Last Night in Baseball: Juan Soto Reached 1,000 Career Hits Faster Than Most

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to handle themselves.

That’s why we’re here to help, though, by sifting through the previous days’ games, and figuring out what you missed, but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:

Soto gets to 1,000 career hits, and fast

No, no, that doesn’t mean Juan Soto ran to first base quickly to secure career hit no. 1,000. Rather, the Mets’ slugger got to 1,000 career hits at a historic rate: he’s still just 26 years old, and per MLB research he’s one of just 84 to ever manage the feat before turning 27. Consider this: out of the 23,508 players to ever suit up in an MLB game, just 1,342 have reached the 1,000-hit mark at any point in their career. That’s just 5.7% of all players, and Soto is now categorized within a 6% slice of that smaller group.

What’s truly mind-blowing, however, is that Soto has achieved this with this kind of speed while being one of the premier patient players in the game. Soto has 830 career walks (and 17 hit by pitches) to go along with his 1,000 hits — he’s been on base 1,847 times already, and he won’t turn 27 until it’s World Series time. 

You might need additional context to understand just how impressive that is, but don’t worry, you’re about to get some: Soto is on base, by way of a hit or a walk or a hit by pitch, every 2.393 plate appearances. Among the top-100 players in career times on base, Ted Williams’ rate of reaching base is tops, at 2.077. That might seem way off from where Soto sits, but as far as rank goes, it’s not: Soto’s mark would fit in at 10th all-time, between Hall of Famers Frank Thomas (2.386) and Edgar Martinez (2.397), and immediately ahead of a bunch of other Hall of Famers like Tris Speaker, Stan Musial, Wade Boggs, and Todd Helton. You’re in some damn good company when the only players ahead of you on the list are Williams, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, and Thomas. 

Now, Soto is still just 26, and all of those guys played for years and years beyond that — and at a high level — which is how they all got into Cooperstown in the first place. But the point here is to make you aware of just how good Soto has been to this point, and how much more of it all there still could be to come. A whole lot can happen for Soto between now and when he’s at the end of his record contract with the Mets, but chances are good that much of it is going to involve getting on base more regularly than most players in the history of baseball have managed.

As for the Mets as a whole in Thursday’s game? A less impressive 7-1 loss to the Braves, who secured the series sweep and pushed the Mets’ losing streak to six.

What a week for Buxton

On Wednesday, Byron Buxton led things off with a home run. Which was the day after Buxton had robbed a homer and then hit his own to the same spot in the next inning. And on Thursday, he kept it all going. First, with another leadoff homer to put the Twins on the board…

…and then with a second long ball later, because why not?

Buxton is now up to .280/.343/.555 on the season, with 15 homers, 27 extra-base hits overall and 12 steals without being caught once. He’s also still a quality defensive center fielder at age 31 — Buxton is a hell of a player. Which is an easy enough thing to forget sometimes, given the injuries that have plagued him, but he was one of the most exciting prospects to come around in some time over a decade ago, and seasons like the one he’s having in 2025 are a good reminder of why that was.

The Yankees won!

And that matters to Yankees fans, sure, but something much more important happened in their series finale against the Angels besides the final score. And it’s whatever this play was.

Nolan Schanuel drove a ball back up the middle, and it hit the glove of pitcher Jonathan Loaisiga. It didn’t just strike it, though, but knocked it right off of his hand, and the ball just kept going. Not as far as it would have without that obstacle, however, which allowed second baseman DJ LeMahieu to rush in, field it and throw to first for the out. 

Crow-Armstrong makes a little history 

Pete Crow-Armstrong went deep for the 20th time in 2025, which made him a 20 homers an d20 steals player for the first time in his career. And early in the season, too. Real, real early. Per MLB researcher Sarah Langs, Crow-Armstrong reached 20/20 

In 1987, Eric Davis managed it faster than anyone — in just 46 games — if you’ve ever wondered why people still talk about him nearly 40 years later as someone who could have been an all-time great if not for injuries. Everyone else who has reached 20/20 with historic speed has done so in far more games: Jose Canseco in 1998 (68) games, Fernando Tatis Jr. in 2021 (71 games) and now Crow-Armstrong through 73 games, tying him with Ken Williams’ 1922. 

Caglianone’s first MLB homer… and second!

The Royals called up power-hitting prospect Jac Caglianone a few weeks back, but he hadn’t done much of anything to distinguish himself to this point — he entered play on Thursday batting all of .196/.212/.235, after mashing to the tune of .322/.389/.593 across first-time trips to Double- and Triple-A through the first 50 games of the season.

Caglianone finally hit a home run — his first in the majors — on Thursday. 

How to celebrate your first career big-league dinger? By hitting your second career big-league dinger, of course. Caglianone’s line still isn’t something to look at in awe by any means, but we’re talking about a 22-year-old in his first weeks of action in the majors, who only got to Double-A for the first time this spring before getting the call. That he has four extra-base hits in 14 games is something of a miracle, considering — we’ll have to see if he can keep building on this as a turning point for his rookie season.

Dodgers-Padres benches clear

You know your rivalry is serious when the managers end up both getting ejected after a “tense back-and-forth exchange“. Things got real heated during the series conclusion between the Padres and Dodgers, which San Diego managed to win as far as the scoreboard goes. Word on the condition of Fernando Tatis Jr.’s hand, which was struck by a pitch and necessitated x-rays, is the final word on that one, though.

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