Historic Chases · 2026-09-02

No club in baseball has been hotter: the Phillies have won 22 of their last 30, 3 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 79-61 now. 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 10-7 while the Phillies went 13-3.

CJ Abrams (WSH) is on a 30/30 pace — 29 HR and 27 SB, projecting to 33/31. Power and speed usually live in different bodies, which is why fewer than fifty players have ever managed both in one season. Both numbers have to land — that is what makes the club so small.

Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) struck out five over four innings, allowing five earned. His four-seam averaged 100.9 mph, up 0.2 on the 100.6 he had averaged over his first 22 starts — the hardest four-seam among the 132 starters tracked this season. Four of the 7,102 full-schedule qualified starter seasons the AL and NL have played since 1920 have finished a full schedule above it: Gerrit Cole's 13.82 in 2019, Spencer Strider's 13.55 in 2023, Randy Johnson's 13.41 in 2001 and Pedro Martinez's 13.20 in 1999. 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 0.87 of sampling error over 155 innings, and no partial-season history exists to say how often a rate this high in August survives to October. He has 227 strikeouts.

For the second straight night: Thomas Saggese's tiebreaking single in the 10th put the Cardinals ahead for good in a 8-6 win over the Dodgers

Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL), 13.18 strikeouts per nine innings, 5th among the 9,603 qualified seasons on file, behind four seasons, led by Gerrit Cole's 13.82 in 2019; Dylan Cease (TOR), 12.72 strikeouts per nine innings, 6th.

Also last night: Two scoreless runs: Aaron Ashby has not allowed a run in his last 15 innings; Calvin Faucher has not allowed a run in his last 12 innings.

What changed from last season: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 11.9% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 73 in 616 this season); Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 24 in 137 this season; Nolan Arenado (AZ) — strikeout rate up from 12.2% to 22.8% (49 in 401 at-bats in 2025, 104 in 457 this season); Taylor Ward (SEA) — home-run rate down from 6.2% to 1.5% (36 in 579 at-bats in 2025, 7 in 481 this season). 4 of 820 rate comparisons across 158 qualified hitters and pitchers, corrected for having looked that many times.

Went deep more than once: Henry Bolte hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch; Carter Jensen hit 2 home runs — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch.

Lines of the night: Two go-ahead plays: Brett Sullivan's walk-off single in the 11th beat the Orioles 6-5 ▶︎ watch; Spencer Torkelson's tiebreaking home run in the 12th put the Tigers ahead for good in a 11-6 win over the Twins ▶︎ watch. Three starts of note: Andrew Painter allowed two hits over 7.0 scoreless innings (6 K) ▶︎ watch; Cam Schlittler (NYY) allowed two hits over 8.0 innings (9 K) ▶︎ watch; Dylan Cease (TOR) went 6.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch. Trevor Rogers struck out 11 over 6.2 IP ▶︎ watch.