Belatedly, and most imperfectly….

@Orioles 5, Red Sox 3: For 5-1/3 innings, all Baltimore could do with Aaron Cook‘s offerings was beat them into the ground. Nobody even got the ball out of the infield fair: 19 batters, 13 groundouts, 3 walks, a strikeout, a foul fly, and a soft liner to short. But J.J. Hardy‘s liner to left opened the floodgates, and Boston’s lead was washed away by a 5-run deluge.

• Turning point: Cook should have been out of the inning after 1 run. He stabbed a comebacker by Adam Jones and had all day to start the 1-6-3 DP, but after fielding the ball with a twist to his right, he made a 270-degree turn the other way and heaved it into left-center (see the 0:28 mark). That tied the game, and a double by Matt Wieters put the O’s in front and ended Cook’s night.
• Six hits. What are your chances with 6 hits in a game? Baltimore has a 50/50 chance: They’re 8-8 when collecting exactly 6 hits. The other MLB teams have a combined .322 W% with 6 hits, with only the Angels over .500 (9-7). With 6 hits or less, Baltimore is 16-23 (.410), the most wins and best W% for that situation. Other teams have a combined .235 W% with 6 hits or less; Baltimore’s record is 7 wins above that pace.
• Cook has 7 strikeouts total in 10 starts. Scherzer has exceeded that total in 13 of his 24 games. Cook’s 1.105 SO/9 would be the lowest since 1954 in a season of 50+ IP.

Nationals 6, @Giants 4: Danny Espinosa‘s 2-run HR broke a tie in the 3rd, Jayson Werth knocked in 3 for just the 2nd time this year, and Stephen Strasburg showed he’s not “dead” yet, even if he soon will be.

• Two unhappy developments for SF’s stretch-run outlook: The 50-game suspension of surprising lineup anchor Melky Cabrera, and another dud by Tim Lincecum — 4 IP, 4 R, 8 H, 96 pitches, two 2-out, 2-run rallies,
• Washington captured the series, ho-hum. They’re 7-1 with 2 splits since the Break, going 24-11.

@Angels 8, Indians 4: Back in the bigs for the first time since his true identity was revealed, Roberto Hernandez (f.k.a. Fausto Carmona) was warmly welcomed — by the Angels, whom he has never beaten in 8 tries. Ervin Santana earned his first QS/W since his June 16 one-hitter and beat Cleveland for just the 2nd time in 10 decisions; the other was his 2011 no-hitter. The Halos won consecutive games for the first time this month (5-9).

• Ten hits in 6 IP (and all 8 runs) ran to 8 games Hernandez’s string of allowing more hits than IP.
• Mike Trout hit his 22nd HR, his 14th in 38 starts since July 1. Of the 17 players with more HRs than Trout this year, none has more since July 1; Miguel Cabrera, Josh Willingham, Albert Pujols and Jason Kubel also have 14 in that span. In those 38 games, Trout has 45 Runs and 34 RBI.

Dodgers 9, @Pirates 3: Clayton Kershaw won his 4th straight start and took over the NL WHIP lead at 1.014. He also extended his hitting streak to 3 games, with 2 singles, a Run and a RBI. Shane Victorino (5-2-3-0) has scored 10 Runs in LA’s last 7 games (6-1).

• 27 starts and 122 PAs since Andre Ethier‘s last HR; he has 11 this year after hitting the same number last year.
• A 3-7 homestand has dropped Pittsburgh into a tie with St. Louis for the 2nd wild card, with SF a half-game back.

White Sox 9, @Blue Jays 4:Kelly Johnson‘s 3-run HR tied it in the 6th, but Ricky Romero put the first 2 men on for free, and Adam Dunn punished his replacement with a 3-run shot (#399 career) and Dayan Viciedo backed it up with a 2-run drive in the same inning.

• Dewayne Wise drove in the first 4 runs. He has a hit and a ribby in each of his 3 games since rejoining the ChiSox on waivers from NYY.
• The big 7th made a winner out of Gavin Floyd. Since going 17-8 in his first full year in the rotation, Floyd’s records are 11-11, 10-13, 12-13 and 9-9.
• From perfect game to forgotten man: Philip Humber worked the 9th and gave up a HR to his first batter. Since his April perfecto, Humber has a 6.86 ERA and 20 HRs in 78.2 IP.

Tigers 5, @Twins 1: Ten Ks in 7 scoreless frames for the once-again MLB strikeout leader, Max Scherzer, who got an early cushion from Miguel Cabrera‘s 30th HR. Minny’s only real threat against Scherzer came from 2 walks in the 2nd, and he responded by fanning the side.

• Cabrera has 30 HRs & 100 RBI for the 5th straight year, the longest such streak by a Tiger. Hank Greenberg had a total of six 30/100 with Detroit; no other Tiger had more than four (Cecil Fielder, Rudy York). It’s also the longest active 30/100 streak; Mark Teixeira needs 7 HRs & 23 RBI to extend his streak to 5 years.
• With 11.41 SO/9, Scherzer would be the 4th AL qualifier with a year at 11 or better (one by Nolan Ryan, two each by Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez).

@Reds 6, Mets 1: Mike Leake had allowed 4 ER over 3 career starts against the Mets, but had never beaten them. Now he has: A CG 4-hitter with no walks. When they weren’t swinging and missing at R.A. Dickey‘s wobblers (9 Ks in 6 IP), the Reds were smacking them off and over the walls (3 HRs, 3 doubles). Todd Frazier hit one of the longest I’ve seen this year; even the cameraman lost it; the rookie has 15 bombs and is slugging .541.

• Dickey is the first Met ever with 9+ Ks while allowing 6+ extra-base hits, and the first Met since 1995 with 9+ Ks and 10+ hits allowed. At least he moved ahead in the SO race.
• Scott Rolen since the Break: .366/1.064, with more walks than strikeouts.
• Mets have lost 4 of 5, averaging 2 runs on 6 hits. They finished the literal first half at 44-37, but are 11-25 since.

@Royals 3, Athletics 2: Seeking his first win since June, Brandon McCarthy had a 2-1 lead and 2 outs in the 7th. And then: double, double, double, the last one a left-on-left retort by Chris Getz off Sean Doolittle.

• Losing 3 of 4 has dropped the A’s 1.5 games out of the wild card, tied with the Angels.
• Doolittle vs. LHBs: 13 for 39, 9 doubles. Righties are 13 for 62, all singles.
• Bad day for rookie catcher Derek Norris. His overthrow led to an unearned run in the 1st, and he went 0 for 4, twice leaving men in scoring position, including a whiff with a man on 3rd and 1 out.
• Royals rookie Will Smith had a 7.97 ERA after 4 starts, but has won 3 of his last 5, going 7 IP on 2 runs or less each time.

@Cardinals 5, Diamondbacks 2: How deep is that lineup? Rafael Furcal, recently demoted from leadoff to 8th in the order, broke open a tight game in the 6th with a 2-out, 2-run triple.

• If you looked just at Adam Wainwright‘s TTO rates, you’d never know he missed a year. His SO/9 and SO/BB are at career highs.
• St. Louis has won 13 of their last 16 at home and has 7 more on the current homestand, with Pittsburgh coming in for the weekend.
• If there’s any hope for Arizona to get back in it (they’re 6.5 back in the division and 7 in the WC), they’ll have to get some production out of Stephen Drew (.206/.632 in 36 games this year) and Chris Young (.172/.598 since April, with 16 RBI in 204 ABs).

@Braves 6, Padres 1: Edinson Volquez was one pitch away from escaping a 3rd-inning jam. But he hung it, Dan Uggla hammered it, and the game was never in doubt afterwards. Jason Heyward was on all 4 times, and chased Volquez with a 2-run double in the 4th.

• Seven straight QS for Paul Maholm, with a 1.37 ERA and 0.85 WHIP in that stretch.
• Atlanta has won 9 of 14, four of them by a 6-1 score (with another by 6-0). In their last 22 games, they’ve allowed 47 runs and scored 110.

@Yankees 3, Rangers 2: Smallball lives! For the 3rd time this year, New York won without a HR, bunching their bingles in the 3rd inning. Eric Chavez, who was 0 for 18 against southpaws this year, had 3 hits and a walk against the alien offerings, and capped the rally with an opposite-field line single off Scott Feldman.

• “A-who?” Chavez is hitting .303 with a 140 OPS+.
• I could never root for this, understand, but a Yankees-Dodgers World Series would provide a fascinating contrast in styles: New York leads the world with 180 HRs, while LA has both hit and allowed the fewest (70 and 85). There have been more than twice as many HRs in Yankee games.
• Josh Hamilton homered twice and now has 3 HRs in 13 PAs against Freddy Garcia; but the rest of the Rangers have none in 145 PAs. In his last 9 starts against Texas, the Chief has allowed 12 ER in 54.1 IP, winning the last 5 decisions.
• Hamilton has already won an MVP while missing the last month of a season; now that he’s rediscovered his power stroke (5 HRs in 7 games), is it too late to get hot enough to win another MVP despite contributing virtually nothing in June & July? He could easily win 2 legs of the Triple Crown, you know. (Thank goodness for Trout!)