Historic Chases · 2026-09-16

The box scores did the talking last night: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) homered for the 44th time — with 44 home runs banked, he is three steals from a 40/40 season; Drew Gilbert's tiebreaking home run in the 10th put the Giants ahead for good in a 6-5 win over the Cardinals ▶︎ watch.

The AL West is a coin flip: Astros (76-76) and Rangers (76-76) are even in the standings — zero games back.

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.

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.

Went deep more than once: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) hit 2 home runs ▶︎ watch.

What changed from last season: Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 26 in 149 this season; Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 11.6% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 78 in 670 this season); Nolan Arenado (AZ) — strikeout rate up from 12.2% to 22.7% (49 in 401 at-bats in 2025, 113 in 498 this season); Taylor Ward (SEA) — home-run rate down from 6.2% to 1.4% (36 in 579 at-bats in 2025, 7 in 495 this season). (1 more cleared the same bar.) 5 of 794 rate comparisons across 153 qualified hitters and pitchers, corrected for having looked that many times.

Start streaks: Jared Jones has struck out 8 or more in each of his last three starts (9, 8, 9).

Lines of the night: Elly De La Cruz (CIN) homered for the 28th time — two homers and four steals from a 30/30 season; Christian Yelich's go-ahead single in the 7th put the Brewers ahead for good in a 5-4 win over the Pirates ▶︎ watch; Victor Caratini's walk-off single in the 13th beat the Yankees 5-4 ▶︎ watch; Zebby Matthews allowed two hits over 6.0 scoreless innings (8 K) ▶︎ watch; Ethan Salas hit 2 home runs — his first career multi-homer game — and hit his first career home run — and his second and drove in his first career run — 3 of them, in fact ▶︎ watch.

Also last night: Anthony Molina went 5.2 scoreless ▶︎ watch; Daniel Lynch IV went 5.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch; Jake McCarthy (COL) reached 30 stolen bases for the season.

Sweep watch: the Orioles swept the Mets (3 games) — their 2nd sweep in 20 days.