The last week of the 2026 regular season gave the game three reminders that a season’s closing days can still carry plenty of thunder. Pete Alonso finished with a power surge that put him atop the American League home run and RBI boards, Nolan Arenado did everything possible to keep Arizona’s October hopes alive, and Ronald Acuña Jr. turned Miami’s warning track into the setting for a fearless defensive play just before Atlanta began another postseason run.
Alonso’s final push came in familiar New York surroundings. After belting the 300th home run of his career at Citi Field on Sept. 15, the first baseman needed only eight more games to reach No. 307, a 471-foot blast during a two-homer night at Yankee Stadium on Friday. Across his final five games, split between Toronto and the Bronx, Alonso reached safely 11 times in 22 plate appearances while producing five homers, eight RBIs and eight runs.
That closing burst brought Alonso his second Player of the Week recognition in the second half. It also secured the AL lead in both home runs, with 43, and RBIs, with 113, despite the Orioles losing their scheduled final game to bad weather. Alonso had already led the National League in RBIs for the Mets in 2022, when he drove in 131, and became the first Major Leaguer to lead each league in that category. He also appeared in every game for the third straight season.
Arenado’s week did not get Arizona into the National League’s third Wild Card position, but the 35-year-old third baseman gave the Diamondbacks a final hard charge. On Sept. 21, he cracked a go-ahead grand slam against the Yankees. Two days later at Coors Field, he fell just a triple short of the cycle, setting the tone for the ninth Player of the Week award of his career.
Over Arizona’s final six games, played in Colorado and San Diego, Arenado went 10-for-23, good for a .435 average, with three home runs, two doubles and five RBIs. His two-run homer in San Diego on Friday gave him his eighth season with at least 30 homers and his first since 2022, when he was with St. Louis. Among players whose primary position was third base, only Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt, with 12, and Eddie Mathews, with 10, have more 30-homer seasons.
Acuña meets the Miami fence again
Acuña’s Play of the Week arrived at a ballpark that has brought him both joy and pain. At loanDepot park in March, he celebrated a World Baseball Classic title with Venezuela. In July 2021, he suffered a torn right ACL there while trying to make a play near the outfield wall, an injury that ended his season during Atlanta’s eventual World Series run.
Saturday offered another test of that same warning track, and Acuña did not hesitate. In the first inning against the Marlins, with nobody out and a runner at first, Heriberto Hernández sent Brent Suter’s 101.2 mph sinker toward right field. Acuña broke to his right at 25.6 feet per second, rose at the fence and came down hard on the dirt with the ball still in his glove for the first out.
It was the kind of play that changes the sound in a ballpark, particularly with the postseason less than three days away. Hernández did hit his 25th homer the following day, choosing to pull the ball to left rather than challenge Acuña near the Miami wall again.
