Historic Chases · 2026-07-19

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 (COL) projects to 48 and would finish 1 short.

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 (COL) reached 30 HR.

The so-what: Kyle Schwarber (PHI) has 33 home runs through 100 team games, a 53-homer pace — 10 behind McGwire's 1998 total at the same point (43 of his eventual 70). That gap is the whole story: it closes, or the chase does.