Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (August 15-21).
20-20 vision: Juan Soto notched his 20th stolen base of the season on Sunday to go along with his 30-plus home runs. He joined teammate Francisco Lindor as Mets players with a 20-20 season this year. With Lindor and Soto, this is the fourth time the Mets have had multiple players with at least 20 homers and 20 stolen bases in a season, joining 2007 (Carlos Beltran, David Wright), 1988 (Howard Johnson, Kevin McReynolds, Darryl Strawberry) and 1987 (Johnson, Strawberry).
Skuuuuub: Tuesday was Tarik Skubal’s ninth game with at least 10 strikeouts this season. That tied Hal Newhouser in 1949 for the third-most games with 10 or more strikeouts in a season in Tigers history. He trails only Mickey Lolich, who had 11 such outings in '71 and 10 in '69.
Shotime: Shohei Ohtani hit his 44th home run of the season on Tuesday. It was his 40th out of the leadoff spot. He’s the second player in MLB history to hit at least 40 homers out of the leadoff spot in a season, joining Ronald Acuña Jr., who had 41 in 2023. Ohtani is at 40 and we are still in August. Including all of his home runs this year, Ohtani now has 98 in his time with the Dodgers. That’s the fourth-most home runs in a player’s first two seasons with a franchise, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He trails only Babe Ruth with the Yankees (113 homers from 1920-21), Alex Rodriguez with the Rangers (109 from 2001-02) and Roger Maris with the Yankees (100 from 1960-61).
Wheeeee!: The Braves trailed, 10-4, on Tuesday, and came back to win, 11-10. They are the only team with multiple comeback wins of at least six runs this season. It’s the sixth time in the last 125 seasons the Braves have had at least two such wins in a season, joining 2012 (four), 2004, 1991, 1977 (four) and 1948.
Corbin Barrels: Corbin Carroll hit his 15th and 16th triples of the season on Tuesday. The game marked his fourth this year with multiple triples. That’s tied for the most such games in a season in at least the last 125 seasons, with Carl Crawford (2004), Barney McCosky (1940), Bill Terry (1931), Owen Wilson (1912) and Larry Doyle (1911).
Power on display … : The Yankees’ nine home runs on Tuesday tied the franchise record, set on March 29. They’re the first team in MLB history with multiple games with at least nine home runs, regardless of whether in the same season or not. With Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton, the first inning in this game was the third time a team got three consecutive home runs from former MVPs (since BBWAA began voting, 1931), per Elias. The Yankees also did it on March 29, with Paul Goldschmidt, Bellinger and Judge, and the Dodgers did it on Aug. 31, 2024, with Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
… plenty of power: The Yankees continued those homering ways on Wednesday. They hit another five home runs, bringing their total to 14 over the two days. Those 14 home runs tied the Reds on Sept. 4-5, 1999, for the most in a two-game span in MLB history. Yankees manager Aaron Boone hit the first of those 14 Reds homers in 1999. The Yankees scored 19 runs in the games across Tuesday and Wednesday, all on home runs. That’s the most runs in a two-game span, all via home runs, in history, per STATS.
JULIOOOO: Julio Rodríguez homered on a particularly low pitch on Wednesday, one that was just 0.71 feet above the ground. That’s the lowest pitch a Mariners player has homered on under pitch tracking (since 2008). It’s also the second-lowest pitch homered on by any MLB player since at least 2010, higher than only a 0.68 foot pitch Joc Pederson took yard on April 12, 2022 -- from position player Wil Myers.
Schwarbs: With his home run on Tuesday, Kyle Schwarber has now homered in 15 consecutive team series, tying Sammy Sosa in 1998 for the second-longest such streak in MLB history, behind only Mark McGwire (20 in '96), per Elias. Then he homered again on Wednesday, giving him 45 on the year. He reached the mark in 127 team games, the fewest to 45 home runs in a season in Phillies history.
Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 747 consecutive games entering Friday, dating to May 2, 2021. There have been only seven other streaks of at least 600 to begin in the divisional era (since 1969), per Elias. They belong to Cal Ripken Jr. (2,632 consecutive games, from 1982-98), Steve Garvey (1,207, from 1975-83), Miguel Tejada (1,152, from 2000-07), Pete Rose (745, from 1978-83), Dale Murphy, (740 from 1981-86), Rose (678, from 1973-78) and Sandy Alomar Sr. (661, from 1969-73).