18 career milestones in one night: Chris Sale (ATL) reached 150 career wins; Salvador Perez reached 300 career home runs; Nathan Eovaldi reached 100 career wins; Marcus Semien reached 1,000 career runs; George Springer reached 300 career home runs; Mike Trout reached 400 career home runs; Nolan Arenado reached 2,000 career hits; Kevin Gausman reached 100 career wins; Xander Bogaerts reached 200 career home runs; Eduardo Rodriguez (AZ) reached 100 career wins; Josh Bell reached 200 career home runs; Aaron Nola reached 100 career wins and 2,000 career strikeouts on the same night; Trea Turner (PHI) reached 200 career home runs; José Ramírez (CLE) reached 300 career stolen bases; Michael Wacha reached 100 career wins; Matt Olson (ATL) reached 300 career home runs; Shohei Ohtani (LAD) reached 300 career home runs; Yordan Alvarez (HOU) reached 200 career home runs.
Historic Chases · 2026-08-21
Nightly briefing
Baseball last night
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.
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.
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 June 23, 2026; 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. Randy Vásquez allowed two hits over 7.0 innings (3 K) ▶︎ watch; Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) went 6.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch; Noah Cameron went 5.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch; Two go-ahead plays: 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.
Also last night: Will Dion has not allowed a run in his last 15 innings.
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).
Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL), an ERA of 1.68, 5th among the 4,338 qualified seasons since 1969 and 13.41 strikeouts per nine innings, tied for 3rd among the 9,603 qualified seasons on file with Randy Johnson's 13.41 in 2001, behind Gerrit Cole's 13.82 in 2019 and Spencer Strider's 13.55 in 2023; 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.
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.
Milestones reached last night: Pete Alonso (BAL) reached 30 HR.
The so-what: Kyle Schwarber (PHI) has 37 home runs through 129 team games, a 46-homer pace — 18 behind Bonds's 2001 total at the same point (55 of his eventual 73). Keep watching that number — it separates a run at the record from a very good season.
That morning's stakes
What we were watching
Gabriel Moreno (AZ) has a 14-game hitting streak; a hit in his next game would extend it to 15. Next scheduled opponent: Cincinnati Reds.
Pete Alonso (BAL) has a 13-game hitting streak; a hit in his next game would extend it to 14. Next scheduled opponent: Tampa Bay Rays.
Chandler Simpson (TB) has a 12-game hitting streak; a hit in his next game would extend it to 13. Next scheduled opponent: Baltimore Orioles.
Historical intelligence
How the night stacked up
Kyle Schwarber versus the great home-run seasons
Kyle Schwarber has 37 home runs through 129 team games, 18 behind Barry Bonds's 2001 pace at the same checkpoint (55). Comparable chases finished with a median of 42 (95% CI 42-43); 3.7% reached 50 (1.8-7.5% at 95% confidence), from 188 comparable seasons.
Retrosheet · verified play-by-playA franchise record is under pressure
The Astros' single-season record is 47 home runs, set by Jeff Bagwell in 2000. Yordan Alvarez projects to 45 and would finish 2 short.
SABR Lahman Baseball Database · through 2025This is an unusual batter-strikeout climate
MLB teams are averaging 8.37 batter-strikeout events per team game. The last completed season at least this high was 2024. The stored historical peak is 8.81 in 2019.
SABR Lahman Baseball Database · through 2025Whose season does Kyle Schwarber resemble?
The completed season closest to Kyle Schwarber's projected shape is Anthony Santander's 2024 (84% similarity). The match is strongest in hit volume, runs, speed; the largest difference is run production. This is a comparison, not a forecast of how the season must finish.
SABR Lahman Baseball Database · through 2025
