Last Night In Baseball: Aroldis Chapman Broke A Longstanding Strikeout Record

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: Aroldis Chapman picked up save No. 17 of the season on Friday when the Red Sox defeated the Angels, 5-2. Chapman gave up a pair of hits but otherwise got through the ninth inning unscathed, and recorded a strikeout for one of the outs. That K had significant meaning in what was otherwise a standard appearance, as it gave Chapman the most strikeouts of any reliever in history. Chapman has been a reliever since coming to the majors as a 22-year-old back in 2010 with the Cincinnati Reds, where he wowed out of the gate with his absurd velocity: to this day, the two fastest-ever pitches recorded by StatCast belong to Chapman, with the top one coming in at 105.8 mph. He struck out 12.8 batters per nine innings and 37% of the batters he faced in that abbreviated debut campaign, and then just kept getting tougher and tougher to make contact against from there. Seventeen seasons in, the now 38-year-old Chapman has a career K/9 of 14.5 and has struck out 39.5% of the batters he’s faced, resulting in a record 1,364 strikeouts, one more than Hoyt Wilhelm. Chapman likely doesn’t have to worry about anyone taking this record for some time, either: Craig Kimbrel has 1,304 strikeouts, and Kenley Jansen 1,301, but neither is performing at the level Chapman is this late in their own careers. As absurdly dominant as someone like Mason Miller has been to this point, he’s in his fourth season and has 312 career punchouts: he’s in line for his third-straight campaign with over 100 strikeouts, but he’s also 27 and hasn’t proven he can sling it like this for as long as Chapman — that’s kind of something you prove by doing it, not with an expectation it will happen. In an era where relievers come and go, throwing absolute fire until injury or ineffectiveness or a new crop of even harder-throwing pitchers arrives on the scene to dominate, Chapman is a wonder. A true rarity, one who was throwing so hard 17 seasons ago that he’s still able to keep up with the higher velocity expectations of the present: he’s a 38-year-old man who is still averaging 97.5 mph on his four-seam fastball. The pitch he got Denzer Guzman to strike out against on Friday was a sinker, high and inside, that was recorded at 98.6 mph. Chapman might not be what he used to be, but what he still is happens to have a 2.10 ERA and still be striking out 30% of the batters he’s facing. The Padres went up 6-0 on Thursday against the Dodgers, and ended up losing by five runs. On Friday, things did not go much better for San Diego. The Padres scored in the first, fourth and six innings off of Shohei Ohtani, giving starter Michael King a 3-0 lead heading into the seventh inning. Good start, yeah? That’s when it all came undone. King allowed two baserunners to open the inning, then gave way to reliever Adrian Morejon with no outs. Morejon should have been able to get out of that jam or at least lessen its damage, but instead, second baseman Jake Cronenworth made an error, allowing right fielder Kyle Tucker to reach and load the bases for Teoscar Hernández. That at-bat did not last long: Morejon threw a slider in the bottom third of the zone, and Hernández deposited it 419 feet away in center field. The Padres wouldn’t be able to touch the Dodgers’ bullpen — Ohtani exited with a biceps injury after six innings, and a collection of three relievers shut San Diego down the rest of the way. Los Angeles didn’t score again, either, but didn’t have to, and have now won the first two games of this series. These losses don’t exactly matter as far as the NL West is concerned, considering the Dodgers are 14 games up on the Padres, but San Diego is four games back of a wild-card spot after losing seven in a row. The United States soccer team remains in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and its next game will take place in Seattle. So, the squad showed up early and took in a Mariners game against the Blue Jays, with team manager Mauricio Pochettino even throwing out the first pitch while dressed in an M’s jersey. Hey, pretty good effort there! Maybe Pochettino, who hails from Argentina, should try his hand at managing an Argentine World Baseball Classic team in the future, too. Seattle did not have nearly the luck of the United States’ coach, however, as it lost to Toronto, 2-0. Hey, at least it resembled a soccer score. Gotta keep things familiar for the esteemed guests and all. Huh, maybe there were some football players in attendance at the Cardinals-Cubs game last night, and that’s why Chicago allowed 17 runs to St. Louis. What a nightmare finish. The Diamondbacks went down against the Brewers, 3-0, after just three innings. In the bottom of the third, Arizona tied the game, 3-3, and then both teams remained locked in a pitching duel from that point forward. Milwaukee pulled starter Kyle Harrison after just 2 ⅔ innings, leading to 7 ⅓ scoreless from the pen, while while Arizona left Jose Cabrera on the mound for a couple of outs more before similarly handing duties over to the pen and getting the same kind of benefits. Until the 11th, anyway. That’s when reliever Ryan Thompson messed up, but not with a pitch: he fielded a comebacker off the bat of left fielder Jackson Chourio with the bases loaded, and, desperate to keep the run from scoring, made an off-balance throw home. Or at least, it was supposed to go home: instead, Thompson threw it into the ground and bounced it well past catcher Gabriel Moreno, resulting in two runs crossing the plate instead of one. To make matters worse, Milwaukee then scored another two runs when second baseman Brice Turang singled with just one out, and it was suddenly 7-3, Brewers. The D-backs managed to get one run back, but only one run back, in the bottom of the 11th, and Milwaukee went on to win. Arizona fell under .500 with the defeat, and sits four games back of a wild-card spot, while the Brewers added to their second-in-MLB win total with No. 54. Things started off fine for the White Sox in their quest to erase Thursday’s walk-off loss against the Guardians. Infielder Miguel Vargas hit a three-run blast to put Chicago ahead in the fifth… …but then everything started to come undone. Catcher Austin Hedges would single in a run in the seventh to cut the lead to one, and then outfielder Steven Kwan made things even with a line-drive single to left. Both teams would go scoreless from there, bringing on extra innings, and it’s there that Cleveland struck once more, for its second walk-off win in as many days. This one didn’t go very far at all at first — StatCast measured it as hitting the ground the first time just seven feet from the plate — but rookie outfielder Kalil Watson, who had entered as a pinch-hitter earlier in the game, struck it hard enough that it just kept going and bounded into the outfield. The single scored Kwan from third base with ease, and Cleveland moved a game up on the White Sox in the AL Central with the dub. The two will play another pair of games before this series ends — the Guardians have a chance to build up a little bit of cushion with a sweep, while the White Sox can still finish the weekend out back in first where they began the series. The Yankees had dropped seven games in a row, which is Not Great in a vacuum but is especially bad at a time when the Rays had won eight-straight contests. Lucky for New York, the always reliable Twins were there to save the day. The Yankees, famously, crush the Twins seemingly at will, and while this wasn’t a blowout victory, New York will take literally any kind it can get right now. Both teams went yard in the first inning, with center fielder Trent Grisham hitting a leadoff equalizer in the bottom of the frame. Designated hitter Ben Rice would then blast his 24th homer of the year in the bottom of the third to put New York up, 3-1, and then the Yankees would score another couple of runs to eventually win, 5-2. Gerrit Cole was great outside of that initial homer, going five innings with two runs allowed while allowing five hits and no walks against seven strikeouts. New York’s bullpen also shined with four combined scoreless innings out of four different pitchers. On the offensive side, five runs might not wow you at first glance, but it’s the first time the Yankees have scored more than four since June 19, as part of a stretch that saw New York average a little over 2.5 runs per game. Hey, hitting home runs can be exhausting. Rays’ third baseman Junior Caminero hit one in six-straight games, so understandably he rested on the seventh day. He was back at it on Saturday for the Rays against the Astros, however, putting Tampa Bay up 2-1 with his seventh dinger in his last eight games and 10th in his last 10. Even better, Caminero is batting .375 with 15 hits during that 10-game stretch: two-thirds of his hits in that time are long balls! This one ended up being the game-winning hit, to boot, as the Rays held the Astros scoreless besides that single run in the sixth inning. And, because of this W, the Rays maintained their four-game lead over the Yankees in the AL East despite New York finally picking up a win. The one positive of the night for the Astros — their one run — came off the bat of DH Yordan Alvarez. He hit his 27th homer of the year, which leads the American League. Alvarez is currently batting .319/.431/.625 with a 1.055 OPS and 198 total bases through 88 games. The on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and total bases all lead the majors, in addition to the AL lead in dingers, and his 192 OPS+ — which adjusts for park and the level of offense of the rest of the league — would slot in as the 14th-best of this century, tied with Albert Pujols’ 2008, if he manages to finish the season at that level. That’s 10th-best since 2000, non-Barry Bonds division, if you want to analyze history that way. Alvarez is on one. Bonus positive Astros’ development: this catch by right fielder Cam Smith. He’s probably sore right now. The Marlins led MLB in wins with 20 in June, but then lost their first two games of July. That’s over now, however, in no small part thanks to a six-run first inning that saw Miami score five runs before recording an out. Later on, the Marlins continued to blast Athletics’ pitching in Sacramento, with first baseman Kyle Stowers going yard not once… …but twice, for his ninth and 10th homers of the season. Stowers is now batting .243/.330/.457, and seems to have recovered from an extended slump that dropped his OPS to .644 in late-May. Since then, the 28-year-old is batting .275/.358/.575 with seven of his 10 homers across 31 games. The Fish would end up winning, 12-5, and picked up a game in the wild-card standings on both the Cubs and Phillies. Miami remains one back of an actual wild-card spot, though, behind the Cardinals. Matt Olson? Pretty good baseball player. Mets’ pitching? Not exactly equipped to stop Matt Olson this season. So, it didn’t. Every run the Mets allowed to the Braves on Friday came by way of the long ball, and two of those belonged to Atlanta’s first baseman. In the bottom of the fifth, Olson crushed a middle-middle cutter from A.J. Minter 429 feet to right-center, adding to the Braves’ lead. In the eighth, Olson faced off against Kodai Senga, who was recently demoted to the bullpen, and pulled a 93.2 mph sinker on the outer-third of the plate 411 feet to right. Olson crushed this one, with an exit velocity of 105.9 mph despite the fact that he had to muscle it back in the other direction instead of just going with the pitch to left. Olson now has 22 homers after hitting 29 in each of the past two seasons, and is batting .273/.345/.538 on the season — he’s not likely to lead the league in homers or hit 54 like he did in 2023, but his second season with at least 40 homers feels like a distinct possibility right now. The Braves would win, 5-3, and get to face the Mets three more times owing to a Monday series finale. What a play. Don’t ask about the rest of this game if you’re a Giants’ fan, though. Be glad the score is cropped out of the video, you don’t need to be aware that the Rockies won, 15-3, even with Casey Schmitt pulling a stunt like that off at the hot corner.