Historic Chases · 2026-08-15

The box scores did the talking last night: Joshua Báez hit 3 home runs — three-homer games happen roughly 15 times a season — the first since Sept 22, 2024 (Triston Casas), the 491st since 1969 — his first — and made his MLB DEBUT and went 3-for-4, hit three home runs and drove in 5 and homered in his FIRST MLB AT-BAT ▶︎ watch; Corbin Carroll (AZ) reached 15 triples for the season.

Collapse watch in the NL West: the Dodgers' lead over the D-backs was 11.5 games 18 days ago — it's 8.0 now. The Dodgers have gone 7-10 while the D-backs went 10-6.

The so-what: Yordan Alvarez (HOU) is holding an AL Triple Crown — he leads the AL in average (.321), 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 68 qualified AL hitters. It has been done four times in the AL since 1920, most recently by Frank Robinson in 1966. 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.

Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) struck out six over six innings, allowing one earned. 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 and Jacob deGrom's 13.76, over the 68.0 innings of 2020. He has 210 strikeouts.

Lines of the night: Charles McAdoo's tiebreaking double in the 7th put the Blue Jays ahead for good in a 4-1 win over the Yankees — and hit his first career double ▶︎ watch; Alec Bohm had a perfect day: 5-for-5 — perfect 5-for-5 games happen roughly 15 times a season ▶︎ watch; Heriberto Hernández's tiebreaking single in the 8th put the Marlins ahead for good in a 8-4 win over the Reds ▶︎ watch; Reid Detmers (LAA) struck out 11 over 8.0 IP — a season high, past his previous 6 ▶︎ watch; Joey Cantillo allowed one hit over 6.0 innings (7 K) ▶︎ watch.

Also last night: Aroldis Chapman has 394 career saves — 7th of 49, counting the 25 closed careers on the all-time list and the 24 active players on our boards. Billy Wagner (422) is next, 29 away; Chris Sale (ATL) has 2,739 career strikeouts — 24th of 94, counting the 25 closed careers on the all-time list and the 69 active players on our boards. Frank Tanana (2,773) is next, 35 away; Stuff watch: Chase Burns (CIN)'s four-seamer has run 1.5 mph under his 15-start baseline for 3 straight starts (96.21 vs 97.72).

Went deep more than once: Nolan Arenado hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 — in his first season with the Diamondbacks ▶︎ watch.

Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski, an ERA of 1.75, 8th since 1969 and 13.60 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.

What changed from last season: Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 24 in 121 this season; Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 12.1% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 65 in 535 this season); Nolan Arenado (AZ) — strikeout rate up from 12.2% to 23.0% (49 in 401 at-bats in 2025, 93 in 404 this season). 3 of 825 rate comparisons across 161 qualified hitters and pitchers, corrected for having looked that many times.