Nightly briefing

Baseball last night

Games of 2026-07-19

No history was made last night, but the box scores still talked: Hunter Goodman hit 3 home runs — happens roughly a dozen times a season ▶︎ watch; The San Diego Padres hung 19 runs on the Kansas City Royals (19-2) — a 17-run margin.

Kyle Schwarber has struck out 147 times, projecting to 238. 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 10.9 at-bats. The strikeouts are the price of the power.

The AL West is a coin flip: Rangers (50-49) lead Mariners by 0.5. The COL single-season record is 49 home runs, set by Larry Walker in 1997. Hunter Goodman projects to 48 and projects to finish 1 short.

History movers: Corbin Carroll (Triples) down 60 → 55; Red Sox (Win Streak) up 80 → 84; Nasim Nuñez (Stolen Bases) up 47 → 51.

Lines of the night: Drake Baldwin had a perfect day: 5-for-5 — a perfect 5-for-5 happens maybe 15 times a season ▶︎ watch; Victor Mesa Jr. hit an INSIDE-THE-PARK home run — a half-dozen or so happen a season ▶︎ watch; Geraldo Perdomo hit an INSIDE-THE-PARK home run — a half-dozen or so happen a season ▶︎ watch; Grant Wolfram earned his FIRST career save ▶︎ watch; Arizona Diamondbacks came back from 7 runs down to win — comebacks from 7+ down happen a few times a season.

Milestones reached last night: Shohei Ohtani reached 100 hits; Ceddanne Rafaela reached 100 hits; Hunter Goodman reached 30 HR; Sal Stewart reached 20 HR.

The so-what: through 100 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

Full streak watch →

Title races

Who owns the season?

Full watch →

Record Radar · 2026-07-19

Records in danger this season

Full Record Radar →
Batter Strikeouts NEGATIVE HISTORY
Kyle Schwarber headshot
Kyle SchwarberPHI

Kyle Schwarber is on pace for 238 strikeouts

Kyle Schwarber has struck out 147 times, projecting to 238. 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 10.9 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
147
Projected
238
Record
223 Mark Reynolds · 2009

Lahman + Retrosheet

What history says about the board

How it works →

Under the surface

Deep signals

Thresholds approaching

Milestone watch

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 .506 clip the rest of the way (122-for-241). That is .004 harder than yesterday. A 3-for-4 tonight lowers the requirement to .502; an 0-for-4 raises it to .515.

02

The hot hand: Ben Rice brings a 11-game hitting streak into tonight. Streaks get interesting at 20 and historic at 30. Also alive: Jordan Walker (10).

03

Tightest race: the AL West — Rangers (50-49) lead Mariners (50-50) by 0.5.

04

Year-over-year: the Sox are 52-46 — 18 wins ahead of where they stood on this date last season (34-65).

05

Behind the plate: Alex Tosi called the best zone last night (97.7% on 128 calls); Charlie Ramos the roughest (90.2%). Worst call: a strike 17.6" off the zone.

06

From nowhere: Junior Caminero is now 5th in MLB in home runs — he wasn't in the top 30 a month ago.

07

From nowhere: Nick Gonzales is now 4th in MLB in batting average — he wasn't in the top 30 a month ago.

08

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 34/41.

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 .506 average the rest of the way (122-for-241) 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.