Historic Chases · 2026-08-31

No club in baseball has been hotter: the Phillies have won 21 of their last 30, 2 clear of the next club among the 30 with 30 games played. They were 10 games under .500 on April 24 (8-18); they are 78-60 now. Collapse watch in the NL East: the Braves' lead over the Phillies was 9.0 games 18 days ago — it's 4.0 now. The Braves have gone 9-8 while the Phillies went 13-2.

CJ Abrams (WSH) is on a 30/30 pace — 29 HR and 27 SB, projecting to 34/31. Power and speed usually live in different bodies, which is why fewer than fifty players have ever managed both in one season. Neither half carries it alone; the season has to finish on both.

Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL), an ERA of 1.73, 6th among the 4,338 qualified seasons since 1969 and 13.23 strikeouts per nine innings, 4th among the 9,603 qualified seasons on file, behind three seasons, led by Gerrit Cole's 13.82 in 2019; Dylan Cease (TOR), 12.99 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.

Lines of the night: Alex Bregman (CHC) hit 3 home runs — three-homer games happen roughly 15 times a season — his first ▶︎ watch; Two go-ahead plays: Daylen Lile's go-ahead home run in the 7th put the Nationals ahead for good in a 6-3 win over the Marlins — and he hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch; Trevor Story's walk-off single in the 10th beat the Mariners 9-8 ▶︎ watch. Three starts of note: Jacob deGrom allowed one hit over 7.0 scoreless innings (8 K) ▶︎ watch; Michael King went 6.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch; Robert Stock went 5.1 scoreless ▶︎ watch. Ian Seymour struck out 10 over 6.1 IP ▶︎ watch.

Also last night: Jacob deGrom has not allowed a run in his last 13 innings.

Went deep more than once: Ryan Jeffers hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 ▶︎ watch.

Found velocity: Ryan Gusto's four-seamer averaged 96.1 mph — his hardest start of the season, 2.0 mph over his 10-start baseline.

What changed from last season: Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 24 in 137 this season; Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 11.7% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 71 in 607 this season); Nolan Arenado (AZ) — strikeout rate up from 12.2% to 22.9% (49 in 401 at-bats in 2025, 104 in 454 this season); Taylor Ward (SEA) — home-run rate down from 6.2% to 1.5% (36 in 579 at-bats in 2025, 7 in 476 this season). 4 of 808 rate comparisons across 156 qualified hitters and pitchers, corrected for having looked that many times.

For the second straight night: The Chicago Cubs hung 17 runs on the Milwaukee Brewers (17-3)

Milestones reached last night: Rafael Devers (SF) reached 30 HR.