The final full week of the regular season left plenty of room for the long ball, late-game nerve and a few entries in the record book that deserve more than a quick glance at the scoreboard. From Ethan Salas delivering a walk-off at 20 to Matt Olson extending one of baseball’s great durability runs, Sept. 18-24 carried a little bit of everything.
A week of milestones around the majors
-
On Saturday, Ethan Salas supplied a walk-off hit at age 20 years, 110 days, making him the youngest Major Leaguer to do it since teammate Manny Machado was 20 years, 69 days old on Sept. 13, 2012. Salas also became the youngest player to produce a pinch-hit walk-off since Ed Kirkpatrick did so as an 18-year-old in 1963. Since RBIs became an official statistic in 1920, he is the fourth-youngest player with a pinch-hit walk-off RBI.
-
Boston locked up a postseason spot Sunday after digging itself out of a hole unlike any other playoff club has climbed from. The Red Sox stood 31-44 after 75 games, the poorest record through that point for a team that went on to reach the postseason. They also became only the fourth club to make the playoffs after being at least 14 games below .500, joining the 1914 Boston Braves, the 1974 Pirates and the 2005 Astros.
-
Pete Alonso reached another power marker Monday, launching his 39th and 40th homers of the season. It gave him 40 or more in his first year with both the Mets and Orioles. Only three other players have opened their time with multiple franchises by hitting at least 40 homers: Nelson Cruz, who did it three times, plus Juan Soto and Jim Thome.
-
Wednesday belonged to Ben Rice in the Bronx. His 40th and 41st homers made him the second Yankees draft pick, after Aaron Judge, to post a 40-homer season. Rice is also the third player in club history to reach 40 homers within his first three Major League seasons, following Judge in 2017 and Joe DiMaggio in 1937.
-
Chris Sale also checked off a familiar number Wednesday, recording his 200th strikeout of the year. It was his ninth season at the 200-strikeout level, placing him ninth on the all-time list. Nolan Ryan leads with 15 such seasons, followed by Randy Johnson with 13, Roger Clemens with 12 and Tom Seaver with 10. Sale now shares nine with Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Pedro Martínez and Bob Gibson.
-
Logan Henderson closed his regular season with a 0.84 WHIP, the lowest by a rookie with at least 15 starts. His Wednesday outing was the 23rd appearance of his career, and every one has been a start in which he allowed no more than three runs. That matches Zac Gallen for the longest streak of its kind to begin a career since the pitching rubber was set at its present distance in 1893.
-
Corbin Carroll picked up the 60th triple of his career Wednesday, doing it in his 640th game. With at least 60 triples and 100 home runs in that span, Carroll joined just one other player in Major League history: Lou Gehrig.
-
Sandy Alcantara continued to blur the line between workhorse starter and late-inning option. The innings leader at 213, Alcantara earned a save Wednesday for the second consecutive week. He is the first pitcher to collect a save more than once while holding at least a share of the Major League lead in innings pitched that day. Orel Hershiser, Phil Niekro and Andy Messersmith are the only other pitchers to have done it even once.
-
On Thursday, Pete Crow-Armstrong entered the 40-40 club, becoming the seventh player with at least 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in one season. The earlier members are Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Shohei Ohtani. Crow-Armstrong, Ohtani and Soriano are the only members of that group to finish with at least 45 home runs.
-
Matt Olson carried the week into Friday with his active streak at 941 consecutive games played, dating back to May 2, 2021. It ranks eighth in Major League history. Since divisional play began in 1969, only Cal Ripken Jr., Steve Garvey, Miguel Tejada, Pete Rose and Dale Murphy have authored streaks of 700 games or more. Ripken’s 2,632-game run remains the standard, while Garvey reached 1,207, Tejada 1,152, Rose 745 and Murphy 740.
The innings-and-save oddity
Alcantara’s line deserves its own pause. Niekro is the only pitcher to finish an entire season as the Major League innings leader while also recording a save. With Alcantara leading the sport at 213 innings and likely to remain atop that list through the finish, he appears positioned to join Niekro on that short list.
There is an extra wrinkle, too: Alcantara already has multiple saves. No pitcher has finished a season as the innings leader while collecting more than one save. In a game built around defined bullpen roles and carefully managed workloads, that is a throwback kind of stat line.
A September reminder
Some of these numbers are season-long resumes, others arrived in one swing or one appearance. Salas had the walk-off moment. Rice and Alonso supplied the power. Henderson finished with a rookie mark that speaks to steady command, while Olson kept showing up, one game after another. At this point on the calendar, every box score has a little more weight, and the record book tends to keep its own September scoreboard.
