Historic Chases · 2026-09-24

The AL West is a coin flip: Astros (79-80) and Rangers (79-80) are even in the standings — zero games back. Calvin Faucher has now thrown 20.1 straight scoreless innings — Hershiser's 59 is the mountain.

Pete Crow-Armstrong's 40/40 season is the seventh ever, after Canseco, Bonds, A-Rod, Soriano, Acuña and Ohtani.

Seasons on a historic footing: Jacob Misiorowski (MIL), 13.13 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.

HISTORY LAST NIGHT: Steven Matz reached 1,000 career strikeouts.

What changed from last season: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) — walk rate up from 4.7% to 11.7% (29 in 620 plate appearances in 2025, 82 in 699 this season); Jackson Merrill (SD) — stolen bases up from 1 in 115 games in 2025 to 26 in 156 this season; Nolan Arenado (AZ) — strikeout rate up from 12.2% to 22.7% (49 in 401 at-bats in 2025, 119 in 524 this season); Taylor Ward (SEA) — home-run rate down from 6.2% to 1.4% (36 in 579 at-bats in 2025, 7 in 497 this season). (5 more cleared the same bar.) 9 of 772 rate comparisons across 148 qualified hitters and pitchers, corrected for having looked that many times.

Lines of the night: Lucas Spence hit 3 home runs — three-homer games happen roughly 15 times a season — his first — and 's tiebreaking home run in the 7th put the Astros ahead for good in a 7-5 win over the Athletics and hit his first career home run — and his second ▶︎ watch; Two go-ahead plays: George Lombard Jr.'s tiebreaking home run in the 8th put the Yankees ahead for good in a 6-4 win over the Rays ▶︎ watch; Spencer Horwitz's tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the 8th put the Pirates ahead for good in a 2-1 win over the Cardinals ▶︎ watch. Two starts of note: Ian Seymour went 5.0 scoreless — and came out after 58 pitches, having allowed no runs over 5.0 innings ▶︎ watch; Joey Cantillo went 5.0 scoreless ▶︎ watch. Tyler Glasnow struck out 11 over 6.1 IP ▶︎ watch.

Went deep more than once: Zack Gelof (ATH) hit 2 home runs ▶︎ watch.

Sweep watch: the Diamondbacks swept the Rockies (3 games).

Also last night: Two scoreless runs: Cade Smith has not allowed a run in his last 12 innings; Tejay Antone has not allowed a run in his last 12 innings.

For the second straight night: Chandler Simpson (TB) took over the stolen bases lead at 46, passing Nasim Nuñez (WSH)