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Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez hit his 20th home run of the season in Sunday’s 10-4 win over the Boston Red Sox, becoming the first player in Royals history to record multiple 20-homer seasons while primarily playing behind the plate, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Perez’s milestone blast came in the second inning of Sunday’s game, with the 26-year-old backstop taking Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez over the Green Monster to give the Royals an early 1-0 lead.

Although the lead widened to 2-0 by the end of the frame, the Red Sox bounced back with four runs between the fourth and fifth innings before an eight-run sixth inning by the Royals eventually quieted them.

Perez also contributed to the massive inning, drawing a walk to load the bases with nobody out while the Royals were still trailing by two runs.

Already one of the top catchers in franchise history, Perez is on pace to best last season’s career-high mark of 21 home runs, though his 58 RBI still leave him 21 short of his career-best total (79 in 2013) in that category.

The added power has come with a bit of a trade-off, as Perez already has a career-high 101 strikeouts, shedding his reputation as a low-strikeout, low-walk batter who mostly puts the ball in play.

The end result has been just fine, with Perez’s current .759 OPS representing the best mark he’s recorded in a full season.

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The San Francisco Giants accomplished a rare feat in Sunday’s 13-4 win over the Atlanta Braves, joining the Cleveland Indians as the only teams to record three triples in an inning this season, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Sunday’s outburst occurred during an eight-run seventh inning, with shortstop Brandon Crawford and outfielders Jarrett Parker and Conor Gillaspie each contributing three-baggers.

San Francisco finished the inning with seven hits, three walks and a hit batsman, highlighted by Parker’s two-run triple, Eduardo Nunez’s solo home run and Gorkys Hernandez’s two-run double.

The massive rally turned a 5-3 lead into a 13-3 rout, though the Braves did bounce back with a lone run later on.

The Giants finished the game with four triples, as first baseman Brandon Belt smacked his seventh of the season earlier in the contest, helping the Giants take an early 2-1 lead in the second inning.

San Francisco has the second-most triples (45) of any team this season, joined in the top three by a pair of National League West rivals—the Arizona Diamondbacks (50) and Colorado Rockies (36).

It’s probably not a coincidence that the division has seen so many triples this season, as every team besides Arizona has a spacious ballpark that can turn some doubles into three-baggers.

The Diamondbacks have the advantage of speed, ranking fourth in the majors in stolen bases (108), whereas the Giants are 14th (65) and the Rockies 18th (55).

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Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson recorded the first three-homer game of his career in Sunday’s 9-6 win over the Minnesota Twins, becoming the 16th player in franchise history to go deep three times in a single game, per Sportsnet Stats.

Ten of those 16 players have accomplished the feat in a home game, with Donaldson joined by Edwin Encarnacion, John Buck, Frank Thomas, Vernon Wells, Carlos Delgado, Chris Woodward, Joe Carter, Ernie Whitt and Otto Velez, per Sportsnet Stats.

While most of those players enjoyed extended stints hitting in the middle of Toronto’s lineup, Woodward never reached 400 plate appearances in his 12 big league seasons, and Buck only played one season (2010) with the Jays, though it did end up as the finest campaign (20 homers) of his 11-year career.

It’s a bit surprising that it took so long for Donaldson to homer three times in a game, as the 2015 American League MVP has gone deep at least 24 times in each of the last three seasons, topping out at 41 last year.

He has a reasonable shot to set a new career-best mark, currently boasting 33 home runs with 32 games remaining on Toronto’s schedule.

At the very least, Donaldson is right in the middle of the MVP conversation, ranking first in the AL in runs (105), fourth in home runs and sixth in RBI (91), supplemented by a .294 batting average, .407 on-base percentage and .578 slugging percentage.

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When Chicago Cubs shortstop Addison Russell knocked one over the fence in the second inning of last Monday’s game against the San Diego Padres, it made him just the third shortstop in franchise history to collect 80 RBI in a single season, per ESPN Stats & Info.

The youngster joined Roy Smalley Jr. (in 1950) and Ernie Banks, who reached the total in each of his seven full seasons as Chicago’s shortstop, per Baseball-Reference.com. Russell certainly has a long way to go to be mentioned in the same breath as Banks, but the 22-year-old is off to a good start in his young career.

With his improvement at the plate this season, Russell has entrenched himself in the middle of one of baseball’s best lineups in 2016. Entering Monday’s (Aug. 29) action, the Cubs trail just the Boston Red Sox (704) and Colorado Rockies (686) in runs scored this season, totaling 655.

With offseason free-agent acquisition Jason Heyward turning in a bust of a 2016 campaign, the Cubs needed someone to step up, and Russell has done so.

The former top prospect earned his first All-Star bid this season following a first half that saw him hit .237/.329/.402 with 11 home runs and 51 RBI. While his entry into the All-Star Game may have been a product of fan vote, he’s certainly proved he deserved it in the second half, hitting eight home runs in just 144 at-bats.

August has been Russell’s best month of the season as well. Not only does he already have his best monthly total in home runs (seven), but he also owns his best single-month OPS (.851) of the year.

The Cubs continue the quest for their first World Series victory since 1908, but they should have several chances to earn it in the coming years with a solid core group of young players. While first baseman Anthony Rizzo and third baseman Kris Bryant receive the majority of headlines, Russell has started to make a name for himself as well.

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Los Angeles Angels first baseman Albert Pujols owns 585 career home runs, placing him 10th on the all-time list with two more than notorious slugger Mark McGwire (583), per Baseball-Reference.com.

Nicknamed The Machine for his yearly consistency at the plate (also earning him a SportsCenter commercial), Pujols has played fewer than 100 games just once in his 16-year career—falling one game shy of the mark in 2013.

Pujols’ accomplishments at the plate earned him Rookie of the Year honors in 2001 and three MVP awards (2005, 2008, 2009), but he wasn’t a slouch defensively, either. The 36-year-old has taken home two Gold Gloves as well. 

While his age has finally caught up to him and forced him to serve the majority of his games at designated hitter for the Angels, it’s just the first time in his career that’s been the case.

Even if his defense has deteriorated, Pujols continues to serve as an asset at the dish. He’s tied for second in the American League with 101 RBI, even though his rate statistics have declined since his prime years with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Pujols and McGwire had a small overlap in their careers—Pujols was a rookie in McGwire’s final season, and the 21-year-old (at the time) looked up to his veteran teammate. These days, the roles of the two are somewhat reversed.

While McGwire’s career has been arguably tainted by the use of steroids, Pujols has never tested positive for any substance, so he’s not on the same blacklist of players who have been closely associated with performance-enhancing drug use.

When El Hombre does finally hang up the cleats and glove, it shouldn’t take more than five years (the first year eligible for induction after retirement) to enshrine him in Cooperstown, a well-deserved icing on the cake for an impressive career.

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Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Edwin Diaz has reached 50 career strikeouts faster than any major leaguer since at least 1893, needing just 25.1 innings to reach the mark, which he accomplished during Tuesday’s 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox, per Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN Stats & Info).

Recently promoted to the closer’s role, the 22-year-old Diaz picked up his first save Tuesday night, striking out three of the four batters he faced to finish out a come-from-behind victory after the Mariners rallied from a 4-0 deficit with a five-run eighth inning.

The Puerto Rican rookie right-hander has quickly established himself as one of baseball’s most dominant relievers, now boasting a 1.73 ERA and 1.27 WHIP with 52 strikeouts (and just eight walks) in 26 innings.

Diaz has struck out a whopping 46 percent of the batters he has faced, which ranks tops in MLB among all pitchers who have thrown 20 or more innings, though New York Yankees relief pitcher Dellin Betances (44.3 percent) and Cleveland Indians relief pitcher Andrew Miller (44.3) aren’t too far behind—with both having already topped the 45-inning mark this season.

Just as encouraging as his robust season-long numbers, Diaz has now gone 10 straight appearances without allowing a run, striking out 20 of the 37 batters (54.1 percent) he’s faced while allowing just seven hits and two walks over that span.

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Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz hit his 36th double of the season in Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners, setting a new single-season record for doubles by a player age 40 or older, per ESPN Stats & Info.

The old record of 35 was set way back in 1930 by Hall of Famer Sam Rice, who was 40 years old throughout the entire season and ultimately ended up playing four more years.

The 40-year-old Ortiz announced prior to the season that this will be his final year, as he’ll choose to go out on a high note rather than slowly fading out of baseball the way Rice and so many others have done.

Of course, it wouldn’t be all that shocking if Ortiz were to eventually change his mind, as he enters Wednesday with a .316 batting average, .404 on-base percentage and .636 slugging percentage, not to mention 36 doubles, 25 home runs, 87 RBI and 50 runs.

Nearly as impressive, Ortiz has more walks (54) than strikeouts (52)—a feat he previously accomplished in 2006, 2007 and 2012.

Still, the aging slugger will probably stay true to his word, as his resume already includes a trio of World Series victories (2004, 2007, 2013), in addition to five consecutive top-five finishes (2003-2007) in AL MVP balloting, though he never actually managed to win the award.

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Seattle Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano mashed his 50th extra-base hit of the season in Tuesday’s 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox, per MLB Stat of the Day. He joins Carlos Lee, Albert Pujols and Eddie Mathews as one of just four players in major league history to begin his career with 12 straight seasons of 50 or more extra-base hits.

Even better, Cano’s milestone hit came at the perfect time. His three-run, no-doubt homer to right-center field capped off a five-run eighth inning that propelled the Mariners to a come-from-behind 5-4 victory against a team they may end up battling for a wild-card spot.

Cano’s 24 homers this season already represent his best total through three years in Seattle. And he’s now on pace to hit 37 for the year, which would top his previous career-high mark of 33, set in 2012 during his second-to-last season with the New York Yankees.

He also has 25 doubles and a triple, putting him on pace to finish with 78 extra-base hits, which would be his best total since he had 82 in 2012.

It certainly helps that the 33-year-old second baseman has yet to miss a game, allowing him to rank eighth in the American League in plate appearances (468) and fifth in at-bats (426) entering Wednesday’s action.

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Kansas City Royals pitcher Danny Duffy set a franchise single-game record with his 16 strikeouts in Monday’s 3-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, besting the old record of 15 that Zack Greinke established in 2009, per Sportsnet Stats.

The 27-year-old southpaw turned in one of the truly dominant outings of the 2016 campaign, allowing just one hit and one walk over eight scoreless innings. He only fell short of a complete game because all the strikeouts brought his pitch count up to 110 entering the ninth.

Royals relief pitcher Kelvin Herrera calmly finished off the game with a three-up, three-down inning, boosting Duffy’s record to a sterling 7-1 for the season.

Nearly as impressive as his strikeout total, Duffy induced a whopping 35 missed swings, tying Clayton Kershaw for the most by any pitcher in a single game over the last 15 years, per ESPN Stats & Info.

The Rays made contact on just 25 of their 60 swings against Duffy, with the miss percentage (58.3) setting a standalone record for any starting pitcher over the past 15 years.

The lefty also came close to a no-hitter, making it through seven frames before Rays outfielder Desmond Jennings led off the eighth inning with a double.

While impressive in its own right, Monday’s performance was also part of a larger trend, as Duffy has been phenomenal since he joined the starting rotation in May, posting a 2.98 ERA and 0.98 WHIP in his 15 starts, with 105 strikeouts (and just 18 walks) over 90.2 innings.

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Minnesota Twins outfielder Max Kepler turned in a historic performance during Monday’s 12-5 win over the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first rookie in franchise history to hit three home runs in a single game, per Sportsnet Stats.

The 23-year-old slugger connected for a trio of two-run home runs, coming in the first, third and sixth innings, which gave him a shot at the first four-homer game in franchise history.

Alas, Kepler grounded out and singled in his final two at-bats, finishing the night with four hits, six RBI and three runs.

He’s one of just five players to hit three home runs in a game since the franchise moved to Minnesota in 1961, joining Justin Morneau (2007), Tony Oliva (1973), Harmon Killebrew (1963) and Bob Allison (1963), per ESPN Stats & Info.

What’s more, Monday’s performance didn’t just come out of nowhere, as Kepler now has an MLB-best 11 home runs since the beginning of July, per MLB Stat of the Day.

While any hope for 2016 was lost back in April, the Twins do have some promising middle-of-the-order hitters to help move the rebuilding process along, with Kepler joined by veteran second baseman Brian Dozier and 23-year-old outfielder Miguel Sano.

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