Historic Chases · 2026-08-14

Overnight: nothing — Kyle Schwarber (PHI) held flat, and flat bends the projection down. Schwarber has struck out 177 times, projecting to 233. Mark Reynolds' record is 223. That pace would be the most strikeouts in any season since 1901. League strikeout rates have roughly doubled since 1980, so the all-time list is not an even comparison. But he's doing damage too: he leads MLB in home runs (37) — one every 11.7 at-bats. The strikeouts are the price of the power.

No club in baseball has been hotter: the Red Sox have won 22 of their last 31, 2 clear of the next club among the 30 with 30 games played. At its peak the run reached 27-3. They were 14 games under .500 on 2026-06-18 (29-43); they are 65-57 now. The Padres have won 6 straight, and are 8-2 in their last 10. Collapse watch in the NL West: the Dodgers' lead over the Padres was 14.0 games 18 days ago — it's 8.0 now. The Dodgers have gone 7-10 while the Padres went 13-4.

The so-what: Yordan Alvarez (HOU) is holding an AL Triple Crown — he leads the AL in average (.323), home runs (36) and RBI (88). He leads the AL in all five of batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, home runs and RBI — every one of them, among the 67 qualified AL hitters. It has been done four times in the AL since 1920, most recently by Frank Robinson in 1966. He did not have all five a night ago — he held four. No one has won one since Miguel Cabrera in 2012, and only 17 have ever been won. Hold all three to the end and it is one of the rarest seasons in the sport.

Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL), an ERA of 1.76, 9th since 1969 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), 13.09 strikeouts per nine innings, 5th. Those ranks are 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.

Lines of the night: Dylan Beavers' tiebreaking single in the 7th put the Orioles ahead for good in a 6-5 win over the Rays ▶︎ watch; Michael Massey's tiebreaking single in the 7th put the Royals ahead for good in a 7-6 win over the Angels ▶︎ watch; Clay Holmes allowed one hit over 6.2 scoreless innings (3 K) ▶︎ watch; Brandon Pfaadt allowed two hits over 7.0 scoreless innings (7 K) ▶︎ watch; Chase Burns (CIN) went 7.0 scoreless with 8 strikeouts ▶︎ watch.

Went deep more than once: Ben Malgeri hit 2 home runs — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch; Miguel Vargas (CWS) hit 2 home runs — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch.

Also last night: Aroldis Chapman has 394 career saves — 7th of 46, counting the 25 closed careers on the all-time list and the 21 active players on our boards. Billy Wagner (422) is next, 29 away; Chris Sale (ATL) has 2,739 career strikeouts — 24th of 89, counting the 25 closed careers on the all-time list and the 64 active players on our boards. Frank Tanana (2,773) is next, 35 away; Stuff watch: Bryan Baker's four-seamer has run 2.1 mph under his 10-start baseline for 3 straight starts (94.96 vs 97.04).

What changed from last season: Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 24 in 120 this season; Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 12.2% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 65 in 531 this season); Junior Caminero (TB) — walk rate up from 6.4% to 12.5% (41 in 643 plate appearances in 2025, 66 in 526 this season). 3 of 330 rate comparisons across 65 men on this season's leaderboards, corrected for having looked that many times.