Week 23 of the major league baseball season is now a wrap but before closing the door on the week we need to first take a look back at the top fantasy baseball news and headlines from Sunday’s major league baseball games. Yesterday’s action was highlighted by record breaking performances by Spencer Strider and Framber Valdez, Aaron Judge’s continued pursuit of Roger Maris and Xander Bogaerts 1,400th career hit. Do not forget to check out our updated September fantasy baseball player rankings before setting your lineups this week plus the latest MLB injury report, fantasy baseball player spotlight series, and players trending up and down in the fantasy baseball stock watch. So, before you start another fantasy baseball week let’s go back and look at yesterday’s top performances.

 

 

Aaron Judge on Triple Crown watch!

Aaron Judge has spent his season chasing down the ghost of Roger Maris and his American League record of 61 home runs in a season. With two home runs in yesterday’s 12-8 win over Milwaukee Judge’s season total reached 59. But there is more as Judge has also crept up the A.L.’s batting leaderboard and has put himself in contention to claim a triple crown- the first in 10 years (Miggy Cabrera- 2012). 

With 2 ½ weeks left Judge holds a big lead in both home runs and RBIs-  Houston’s Yordan Alvarez is 22 home runs behind Judge and Cleveland’s José Ramírez is 15 RBIs behind the Yankee slugger. And now after four more hits on Sunday, Judge was closing in the third triple crown category and he is now batting .316 average, tied with Boston’s Xander Bogaerts for second in the A.L., trailing only Minnesota’s Luis Arraez, who is at .317.

Spencer Strider Makes History

What a day for Spencer Strider and the Braves.  Atlanta was able to keep pace with Mets by sweeping the weekend series against the Phillies and another dominating performance from Strider included his 200th strikeout of the season, which made history in a few ways:

First MLB rookie since 2012 to record 200 Ks

Fastest pitcher to 200Ks in a single season

First Braves rookie to produce 200 Ks in a season in over 100 years

Not too shabby.

Framber Valdez Makes History Too

Astros hurler Framber Valdez also made major league history yesterday, recording his 25th consecutive quality start, a new single-season record. The southpaw extended his streak against the Athletics, throwing six innings of two-run ball while striking out seven batters. 

Valdez's quality start streak began on April 25 against Texas, and he’s been lights out since with an overall season record of 16-5 and 2.57 ERA/1.11 WHIP.

Postseason Watch

The Astros win yesterday reduced their magic number to 1 to take the AL West, thanks to a Mariners6-1 loss to the Angels.

The Mets NL East magic number is down to 2 after a 7-3 win over the Pirates and a Brewers loss to the Yankees. 

The Yankees are now 5 ½ games ahead of the Blue Jays in the AL East after the Jays loss the Orioles.

In the NL Wild Card, the Padres jumped ahead of the Phillies into the second spot after defeating the Diamondbacks coupled with Philadelphia's loss in Atlanta. The Braves kept pace with the Mets after the win over the Phillies and are just one game back in the NL East.

Xander Bogaerts Career Hit #1,400

Xander Bogaerts recorded his 1,400th career hit in the Red Sox’s 13-3 win against the Royals. 

It put him in exclusive company. Carl Yastrzemski (1,480 hits), Bobby Doerr (1,437 hits) and Jim Rice (1,429 hits) are the only other players in Red Sox history to reach 1,400 hits before turning 30.

Productive Return for Anthony Rizzo

Anthony Rizzo, who hasn’t played since August 31st, made a huge return to the Yankees yesterday. They decided to put him back in the lineup after only seeing live batting practice one time instead of going on a rehab assignment. He sure delivered! Rizzo went yard and had two singles in the Yankees 121-8 win over the Brewers. The hope is that Rizzo can stay productive down the stretch and into the playoffs after dealing with back issues for much of the second half. His home run was his 31st of the season, second on the team to Judge.

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