Tuesday gave the baseball enthusiast a full 15-game slate of stretch-drive action, so let's jump right in ... 

Tuesday's scores

Dodgers improve to 50 games over .500

Thanks to Tuesday night's win over the rebuilding White Sox, the Dodgers are now an incredible 84-34. 50 games over .500! Baseball's second-best team, the Astros, are 73-46. Los Angeles has an 11-game lead over Houston for the best record in baseball. Insane.

The Dodgers are on pace to win 115 games and pretty soon we're going to have to start examining where the 2017 Dodgers rank among the best teams in baseball history. Here are the only teams with .700-plus winning percentages in a season with at least 150 games played:

  1. 1906 Cubs: 116-36 (.763)
  2. 1909 Pirates: 110-42 (.724)
  3. 1954 Indians: 111-43 (.721)
  4. 2001 Mariners: 116-44 (.716)
  5. 1927 Yankees: 110-44 (.714)
  6. 1907 Cubs: 107-45 (.704)
  7. 1931 Athletics: 107-45 (.704)
  8. 1998 Yankees: 114-48 (.704)
  9. 1939 Yankees: 106-45 (.702)

At 84-34, the Dodgers boast a .712 winning percentage, so they would slot in sixth on that list if they sustain this pace.

Now, that said, this Dodgers season will not be defined by regular-season wins. Will this team win the World Series? That's the real question. Los Angeles has had some disappointingly early postseason exits in recent years and the pressure is on right now. They haven't won a World Series since 1988 and they went out and added Yu Darvish to help get them over the hump.

Interestingly enough, only five of the nine teams in the list above did go on to win the World Series: 1909 Pirates, 1907 Cubs, and the three Yankees teams. The Dodgers are unquestionably the best team in baseball this year. Their goal now is to win a World Series and go down as one of the very best teams in history.

Votto closing in on an on-base record

During the past few seasons, there has been no better second-half hitter in baseball than Joey Votto. It's not even close. To wit:

Votto, of course, reached base three times Tuesday night -- he drew three walks against the Cubs -- extending his streak of reaching base multiple times to 20 games. Twenty games! That is the second longest such streak in history and only one game short of the all-time record:

During his 20-game multiple-times-on-base streak, Votto is hitting .442/.618/.754 with 26 walks and eight strikeouts. I'm pretty sure he's the only hitter on the planet who could pull that off. The man is amazing.

Nationals new bullpen finally allows a run

Washington remade its bullpen at the trade deadline because ... well, it had no other choice. The bullpen was awful the first four months of the season and the Nationals are a legitimate World Series contender, and they needed some new relievers. So general manager Mike Rizzo went out and added Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson in a trade with the A's, then picked up Brandon Kintzler in a trade with the Twins.

Those three have been pretty good this month:

That combined scoreless streak came to an end Tuesday when Kintzler allowed a solo home run to Cliff Pennington. It was bound to end at some point, right? Kintzler allowed only that one run in his inning, then Doolittle tossed a scoreless ninth for the save, so the new bullpen trio is up to 19 innings and one earned run in August. A much-needed turn around for Washington's bullpen, that is.

Red Sox and Cardinals have unique offensive night

The red hot Red Sox won for the 11th time in their past 13 games Tuesday night, and in doing so, they combined for a very unique night at the plate with the Cardinals. The two teams combined for 25 hits (15 for the Red Sox, 10 for the Cardinals) and zero home runs. How often do two teams pick up 25-plus hits with no home runs? Not often at all:

And they say the ball is juiced. (It is. It totally is.)

Stanton does it again

Gosh, peak Giancarlo Stanton sure is a lot of fun, isn't he? As long as you're not the opposing pitcher, I guess.

Stanton hit yet another home run Tuesday night. It is his a) 44th home run of the season, b) sixth consecutive game with a home run, and c) his 23rd home run in his past 35 games. He has hit a season's worth of home runs in the past six weeks. Anyway, here's the video:

The 44 home runs is a career high for Stanton and the Marlins single-season record. The previous record was 42 by Gary Sheffield in 1995. Stanton is going to leave Sheffield in the dust.

As a baseball fan, I really hope Stanton makes a run at 60 home runs this season. That would make September really exciting. Here's Stanton up against some recent notable home run paces:

  • 2017 Giancarlo Stanton: 44 HR through 118 team games
  • 2001 Barry Bonds: 50 HR through 118 team games (finished with 73 HR)
  • 1998 Mark McGwire: 47 HR through 118 team games (finished with 70 HR)
  • 1998 Sammy Sosa: 44 HR through 118 team games (finished with 66 HR)

Stanton lags behind Bonds and McGwire, but he's right there with Sosa. Sixty is not out of reach for Giancarlo this season.

Donaldson is crazy hot too, you know

Stanton is not the only slugger hitting the ball out of the park at an outrageous clip right now. Former AL MVP Josh Donaldson has been on fire the last few weeks as well. He went deep for the third straight day Tuesday and has nine home runs in his last 17 games now. He hit nine homers in his first 56 games of the season. Here is Donaldson's latest blast:

The Blue Jays continue to hang around the AL Wild Card race -- they are 3 1/2 games back following Tuesday's loss -- and while they may not pass the seven teams ahead of them in the standings, they have a chance to play meaningful games deep into the season. That's better than nothing after the start they had.

Red Sox turn 5-4-3 triple play

Is it good to be Rafael Devers right now, or what? On Sunday, he hit a tying home run against Aroldis Chapman. On Monday, he hit two home runs against the Indians. What did he do for an encore Tuesday? He started an around-the-horn triple play against the Cardinals. To the action footage:

Not a bad few days for that young man, I would say. Yadier Molina, meanwhile, grounded into a double play and a triple play in his first two at-bats Tuesday. Five outs in two at-bats is, uh, not good.

Judge ties strikeout record

In the first inning Tuesday night, Yankees rookie Aaron Judge make some rather embarrassing history. He has now struck out in 32 consecutive games, tying the MLB record for non-pitchers in a single season. Here are the top five strikeout streaks:

  1. Adam Dunn, 2012 White Sox: 32 games
  2. Aaron Judge, 2017 Yankees: 32 games (and counting)
  3. Brad Hawpe, 2007 Rockies: 26 games
  4. Geoff Jenkins, 2001 Brewers: 26 games
  5. Mike Cameron, 2001 Mariners: 26 games

Of course, all those strikeouts come with an awful lot of production. Judge went into Tuesday's game hitting .289 with a .420 on-base percentage, and he leads the AL in runs (88), home runs (36), walks (87), slugging percentage (.608) and OPS (1.028). 

The Yankees would love for Judge to cut down on the strikeouts, but as long as he's hitting like this, they'll live with them.

Quick hits