Historic Chases · 2026-08-17

No club in baseball has been hotter: the Red Sox have won 21 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 67-58 now. 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 6-11 while the Padres went 12-5.

Pete Crow-Armstrong's 30/30 season is one of fewer than fifty ever.

Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL), an ERA of 1.75, tied for 8th among the 4,338 qualified seasons since 1969 with Justin Verlander's 1.75 in 2022 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), 13.14 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.

HISTORY LAST NIGHT: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) homered for the 30th time and stole his 31st base to complete a 30/30 season — 30 home runs and 31 stolen bases.

Also last night: The Boston Red Sox beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-1 — all NINE starters drove in a run, 11 RBI through the order; The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies 11-5; Shohei Ohtani (LAD) hit 2 home runs ▶︎ watch.

Went deep more than once: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) hit 2 home runs ▶︎ watch.

What changed from last season: Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 24 in 123 this season; Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 12.1% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 66 in 546 this season); Nolan Arenado (AZ) — strikeout rate up from 12.2% to 22.9% (49 in 401 at-bats in 2025, 93 in 406 this season); Chase Meidroth (CWS) — strikeout rate up from 16.0% to 26.1% (72 in 450 at-bats in 2025, 115 in 440 this season). (1 more cleared the same bar.) 5 of 809 rate comparisons across 157 qualified hitters and pitchers, corrected for having looked that many times.

Lines of the night: Jonny DeLuca's go-ahead single in the 7th put the Rays ahead for good in a 7-6 win over the Orioles ▶︎ watch; Shota Imanaga struck out 10 over 6.0 IP — a season high, past his previous 5 ▶︎ watch; Two starts of note: Walker Buehler allowed two hits over 6.0 innings (4 K) ▶︎ watch; Blake Snell allowed two hits over 6.0 innings (5 K) ▶︎ watch. Daniel Duarte has not allowed a run in his last 12 innings.