Historic Chases · 2026-09-15

Kyle Schwarber (PHI) extended his lead in home runs to 3 — 45 on the season.

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

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: Two go-ahead plays: 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. Three starts of note: 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; Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) went 5.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch. Hunter Brown struck out 10 over 5.0 IP ▶︎ watch.

Also last night: Jeremy Peña hit 2 home runs — and led off the game with a home run — his 3rd since July 12 ▶︎ watch; Elly De La Cruz (CIN) stole his 26th base — three homers and four steals from a 30/30 season.

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.