Historic Chases · 2026-08-21

Overnight: Kyle Schwarber (PHI) added 1 strikeout. Schwarber has struck out 185 times, projecting to 232. 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 12.4 at-bats. The strikeouts are the price of the power.

The Phillies have won 7 straight, and are 8-2 in their last 10. Collapse watch in the NL East: the Braves' lead over the Phillies was 7.5 games 18 days ago — it's 4.0 now. The Braves have gone 8-9 while the Phillies went 11-5.

The so-what: Yordan Alvarez (HOU) is holding an AL Triple Crown — he leads the AL in average (.321), home runs (36) and RBI (90). 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. No one has won one since Miguel Cabrera in 2012, and only 17 have ever been won. Three categories, one player: that is what makes it one of the rarest things on the board.

Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) struck out six over six innings without an earned run. Of the 7,102 full-schedule qualified starter seasons the AL and NL have played since 1920, Gerrit Cole's 13.82 in 2019 and Spencer Strider's 13.55 in 2023 finished above it and Randy Johnson's 2001 matched it. 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. It is a board position and not a record: the rate carries about 0.91 of sampling error over 145 innings, and no partial-season history exists to say how often a rate this high in August survives to October. He has 216 strikeouts.

HISTORY LAST NIGHT: Mike Trout reached 400 career home runs; Nolan Arenado reached 2,000 career hits; Aaron Nola reached 2,000 career strikeouts.

Also last night: Jacob Misiorowski went 6.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch; Noah Cameron went 5.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch; Will Dion has not allowed a run in his last 15 innings.

Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski, an ERA of 1.68, 5th since 1969 and 13.41 strikeouts per nine innings, 3rd among the 9,603 qualified seasons on file, behind Gerrit Cole's 13.82 in 2019; Dylan Cease (TOR), 13.14 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.

Went deep more than once: Alex Bregman hit 2 home runs — in his first season with the Cubs ▶︎ watch.

Start streaks: Jesús Luzardo (PHI) has struck out 8 or more in each of his last three starts (12, 9, 9).

What changed from last season: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 12.3% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 69 in 560 this season); Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 24 in 126 this season; Nolan Arenado (AZ) — strikeout rate up from 12.2% to 23.3% (49 in 401 at-bats in 2025, 97 in 416 this season); Taylor Ward (SEA) — home-run rate down from 6.2% to 1.6% (36 in 579 at-bats in 2025, 7 in 450 this season). (2 more cleared the same bar.) 6 of 787 rate comparisons across 154 qualified hitters and pitchers, corrected for having looked that many times.

Lines of the night: Miguel Vargas (CWS), Randal Grichuk, Colson Montgomery (CWS) went BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK — back-to-back-to-back home runs happen about 6 times a season — the first since Sept 18, 2024 (Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Donovan Solano), the 246th since 1969; A PITCHERS' DUEL in one game: MacKenzie Gore allowed two hits over 6.0 scoreless innings (7 K); Reid Detmers (LAA) went 6.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch; Alec Bohm's walk-off triple in the 10th beat the Cardinals 7-6 ▶︎ watch; Jake Rogers' walk-off home run in the 9th beat the Mets 6-4 ▶︎ watch; Randy Vásquez allowed two hits over 7.0 innings (3 K) ▶︎ watch.

Milestones reached last night: Pete Alonso (BAL) reached 30 HR.