Historic Chases · 2026-09-19

Overnight: Kyle Schwarber (PHI) added 2 strikeouts. Schwarber has struck out 216 times, projecting to 226. 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 12.4 at-bats. The strikeouts are the price of the power.

The AL Central is a coin flip: Guardians (80-75) lead Sox by 1.

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), 12.73 strikeouts per nine innings, 6th.

A night after his big night, CJ Abrams (WSH) went 0-for-5.

Lines of the night: Angel Martínez homered from BOTH sides of the plate — and hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 — his first career multi-homer game; Ronald Acuña Jr.'s go-ahead home run in the 7th put the Braves ahead for good in a 6-3 win over the Astros — and he drove in 4 runs ▶︎ watch; Brandon Lowe's go-ahead home run in the 8th put the Pirates ahead for good in a 6-5 win over the Royals ▶︎ watch; Trevor Rogers struck out 10 over 8.0 IP ▶︎ watch; Brayan Bello struck out 11 over 8.0 IP ▶︎ watch.

Also last night: Andrew Alvarez went 6.0 scoreless with 8 strikeouts ▶︎ watch; Mason Montgomery has not allowed a run in his last 15 innings; Reid Detmers (LAA) reached 200 strikeouts for the season.

Went deep more than once: Angel Martínez hit 2 home runs, driving in 4 — his first career multi-homer game ▶︎ watch.

What changed from last season: Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 26 in 152 this season; Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 11.5% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 78 in 680 this season); Nolan Arenado (AZ) — strikeout rate up from 12.2% to 22.5% (49 in 401 at-bats in 2025, 114 in 506 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). (5 more cleared the same bar.) 9 of 780 rate comparisons across 150 qualified hitters and pitchers, corrected for having looked that many times.

For the second straight night: Chandler Simpson (TB) took over the stolen bases lead at 45, passing Nasim Nuñez (WSH)

The so-what: Kyle Schwarber (PHI) has 45 home runs through 155 team games, a 47-homer pace — 24 behind Bonds's 2001 total at the same point (69 of his eventual 73). That gap is the whole story: it closes, or the chase does.