Nightly briefing

Baseball last night

Games of 2026-07-18

No history was made last night, but the box scores still talked: Cam Sanders earned his FIRST career save ▶︎ watch; Ryan Watson earned his FIRST career win.

Kyle Schwarber has struck out 145 times, projecting to 237. Mark Reynolds' record is 223. That pace would be the most strikeouts in any season since 1901. But he's doing damage too: he leads MLB in home runs (33) — one every 10.8 at-bats. The strikeouts are the price of the power.

The AL Central is a coin flip: Guardians (52-47) and Sox (51-46) are even in the standings — zero games back. The WSH single-season record is 46 home runs, set by Alfonso Soriano in 2006. James Wood projects to 46 and projects to tie it.

History movers: Athletics (Run Differential) down 72 → 64; Red Sox (Win Streak) up 76 → 80.

Lines of the night: J.T. Ginn carried a NO-HITTER into the 7th — broken up by a single ▶︎ watch.

Milestones reached last night: Jordan Walker reached 75 RBI; Bryan Reynolds reached 100 hits; Alec Burleson reached 100 hits; Rafael Devers reached 20 HR.

The .400 chase: Otto Lopez went 1-for-4 last night and saw his average slip 1 point to .335. The gap to .400 is now .065.

The so-what: through 99 team games, Kyle Schwarber sits 12 HR behind Bonds' 73-homer pace (45 at this point). That's the number that decides whether this season becomes a chase or a footnote.

Active streaks

The game is running hot

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Title races

Who owns the season?

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Record Radar · 2026-07-18

Records in danger this season

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Batter Strikeouts NEGATIVE HISTORY
Kyle Schwarber headshot
Kyle SchwarberPHI

Kyle Schwarber is on pace for 237 strikeouts

Kyle Schwarber has struck out 145 times, projecting to 237. Mark Reynolds' record is 223. That pace would be the most strikeouts in any season since 1901. But he's doing damage too: he leads MLB in home runs (33) — one every 10.8 at-bats. The strikeouts are the price of the power.

Mark Reynolds struck out 223 times in 2009, a mark that has survived the highest-strikeout era in history.

98History score
Current
145
Projected
237
Record
223 Mark Reynolds · 2009

Lahman + Retrosheet

What history says about the board

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Under the surface

Deep signals

Thresholds approaching

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Club races →

Tonight's stakes

What to watch today

01

The .400 burndown: Otto Lopez carries a .335 average into today; a .400 finish takes a .502 clip the rest of the way (124-for-247). That is .004 harder than yesterday. A 3-for-4 tonight lowers the requirement to .498; an 0-for-4 raises it to .510.

02

Tightest race: the AL Central — Guardians (52-47) and Sox (51-46) are even in the standings, zero games back.

03

Year-over-year: the Sox are 51-46 — 18 wins ahead of where they stood on this date last season (33-65).

04

From nowhere: Junior Caminero is now 4th in MLB in home runs — he wasn't in the top 30 a month ago.

05

From nowhere: Nick Gonzales is now 5th in MLB in batting average — he wasn't in the top 30 a month ago.

06

30/30 watch: Pete Crow-Armstrong sits at 21 HR / 25 SB — 9 homers short and 5 steals short of a 30/30 season, projecting to 35/41.

How to read the site

The chase, in plain English

Otto Lopez leads MLB at .335, but .400 is still a mountain. He would need 43 straight hits to get there today, or roughly a .502 average the rest of the way (124-for-247) to finish at .400.

Every chase gets a 0–100 History Score against the record book, allowing home-run pace, streaks, Statcast extremes, and even negative history to share one radar.