Three up, three down: Joey Votto and Alcides Escobar are the MLB’s iron men

A look at what’s trending in MLB:

THREE UP

Iron men: There are two players who have started every game this year — curiously, the one with the highest on-base-plus-slugging percentage and the one with the lowest OPS, among the 86 players with at least 500 at-bats through Friday. The OPS leader: first baseman Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds, an MVP candidate, who has 35 home runs, a .316 batting average and 50 more walks than strikeouts. Votto is trying to become the first Reds player to start every game in a non-strike season since Pete Rose in 1975. The OPS laggard: Alcides Escobar of the Kansas City Royals, a relic from the era of good-field, no-hit shortstops. Votto had reached base 304 times through Friday; Escobar 160.

Strike force: Strikeouts long ago lost their stigma. For the 12th consecutive year, the league will set a record for total strikeouts. A pitcher who strikes out three times as many batters as he walks is nothing special any more. But here’s a tip of the cap to two Boston Red Sox pitchers: Chris Sale, who became the first pitcher with 300 strikeouts since the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw (2015) and the first American Leaguer to do so — in the circuit where pitchers do not bat — since Pedro Martinez in 1999. Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel through Friday had faced 243 batters and struck out 121, chasing what would be the second season in major league history in which a pitcher threw at least 60 innings and struck out half the batters he faced. The only pitcher to have done that: Kimbrel, for the Atlanta Braves in 2012.

Bryce back: It has been six weeks since Bryce Harper wrenched his knee and calf when he slipped on a wet base. The Washington Nationals hope their franchise player can get in a few at-bats this week before the end of the regular season. Harper leads the major leagues in OPS, but a few at-bats this week and then a four-day layoff before the start of the division series might jeopardize his ability to regain his timing. His karma probably was not helped when he donned a Mississippi football helmet, in solidarity with the alma mater of Nationals teammate Aaron Barrett. The Rebels, members of the high and mighty Southeastern Conference, last weekend lost to California.

THREE DOWN

Net gain: A little girl was rushed to the hospital after she was struck in the face by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, a sadly predictable accident. When a woman left Fenway Park on a stretcher two years ago having been hit by a jagged bit of a broken bat, we wondered when legislators might start summoning baseball officials to public hearings and challenging them to explain why they refuse to mandate protective netting — the same stuff that protects fans behind home plate — in front of seats down the baselines. Time’s up: The New York City Council has scheduled an Oct. 25 hearing. Commissioner Rob Manfred has declined to mandate a standard, saying each ballpark is different and each club should decide. Manfred ought not risk Congress’ summoning him for a nationally televised lecture on consumer safety, especially when the Reds, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners all committed to extended netting within 24 hours of the injury at Yankee Stadium.

Bad karma: The New York Mets two years ago were bound for the World Series, poised to contend for years behind a dominant core of young starters. They’re on pace for their worst record since 2003, when their ace was … Steve Trachsel. This year? Matt Harvey, who carried a shutout into the ninth inning of the final game of the 2015 World Series, has a 6.59 earned-run average; the Mets have been outscored 30-6 in his last two starts. Ace Noah Syndergaard missed five months because of a torn lat muscle, diagnosed only after he refused an MRI examination and the Mets let him try another start. When Syndergaard wondered this week whether the recent spate of hurricanes might be karma for the United States’ withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, he also tweeted: “… and I know Karma. #taketheMRI.”

Hot seats: It was heartening to hear Detroit Tigers’ general manager, Al Avila, say that he would consider managerial experience a criterion in the managerial search that started Friday when Avila fired Brad Ausmus. Two other managers appear unlikely to return next season: the Mets’ Terry Collins and the Braves’ Brian Snitker. Of the division champion managers this year, only one — the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts — is in his first job. Experience ought not take a back seat to collaboration with the front office.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

It’s great that the leagues start all games at the same time — noon Pacific — on the final day of the regular season. That enhances the drama of the battles for that last playoff spot or two — except there might not be any such battles this year.

In the American League, the Minnesota Twins face the Cleveland Indians in a three-game series that starts Tuesday. Since the Indians never lose, they could bring Minnesota back to the pack in the race for the final wild-card spot. That’s the faint hope remaining for the Angels, Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.

In the National League, the Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals are alive for the final wild-card spot. The Rockies host the Dodgers to finish the regular season; the Brewers and Cardinals face one another in St. Louis.

bill.shaikin@latimes.com

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