Stats of the Week: Rookie walk-offs, surprise turnarounds and loads of milestones

Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (Sept. 18-24).

More history for Salas: At 20 years and 110 days on Saturday, Ethan Salas became the youngest MLB player with a walk-off hit since his current teammate Manny Machado on Sept. 13, 2012 (20y 69d). He was also the youngest player with a pinch-hit walk-off hit since 18-year-old Ed Kirkpatrick in 1963 and fourth-youngest since RBI became official in 1920, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

What a turnaround: The Red Sox clinched a postseason berth on Sunday. They were 31-44 through 75 games. That’s the worst 75-game start by a team to make the playoffs in MLB history. The Red Sox joined the 1914 Miracle Braves, 1974 Pirates and 2005 Astros as the only teams to reach the postseason after falling as many as 14 games under .500.

Polar Pete: Pete Alonso hit his 39th and 40th homers of the season on Monday. That means he’s now hit at least 40 home runs in his first season with both the Mets and Orioles. Alonso is the fourth player in MLB history with 40-plus home runs in his first year with a franchise multiple times, according to Elias. He joined Nelson Cruz (three times), Juan Soto and Jim Thome.

Rice, Rice, baby: Ben Rice hit his 40th and 41st home runs of the season on Wednesday. He’s the second Yankees draft pick with at least one 40-homer season, joining Aaron Judge. He’s also the third player in franchise history with a 40-homer campaign within his first three career seasons, along with Judge in 2017 and Joe DiMaggio in 1937.

K zone for Sale: Chris Sale recorded his 200th strikeout of the season on Wednesday, marking his ninth season with at least 200 strikeouts. He’s the ninth pitcher in MLB history with at least nine 200-strikeout seasons, joining Nolan Ryan (15), Randy Johnson (13), Roger Clemens (12), Tom Seaver (10), Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Pedro Martínez and Bob Gibson.

Remarkable rookie: Logan Henderson finished his regular season with a 0.84 WHIP after his start on Wednesday. That’s the lowest by a rookie in a season, minimum 15 starts, per Elias. It was Henderson’s 23rd career outing, all of which have been starts allowing three or fewer runs. That's tied for the longest such streak to begin a career since the mound was moved to its current distance (1893), with Zac Gallen.

Run, Corbin, run: Corbin Carroll notched his 60th career triple on Wednesday in his 640th career game. He became just the second player in MLB history with at least 60 triples and 100 homers in his first 640 career games, joining Lou Gehrig. That’s stellar company.

Sandy in the ninth again: Sandy Alcantara leads MLB with 213 innings. He got the save on Wednesday for the second week in a row. He became the first pitcher to get a save on a day he entered with at least a share of the MLB lead in innings pitched multiple times (saves official since 1969), per Elias. The only others to even do so once are Orel Hershiser in May 1987, Phil Niekro in July 1978 and Andy Messersmith in May 1975. But finishing the season leading in innings and having recorded a save is an entirely different ballgame. The only pitcher to lead MLB in innings for an entire season where he got a save is Niekro. Alcantara will very likely join that list officially at season’s end and be the only one to do so with multiple saves.

PCA: Pete Crow-Armstrong joined the 40-40 club on Thursday, becoming the seventh player in MLB history with at least 40 homers and 40 stolen bases in a season. He joined Shohei Ohtani (2024), Ronald Acuña Jr. (2023), Alfonso Soriano (2006), Alex Rodriguez (1998), Barry Bonds (1996) and Jose Canseco (1988). Crow-Armstrong, Ohtani and Soriano are the only ones to have at least 45 home runs in those seasons.

Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 941 consecutive games entering Friday, dating to May 2, 2021. His streak is the eighth-longest in MLB history. The only other streaks of at least 700 consecutive games to begin in the divisional era (1969) are, of course, 1982-98 Cal Ripken Jr. (2,632 games), as well as 1975-83 Steve Garvey (1,207), 2000-07 Miguel Tejada (1,152), 1978-83 Pete Rose (745) and 1981-86 Dale Murphy (740).