Spencer Strider flirted with a perfect game on Monday night, but still made history on the mound for the Atlanta Braves.

Strider lost his bid for a perfect game on an error in the seventh and lost his no-hitter via a bloop single in the eighth.

The right-hander threw 81 of his 101 pitches for strikes while limiting the Miami Marlins to two hits over eight scoreless innings. He recorded a season-high 13 strikeouts in the Braves' 11-0 victory.

"He's special," said Sean Murphy. "He proved it again tonight."

St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker has now recorded a hit in each of the first 12 games to begin his big league career.

He didn't record a hit until the ninth inning of the Cardinals' 7-4 win over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday.

Walker joins Eddie Murphy of the 1912 Philadelphia Athletics as the only AL/NL players since 1900 to accomplish the feat before their 21st birthday.

He can take sole ownership of the record when the Cardinals return home Thursday.

"I'd be lying to say it wasn't cool," Walker said. "Even if it isn't my main focus right now, it is still pretty cool to know I have that accomplishment."

Walker is also tied with the Philadelphia Phillies' Bryson Stott for the longest active hitting streak in the Major Leagues this season. 

Chad Smith's first major league win came in a unique way after he pitched the final two innings of the Oakland Athletics' 8-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday.

Smith entered in the bottom of the eighth, after the A's had scored three runs in the top of the inning to take a 7-4 advantage.

That meant reliever Jeurys Familia -- who pitched the bottom of the seventh and was in the game when Oakland took the lead for good -- could have been the pitcher of record.

However, the official scorer chose not to give Familia the win because he was deemed to have had a short, ineffective outing.

Familia came on with one out in the seventh, a man on first and Oakland up 4-2. After a passed ball, Cedric Mullins rolled an RBI single to right, and after a groundout moved Mullins to second, Adley Rutschman hit an RBI single to tie the score.

Familia retired Ryan Mountcastle on a grounder to end the inning.

According to Rule 9.17 (c): "The official scorer shall not credit as the winning pitcher a relief pitcher who is ineffective in a brief appearance, when at least one succeeding relief pitcher pitches effectively in helping his team maintain its lead. In such a case, the official scorer shall credit as the winning pitcher the succeeding relief pitcher who was most effective, in the judgment of the official scorer."

Pittsburgh Pirates teammates Ji Hwan Bae and Ji Man Choi made major league history on Tuesday night when they both homered in a win over the Houston Astros.

Bae and Choi became the first pair of South Korean teammates to homer in the same game. Bae hit a walk-off, three-run home run to give the Pirates a 7-4 victory.

Choi hit a solo homer in the sixth inning.

Luis Arraez became the first Miami Marlins player to hit for the cycle in Tuesday night's game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Arraez went 4-for-5 with a homer, two runs scored and two RBIs.

Before Tuesday, the Marlins were the only active major league team to not have a cycle in their history. 

"I had a lot of people who helped me work hard every day," Arraez said. "I want to give this to my family and my wife, who is expecting our baby."

Ryan Mountcastle tied a club record with nine RBIs in the Baltimore Orioles' 12-8 win over the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.

Mountcastle hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning and added a grand slam in the seventh.

The first baseman tied the franchise's single-game mark for RBIs set by Jim Gentile in 1961 and matched by Eddie Murray in 1985.

Mountcastle became the first player in the majors to drive in nine runs since Adam Duvall in 2020.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Mountcastle is the third player in MLB this season to hit a three-run homer and grand slam in the same game, joining Trayce Thompson and Max Muncy.

Andrew Heaney tied an American League record by striking out nine consecutive batters in Monday night's 11-2 win against the Kansas City Royals.

The Texas Rangers left-hander matched a record shared by Detroit Tigers reliever Tyler Alexander against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 2, 2020, and Tigers reliever Doug Fister against the Royals on Sept. 27, 2012.

"I felt like I owed it to the guys, owed it to the fans, to myself to be better than what I was," Heaney said, referencing his rocky outing in his Rangers debut last week.

The major league record for consecutive strikeouts is 10, set by the New York Mets' Tom Seaver on April 22, 1970, and matched by the Philadelphia Phillies' Aaron Nola on June 25, 2021, and the Milwaukee Brewers' Corbin Burnes on Aug. 11, 2021.

Jordan Walker extended his hitting streak in the St. Louis Cardinals' game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday afternoon.

Walker, 20, has hit safely in all nine games he's played this season. Only two other players in history have started their careers with hitting streaks that long at age 20 or younger.

• Eddie Murphy, 1912 Philadelphia Athletics: 12 games
• Jordan Walker, 2023 St. Louis Cardinals: 9 games and counting
• Ted Williams, 1939 Boston Red Sox: 9 games

The longest hitting streak to begin a career at any age is 17 games, a record shared by Chuck Aleno of the 1941 Cincinnati Reds and David Dahl of the 2016 Colorado Rockies.

Nelson Cruz, 42, hit a three-run home run and drove in six runs in the San Diego Padres' 10-2 win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday night.

Cruz (42 years and 282 days) is the third-oldest with a six-RBI game; only Carlton Fisk (43-281) and Barry Bonds (42-360) were older.

He is the second-oldest player to homer for the Padres, only one day younger than Rickey Henderson was when he went deep on Oct. 4, 2001. 

"It's nice, especially against the Braves," Cruz said. "They have a really good team, so it shows how deep we are as a team. To win three of four against the Braves tells a lot."

The Tampa Bay Rays are off to a start not seen in baseball since the 1800s.

The Rays entered Thursday at 6-0 and have won all six games by at least four runs, the longest such streak to begin a season since the 1884 St. Louis Maroons' season-opening 13-game streak.

"It's team baseball," Shane McClanahan said. "Through and through, team baseball."