louis Cardinals L 1-5 42 1 11 00 1 .262
2026-09-22 St. Louis Cardinals W 2-0 40 0 00 00 0 .260
2026-09-20 Kansas City Royals W 4-3 41 0 00 01 1 .262
2026-08-21 Los Angeles Dodgers L 4-5 52 0 02 00 3 .254
2026-08-19 Detroit Tigers W 4-3 31 1 12 02 1 .253
2026-08-18 Detroit Tigers W 4-1 40 0 00 00 0 .252
2026-08-17 Detroit Tigers L 5-8 42 0 00 00 0 .254
2026-08-16 Boston Red Sox W 8-3 42 0 21 00 2 .252
2026-08-15 Boston Red Sox L 0-4 41 0 00 00 2 .250

Recent highlights

Lahman + Retrosheet context

How this season fits history

Historical twinPaul Goldschmidt · 2019

93% season-shape match

HR checkpoint-38 vs Barry Bonds

Through 162 team games; 73 in 2001

Chase history

.224.279.33304-0310-31
Batting average, day by day
33516904-0310-31
Projected HR, day by day