Mariners 1, @Twins 0: I think we have our AL Pitcher of the Month.

Felix Hernandez won his 4th 1-0 shutout of the year and his 3rd in August, blanking Minnesota on 5 hits and 100 pitches. This time it was not the K but the GB that reigned supreme; he collected 16 groundouts, with two GDPs (including the game-ender) off the bat of Justin Morneau. It was Morneau’s leadoff triple in the 7th that produced the greatest threat to the whitewash, but Hernandez escaped with 3 straight groundouts.

• Four 1-0 shutouts in one season was last achieved in 1976 by Bert Blyleven, in ’74 by Fergie Jenkins, and in ’68 by Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale. The last with more was Dean Chance with 5 in 1964.
• Condolences are due to CG loser Liam Hendriks, who pitched the game of his life but remained winless in 14 career starts (0-9, 6.07). He matched zeroes with the King until the 8th, when Eric Thames — a strikeout victim each of his prior two trips — drove a pitcher’s pitch over the opposite-field fence.
• In his last 14 starts, King Felix is 9-0 with a 1.40 ERA and 0.80 WHIP. He’s taken over the MLB lead with a 2.43 ERA (though he’s 3rd in the AL in ERA+ and in WAR for pitchers).
• He’s also the first AL pitcher since 1998 with 5 shutouts in a season, a total not topped in that circuit since 1988.
• Brendan Ryan hasn’t won a Gold Glove yet, but he’s leading the majors in defensive WAR for the 2nd time in 4 years, and he leads in combined dWAR since 2009.
• Another leadoff drive had extra-base potential, but then Franklin Gutierrez — just back from a long post-concussion rest — did his thing.
• Just a beautiful throw by Denard Span to cut down his counterpart.
• Seattle is 26-16 since the Break, and for the year they’ve scored 507 and allowed 503.

Cardinals 4, @Pirates 3: Pittsburgh couldn’t hold a 2-0 lead and continued their steady descent, dropping 3 games behind St. Louis in the WC hunt. Kyle Lohse tied it with a single in the 5th, and Matt Holliday‘s 24th HR in the 6th put the Cards ahead to stay.

• For your consideration: Yadier Molina, NL MVP candidate. He’s hitting .324/.884 with a 140 OPS+. He’s among the leaders in both offensive and defensive WAR; his total 5.2 WAR ranks 6th, but just 0.7 behind leader David Wright. He’s a big reason the Cards have allowed just 42 steals, half the NL average; his 46% CS rate ranks 2nd by decimal points to Miguel Montero, but Montero has allowed 8 more steals. He’s hitting .348 with RISP, .333 in late-and-close and .389 in high-leverage, and ranks 8th in Win Probability Added. I would still vote for McCutchen at this point, but Yadier is having an outstanding year.

@Orioles 4, White Sox 3: This one-run jazz isn’t funny any more. Homers by Lew Ford and Nate McLouth sparked the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs … that is, they led Baltimore to their 24th one-run victory of the year and 13th in a row. The ChiSox sealed their fate by taking a 1-run lead in the 6th and then the 8th while failing to cash in further scoring chances in those frames; clearly, Buck Showalter knows just how and (and especially when) to motivate his .195-hitting LF to slug a timely 2-run HR.

• But seriously … McLouth now has 4 HRs in 16 ABs off Brett Myers.
• It was the first MLB homer in over 5 years for the 35-year-old Ford, who spent 2010 with Oaxaca in the Mexican league and was with the Long Island (not-so-mighty) Ducks from 2011 until the Orioles signed him this May. He’s also spent time with Hanshin, finding that he was not big in Japan. Before the HR, Ford was 5 for 31 with no RBI for the O’s.
• Baltimore is 24-6 in one-run games (including 5-0 since a certain friendly wager was made — in jest, of course!). Last year, every MLB team lost at least 18 games by 1 run, including Baltimore (22-22).
• Jim Johnson joined Randy Myers as the only Orioles ever to notch 40 saves in a season; Myers did it in ’97, their last winning year.

@Rangers 6, Rays 5: Tampa and David Price had been 12-0 when their ace was backed by 5+ runs, but his streak of 12 quality starts (8-0, 1.56) was snapped by Adrian Beltre‘s go-ahead 2-run double in the 3rd, and his day was ended after 4+ innings (and 10 hits) by Beltre’s 3rd RBI knock. The Rays fell a half-game behind Baltimore and Oakland

• Price is 1-7 against Texas, counting the playoffs.
• So who’s got a line on the AL Cy Young race now? Price, Hernandez, Verlander, Sale, Weaver, Harrison, Kuroda? And is this the kind of muddle that opens the back door for a Johnson or Rodney candidacy?

@Rockies 10, Dodgers 0: Tyler Colvin welcomed Josh Beckett back to the NL with a cannonade on his 2nd pitch, and the Rox pulled away with a 7-run 8th, including a season-high 4 hits and 3 runs off Kenley Jansen. LA managed just 4 hits and fell 2.5 games behind idle SF in the West; they trail St. Louis by the same margin for the 2nd WC.

• Rookie Wilin Rosario hit his 21st HR, the most ever by a Rockies catcher and tops among this year’s NL backstops.
• Colorado snapped a franchise-record 50-game streak of single-digit scoring.

Athletics 3, @Indians 0: Oakland built a picket fence in the early stanzas, and Brett Anderson continued to shine in his return from a year’s-plus absence. His 2nd win of 7 strong innings in as many games leveled his career record at 23-23.

• Sometimes it’s not how you start or how you finish, but who fills the middle. Yoenis Cespedes had neither RBI nor Run, but he set up Oakland’s tallies in the 1st and 3rd, each time with a 1-out double that sent Stephen Drew to 3rd base. It’s not often that a twin donut line produces the game’s high WPA.
• Ryan Cook and Grant Balfour finished up. They rank 6th and 4th in BA this year among pitchers with 50+ IP.

Reds 3, @Diamondbacks 2: A video-resolved HR by Bronson Arroyo broke a tie in the 6th, and 3 relievers closed it out in perfect fashion as Arroyo won his 4th straight quality start as well as his 4th straight in Chase Field. Aroldis Chapman converted his 24th straight save, but for the 2nd straight game he failed to record a strikeout — just the 3rd time ever and the 1st since last May that he’s gone K-free back-to-back.

• Baby-faced Tyler Skaggs, who won his debut last week, stranded men in scoring position in each of the first 4 innings, but Paul Goldschmidt‘s 2-out clunker cost him a run in the 4th and ultimately the loss. The slugging 1B is hitless with no RBI during Arizona’s 4-game skid.

Blue Jays 8, @Yankees 7 (11): Our long international nightmare is over: The Jays have won a game! Derek Lowe, who has lost every which-a-way this year and last, set up the winning run with a wild pickoff throw, his first miscue since 2009, sending pinch-runner Mike McCoy to 3rd, whence he scored on a daring dash after Adeiny Hechavarria‘s grounder.

• Colby Rasmus was 4 for 39 in his career against New York and 1 for 15 in Yankee Stadium. Weight lifted.
• Ageless wonder Darren Oliver retired 6 of 7 batters for the win, getting 3-2 call on Nick Swisher to end it.
• The Yanks lost at home despite hitting 4+ HRs for the 10th time in club history … and the 3rd this year. The first such game happened in 1988; before that, they had won all 87 home games when they clouted 4 or more.

@Padres 3, Braves 0: Scant days after the Adrian Gonzalez era ended in Boston, Casey Kelly, one of the top prospects on the other side of that trade, made his MLB debut with 6 scoreless innings against a team that was 50-29 in games started by a righty. Batterymate Yasmani Grandal drove in all 3 runs, starting in the 2nd with his 6th HR. San Diego has allowed 2 runs per game during their 8-game win streak, which is the 2nd-longest in the league this year.

• In 117 PAs, the switch-hitting Grandal has a .368 OBP and .529 SLG, with 21 RBI and 19 Runs.
• Paul Maholm had received at least 4 runs of support in his last 10 starts with Chicago, but his new club has scored 2 or less in 3 of his 5 turns.

Brewers 15, @Cubs 4: Chicago led 3-1 in the 5th, but Milwaukee forged ahead on Ryan Braun‘s RBI double and a 2-run shot by Aramis Ramirez. Those same parties plus Corey Hart went deep in a rat-a-tat sequence that sparked a 9-run 9th in Wrigley. The Crew finished with season highs of 21 hits and 5 HRs, while Marco Estrada won his 2nd start in a row after being bageled in his first 15 tries.

• Braun’s 35th HR extended his NL lead, and his 5 RBI tied him with Holliday atop that field.
• Estrada now has 5 straight starts without allowing a HR, after serving up 16 in his first 75 IP.
• Stoopid stat: Braun & Ramirez are the first Brewers teammates ever to each have a HR, 2B and GIDP in the same game.