Historic Chases · 2026-07-19

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Nightly briefing

Baseball last night

Games of 2026-07-19

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

Kyle Schwarber (PHI) 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 Rockies' single-season record is 49 home runs, set by Larry Walker in 1997. Hunter Goodman projects to 48 and would finish 1 short.

The so-what: Yordan Alvarez (HOU) is holding an AL Triple Crown — he leads the AL in average (.319), home runs (31) and RBI (73). Across both leagues he is 3rd in MLB in average, 2nd in MLB in home runs and 2nd in MLB in RBI. 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.

History movers: Red Sox — Win Streak: 13 now, modern record 22 (Cleveland Indians, 2017).

Sweep watch: the Red Sox swept the Rays (4 games) — their 5th sweep in 25 days. Only 2.3% of team-seasons since 1897 have swept 5 clubs inside 30 days — 71 of 3043. 2 other clubs were swept the same night.

Lines of the night: Arizona Diamondbacks came back from 7 runs down to win; Drake Baldwin had a perfect day: 5-for-5 ▶︎ 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.

What changed from last season: Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 20 in 96 this season; Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 11.5% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 48 in 418 this season). 2 of 328 rate comparisons across 63 men on this season's leaderboards, corrected for having looked that many times.

Milestones reached last night: Hunter Goodman reached 30 HR.

That morning's stakes

What we were watching

The hot hand: Ben Rice (NYY) brings a 11-game hitting streak into tonight. The benchmarks ahead: 20 gets noticed, 30 gets a nightly countdown. Also alive: Jordan Walker (10).

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

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

Behind the plate: Alex Tosi leads the board at 97.7% on 128 calls; Charlie Ramos sits last (90.2%). Biggest miss: a strike 17.6" off the zone.

Streak ladder: the Sox have won 13 straight — 7 shy of the 2002 Moneyball A's (20); 9 shy of the 2017 Indians (modern record) (22).

On this date in 1974, Dick Bosman of the Indians threw a no-hitter.

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

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

30/30 watch: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) sits at 21 HR / 25 SB — 9 homers and 5 steals short of a 30/30 season, projecting to 34/41.

Historical intelligence

How the night stacked up

Pace through history

Kyle Schwarber versus the great home-run seasons

Kyle Schwarber has 33 home runs through 100 team games, 10 behind Mark McGwire's 1998 pace at the same checkpoint (43). Comparable chases finished with a median of 46; 26.9% reached 50 and 2.2% reached 60 (n=93).

Retrosheet · verified play-by-play

If the pace holds

A projected top-22 season

If James Wood finishes at the current projection of 147, it would rank No. 22 among all seasons since 1901 — only 21 finished higher.

SABR Lahman Baseball Database · through 2021

The environment matters

This is an unusual batter-strikeout climate

MLB teams are averaging 8.38 batter-strikeout events per team game. The last completed season at least this high was 2021. The stored historical peak is 8.81 in 2019.

SABR Lahman Baseball Database · through 2021

Closest to .400