Historic Chases · 2026-08-09

Collapse watch in the NL West: the Dodgers' lead over the D-backs was 11.5 games 18 days ago — it's 7.5 now. The Dodgers have gone 5-10 while the D-backs went 10-7.

Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) is on a 30/30 pace — 26 HR and 30 SB, projecting to 35/41. Power and speed usually live in different bodies, which is why fewer than fifty players have ever managed both in one season. Power and speed in the same season is the whole story from here.

Also last night: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) reached 200 strikeouts for the season — he is there in 133 innings, the second-fewest of the 604 200-strikeout seasons since 1920 — only Spencer Strider's 2022 (131.2) was finished in fewer; Two two-homer games: Kyle Schwarber (PHI) hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 ▶︎ watch; Pete Alonso (BAL) hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 ▶︎ watch.

Lines of the night: Two go-ahead plays: JJ Wetherholt's tiebreaking double in the 8th put the Cardinals ahead for good against the Rockies ▶︎ watch; Derek Hill's tiebreaking single in the 12th put the Phillies ahead for good against the Blue Jays ▶︎ watch. Two double-digit strikeout starts: Sean Manaea struck out 11 over 7.0 IP ▶︎ watch; Jesús Luzardo (PHI) struck out 12 over 7.0 IP ▶︎ watch. Grant Holmes went 6.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch.

The season's pitching story, still running: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) has struck out 13.80 per nine innings through 133 innings and 22 starts, the best rate among the 60 qualified starters on tonight's board. One of the 7,102 full-schedule qualified starter seasons the AL and NL have played since 1920 has finished a full schedule above it: Gerrit Cole's 13.82 in 2019. Above them on a short schedule: Shane Bieber's 14.20, over the 77.1 innings of 2020. It is a board position and not a record: the rate carries about 0.97 of sampling error over 133 innings, and no partial-season history exists to say how often a rate this high in August survives to October.

Went deep more than once: Griffin Conine hit 2 home runs — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch.

Start streaks: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) has struck out 8 or more in each of his last three starts (12, 10, 9).

Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL), an ERA of 1.76, tied for 9th among the 4,338 qualified seasons since 1969 with Tom Seaver's 1.76 in 1971 and 13.80 strikeouts per nine innings, 2nd among the 9,603 qualified seasons on file and behind only Gerrit Cole's 13.82 in 2019; Dylan Cease (TOR), 13.11 strikeouts per nine innings, 5th. The earned run average rank is given from 1969 on because the lowest earned run averages were thrown before the mound was lowered in 1969, and a rank across those eras is not a comparison the numbers support.

What changed from last season: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 12.7% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 65 in 512 this season); Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 23 in 116 this season; Junior Caminero (TB) — walk rate up from 6.4% to 12.6% (41 in 643 plate appearances in 2025, 64 in 507 this season). 3 of 330 rate comparisons across 64 men on this season's leaderboards, corrected for having looked that many times.

Sweep watch: the Rays swept the Mariners (3 games) — their 3rd sweep in 17 days. 1 other club was swept the same night.