Historic Chases · 2026-09-15

Kyle Schwarber (PHI) extended his lead in home runs to 3 — 45 on the season. Schwarber has struck out 210 times, projecting to 225. 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 (45) — one every 12.1 at-bats. The strikeouts are the price of the power.

The Tigers have won 6 straight, and are 8-2 in their last 10.

The so-what: CJ Abrams (WSH) is on a 30/30 pace — 30 HR and 29 SB, projecting to 32/31. 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 seven over five innings without an earned run. His four-seam averaged 100.8 mph, up 0.1 on the 100.6 he had averaged over his first 24 starts — the hardest four-seam among the 139 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 0.84 of sampling error over 166.1 innings, and no partial-season history exists to say how often a rate this high in August survives to October. He has 243 strikeouts.

Lines of the night: Elly De La Cruz (CIN) stole his 26th base — three homers and four steals from a 30/30 season; Coby Mayo's tiebreaking home run in the 11th put the Orioles ahead for good in a 7-5 win over the Mets — and he hit an INSIDE-THE-PARK home run — inside-the-park home runs happen roughly 10 times a season — his first ▶︎ watch; Esteury Ruiz's tiebreaking double in the 11th put the Marlins ahead for good in a 4-2 win over the Diamondbacks ▶︎ watch; Griffin Jax went 5.0 scoreless — and came out after 67 pitches, having allowed no runs over 5.0 innings ▶︎ watch; Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD) allowed one hit over 7.0 scoreless innings (7 K) ▶︎ watch.

Also last night: Hunter Brown struck out 10 over 5.0 IP ▶︎ watch; Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) went 5.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch; Jeremy Peña hit 2 home runs — and led off the game with a home run — his 3rd since July 12 ▶︎ watch.

Went deep more than once: Travis Bazzana hit 2 home runs — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch; Cole Carrigg hit 2 home runs, driving in 5 — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch.

Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL), 13.15 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), 12.77 strikeouts per nine innings, 6th.

What changed from last season: Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 26 in 148 this season; Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 11.6% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 77 in 665 this season); Nolan Arenado (AZ) — strikeout rate up from 12.2% to 22.9% (49 in 401 at-bats in 2025, 113 in 494 this season); Taylor Ward (SEA) — home-run rate down from 6.2% to 1.4% (36 in 579 at-bats in 2025, 7 in 490 this season). (2 more cleared the same bar.) 6 of 794 rate comparisons across 153 qualified hitters and pitchers, corrected for having looked that many times.