Historic Chases · 2026-08-14

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 June 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.

Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) is on a 30/30 pace — 27 HR and 30 SB, projecting to 36/40. Power and speed usually live in different bodies, which is why fewer than fifty players have ever managed both in one season. Both numbers have to land — that is what makes the club so small.

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), 13.09 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.

Also last night: Two scoreless runs: Brandon Pfaadt has not allowed a run in his last 14 innings; Grant Taylor has not allowed a run in his last 13 innings. Yordan Alvarez (HOU) homered for the first time since July 28, ending a 13-game drought — his 36th of the season.

Went deep more than once: Ben Malgeri (DET) and Miguel Vargas (CWS) traded two-homer games — the first career multi-homer game for each ▶︎ Malgeri ▶︎ Vargas.

Start streaks: Chris Sale (ATL) has struck out 8 or more in each of his last four starts (11, 9, 8, 9).

Lines of the night: Two go-ahead plays: 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. Three starts of note: 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.

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 322 rate comparisons across 62 men on this season's leaderboards, corrected for having looked that many times.