Baseball is such an anomaly, anything can happen and on any day of the week baseball has something to be excited about. While the novices call the sport boring or too slow to follow, the dedicated fans can never have enough. The love of the sport can only be appreicated by those who countless hours engaging in the sport and over the past two months it has been nothing less than brillant. We are given the privilege to watch the craft of professionals who never fail to amaze us and continue to grow the sport as something unlike nothing else. Lets dive into some of the best perfomances in the last two months of baseball.

Jacob Misiorowski Incredible 2026
I don’t think anyone has predicted the season that Jacob Misiorowski would have, but to say it hasn’t already been one of the best in baseball history is an understatement. In 14 games this season, he has tied the number he started last year for the Brewers. In 87 innings, he has 131 strikeouts and struck out 39% of batters (329 batters). With a 4.0 wins above replacement, an 8-2 record, and a 1.34 ERA, Jacob has an ERA+ of 308, which is three times the amount worth of a regular MLB pitcher. Misiorowski is proving the haters wrong after an ugly rookie year that saw him with a 4.36 ERA and a less-than-average start to the season; he has quickly put that to rest with the spectacular 2026 season, and from the start, he is the frontrunner for the Cy Young.

To add a cherry on top, Jacob Misiorwski had one of the best pitching performances of all time. In what is called a Maddux game, named after Greg Maddux, one of the best pitchers in Atlanta Braves history, one of Greg Maddux’s notable features was throwing a complete game (9 innings) in less than 100 pitches and more than 10 strikeouts.

The Miz went far and above that, throwing a Maddux on June 12th; he went the distance, only allowing one hit in a shutout, and he struck out 15 batters, the most punchouts ever recorded in a Maddux game, and set a record for the most pitches thrown over 100 mph, with his fastest being 104.5 mph, which set a record for the fastest pitch by a starting pitcher. The record for most strikeouts in a Maddux game was previously held by Skubal and Kershaw, who both had 13 strikeouts; The Miz blew it out of the water with 15 strikeouts. Impressive already, I know, but it gets better. Jacob Misiorwski hit 100 mph around 58 times in the game and peaked at 104.5 mph in the first inning. He allowed zero walks and only gave up one hit. It should be switched from the Maddux to the Miz.

Dustin May Revital

After bouncing around the Dodgers and the Red Sox, it seemed that the potential of Dustin May had never truly come to fruition in the majors. Besides a shortened 2020 season, Dustin May has always battled with the injury bug, making it difficult to rely on him for 25-30 games a season. He only pitched more than 100 innings once, and that came in 2025 when he had a 4.96 ERA with the Dodgers and the Red Sox.

Now on a new team with the St. Louis Cardinals, a fresh start with minimal expectations, it seems Dustin May has found his footing back in baseball. In 14 games and 81.2 innings, this season he has a 5-6 record, a 3.75 ERA, and a 107 ERA+. Although on the outside it doesn’t look that impressive, diving into the deeper numbers reveals that the 81.2 innings pitched is the most Dustin May has thrown while being above league average.

At his best last year, he was 15% less than league average, and this year he is 7% better, which is a 22% difference. What makes this even more significant is that Dustin May hurled a complete game shutout a few days after the Miz completed his. May missed a Maddox by one pitch, but how neat would it have been to have two of the rarest pitching performances in the same week! It marks the first complete game and shutout of his career; he lost the perfect game in the seventh inning to a Manny Machado single but retired the final seven batters. He went 9 innings, allowed 1 hit, had 9 strikeouts, and walked one batter. This single game lowered his season ERA from 4.21 to 3.75. Talk about how one game changes everything.

Down in Miami Beach

Down in Miami, Otto Lopez of the Marlins is having the best start to his career and already looks like one of the best shortstops in the game. At just 27 years old, it feels like he has finally cemented himself as one of the more underrated players in the league. In 74 games this season, he already has 98 hits and a batting average of .336. With a little more than half the season left to play, Otto Lopez is on pace for 211 hits and over 90 runs. After two rough seasons in Toronto in 2021 and 2022 that only saw him play 9 games across those two years, he has found consistent success with the Marlins, posting a 2.8 WAR, 3.6 WAR, and now 3.0 WAR across the first three seasons of his time with the Fish. If he keeps this up, he will be the first Marlin to win the batting title since Luis Arraez did it a few years ago.

These are the few tidbits I thought were important to recognize and as the season nears the half way point I know moments like these will happen even more often.