Max Scherzer Passes Gaylord Perry for 9th All-Time With 10 Strikeouts

Q: How did a single bizarre outfield misplay shatter a dominant closer's year-long streak of absolute perfection?

It happened on one freak ninth-inning play: what should have been the final out became a game-tying two-run homer, ending Mason Miller’s year-plus run without allowing a home run. With the Padres leading 3-1 against the Rays, Miller got Jonny DeLuca to hit a deep fly toward the left-field corner. Padres left fielder Samad Taylor appeared to make the catch at the wall, but his momentum carried him into the short fence at Tropicana Field. On impact, the ball popped out of his glove and flipped over the wall. By rule, it became a home run — a Statcast-projected 319-foot, two-run shot — instead of the game-ending catch. That bizarre ruling charged Miller with a blown save and another homer allowed, even though the contact initially looked harmless enough to end the game. It was especially jarring because Miller had gone more than a calendar year without surrendering a home run, a streak that spanned 76 2/3 innings and was the longest active homerless streak in the majors. The play also deepened a sudden and rare shift for Miller. He had just allowed his first homer in over a year days earlier, on a misplaced changeup to Oneil Cruz, and now has yielded home runs in back-to-back appearances after previously going 53 outings without one this season. Tampa Bay seized the opening, tied the game there, then won 5-4 in 11 innings, turning Taylor’s split-second misplay into one of the season’s cruelest momentum swings.

Q: Despite a historic thirty-run offensive explosion, what hidden flaw caused this playoff contender to lose their crucial series?

The hidden flaw was Chicago’s pitching, especially its tendency to give up home runs. Even while Pete Crow-Armstrong fueled a 30-run outburst over the weekend against Cincinnati, the Cubs still lost two of three because their staff kept giving runs back. In Sunday’s 7-5 loss, starter Shota Imanaga allowed three homers by himself, raising his season total to 33, tied for the most in the majors at that point. More broadly, the Cubs’ pitching staff had climbed to the top of MLB in home runs allowed. That long-ball problem undercut one of the most explosive offensive series of the season. The Cubs scored enough to win comfortably on paper, but repeated mistakes in the zone erased that advantage and turned a showcase weekend into another lost series. It also fit a larger trend: Chicago had dropped three straight series despite staying in the playoff race. So the answer is not that the Cubs lacked offense. It was that their pitching staff, and particularly its home-run vulnerability, was the weakness exposed beneath the scoring binge.

3 articles · Updated · MLB Trade Rumors · Aug 31

Ten strikeouts over seven scoreless innings lifted Max Scherzer past Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry on MLB’s all-time list, moving the Blue Jays right-hander into ninth place.
The outing extended Scherzer’s strongest stretch of 2026: he posted a 3.62 ERA across six August starts and has allowed two earned runs or fewer in all but one appearance since returning from the injured list.
Toronto is leaning on that resurgence as it fights to stay in the AL Wild Card race, with Scherzer now sitting just behind Justin Verlander on the career strikeout leaderboard.