Five things we learned Sunday: NL rookie race heats up

1:43 AM ET

Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza were inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday and both gave great speeches, had trouble holding back the tears (Griffey lasted 20 seconds) and brought back a flood of memories for Mariners, Dodgers and Mets fans (we’ll pretend those Griffey Reds years never happened). Congrats. Sunday’s other top five:

1. Remember Trevor Story? We haven’t visited Colorado Rockies rookie shortstop Trevor Story much since he tore through the league his first two weeks, but he has quietly been on a tear of late, with six home runs since the All-Star break. He homered on Friday, went 4-for-4 with two home runs on Saturday, and homered again on Sunday. He leads the NL with 27 home runs — two more than teammate Nolan Arenado and Kris Bryant of the Cubs — and ranks third in slugging percentage behind Daniel Murphy and Jake Lamb (exactly how I would have had it back in March). He’s hitting .316/.418/.789 in July and while he’s still on pace for 200-plus strikeouts, there are some positive signs of improvement to go with all the home runs:

April/May: 7.6 percent BB rate, 34.1 percent K rate, 29.7 percent chase rate

June/July: 10.7 percent BB rate, 27.8 percent K rate, 26.9 percent chase rate

More walks, fewer strikeouts, slightly fewer swings on pitches out of the strike zone, all reasons to spark this spurt and believe there’s some big upside here. The K rate is still high, which means he’s always going to be streaky, and there’s always the chance he’s the shortstop Mark Reynolds, but I like that he’s done a better job controlling the strike …

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