Too much going on for a full report, but I’ll just hang it up there and see how y’all whack it.

@Angels 6, White Sox 2: Chicago’s 3rd straight loss cut their division lead to 1 game in the loss column. In their last 4 games, they have 4 HRs and 8 runs. Angels gained a game on Oakland in the WC chase, but they’re 4 back in the loss column with no games left against the teams to need to catch.

• A HR and a 2B for Mike Trout, who had 1 XBH and no RBI in his previous 10 games.
• Jake Peavy topped 200 IP for the first time since 2007. (I surely didn’t think he’d ever do that again.) Is his second-half decline due to fatigue (in the last 3 years he peaked at 112 IP) or a reversal of fortune (BAbip split .254/.320)?

@Cubs 5, Cardinals 4 (11): Location, location, location. With his team one strike away from a 4-2 victory, fill-in closer Fernando Salas allowed a 1-and-2 single to David DeJesus and then a tying HR by Darwin Barney on a terrible 1-and-2 changeup. DeJesus won it with 2 gone in the 11th on Joe Kelly‘s 0-and-2 fastball(?) right down Broadway.

• Cards lost their 4-game win streak and saw their WC lead fall to 1 loss over Milwaukee.
• Here’s the kind of play that used by make my Mets friends fulminate against Carlos Beltran: Top of the 1st inning, after a leadoff double, first pitch, he bunted. It was scored a sacrifice, his first since 2008. I assume he was bunting for a hit, but it’s a bad play no matter what. Sure, he’s had a down stretch — last 32 games, 6 RBI and .198 BA — but he came in on a hot run of 9 for 19. And yes, Beltran has a very good career record of 26 hits and 17 sacs out of 56 bunts. It’s still a bad play in the top of the 1st inning with a man in scoring position.
• Cubs need 4 more wins to dodge 100 losses.

@Yankees 2, Athletics 1: Bombers have won 6 in a row, but gained just a game on the O’s.

• New York has two walk-off HRs this year, both by Russell Martin. The other one also redeemed Rafael Soriano‘s blown save.
• Brandon Moss tied it in the 9th with a pinch-HR. He has 17 HRs in 181 ABs vs. RHP, and 11 HRs in 102 ABs on the road.
• CC’s best Game Score since last July.
• The last time CC faced Oakland, Soriano also blew a 1-run lead on a 1-out HR.
• Martin has 18 HRs and a .206 BA. Of the 283 prior seasons of 18+ HRs by a Yankee, the lowest BA was .220 by Kevin Maas.
• One hit and two Ks for Derek Jeter, advancing his franchise records. He’s about two years from passing Gehrig and Ruth for total-base supremacy.

D-backs 15, @Rockies 5: In the 2nd inning, Aaron Hill struck out with the bags full and 2 down. The Snakes chalked in every other frame.

• Miguel Montero (5-3-3-3) is an underrated star. He’s started 127 games behind the mask this year, tops in MLB, and also leads in starts for 2011-12 combined. He cuts off the running game almost as well as Yadier Molina, and he joins Yadi and Carlos Santana as the only regular catchers with OPS+ 115+ each of the last 2 years.
• It’s been a banner year for NL catchers, with Yadi, Buster, Chooch, Miggy and J-croy all topping 3 WAR. In the last 30 years, only one other NL season has seen five 3-WAR catchers (1997).
• Colorado has allowed 493 runs in 75 home games, 6.57 RA/HG.
• Next-highest is Boston at 5.25, then Minny at 5.19, and Baltimore at 4.80.
• Lowest is SF at 3.26, less than half the Rockies’ average.
• Total runs in Colorado home games are up from 10.81 last year to 12.51 this year.

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THURSDAY THINGAMAJIGS

Rangers 3, @Angels 1: If this was the game that drove the dagger home, the initial thrust came on August 1: After taking the first 2 of a 4-game Texas visit, the Californians were poised to move within 2 games of the leaders. But Ernesto Frieri couldn’t hold a 1-run lead in the 9th, yielding a Ian Kinsler‘s tying HR, and Frieri and Izzy combined to blow a 3-run lead and lose in the 10th. Texas won again the next day with another late barrage, and the Halos left town just as they’d arrived, 5 games back.

• Mike Trout has played 16 more games this year than he’s ever played before. Coincidence or not, this game produced the worst WPA of his career, -0.246: 0 for 4, 2 strikeouts, including this “WTF?” SO/CS DP that ended an inning with the go-ahead run on 3rd and Torii Hunter due up.
• Must have felt like Groundhog Day to Zack Greinke. By the way, that’s 6 straight games with 7+ IP and 2 R or less, matching the longest streaks of the year (Dickey & Felix H.).
• As noted by Ed, Mark Trumbo has not hit a two-bagger since July 17, a span of 52 games and 212 PAs. The last 50-game streak by a position player with at least 2 PAs per game was in 2008 by Edgar Renteria; our friend Jason Bay went 47 games last year without doubling his pleasure.

@Royals 4, White Sox 3: The baserunning was bad enough, but any team that intentionally walks Jeff Francoeur is just begging to lose.

• Eric Hosmer‘s last game-ending RBI came one year and four days ago — and also came off Matt Thornton right after an IBB.
• Jarrod Dyson is 12-2 in steal attempts as a pinch runner. At first, I was surprised that his steal of 2nd in this game situation (tied with 2 outs in the home 9th) only moved the WPA meter by 4%. But thinking it through removed my qualms.
• KC has won 9 straight starts by Jeremy Guthrie, who has a 1.75 ERA and 0.97 WHIP in that span. Guthrie only got 4 of the wins, but that’s still the longest winning streak by a KC starter this year.
• Billy Butler needs 1 RBI for the Royals’ first 100-RBI year since 2003. He’s also an eyelash away from a career .300 BA.
• Catchers with 4+ WAR through age 22 and within their first 2 years combined: Salvador Perez, Brian McCann, Butch Wynegar and Johnny Bench. (Expanding the age range to 23 brings in Jason Kendall, Thurman Munson, Bruce Edwards and Mickey Cochrane.)

@Nats 4, Dodgers 1: The franchise’s only prior playoff appearance wasn’t clinched until the final Friday, when Steve Rogers blanked the Mets on 2 hits in front of 6,720 die-hard New Yorkers.

LA is 3 games out of a wild card with 12 to play, none against the teams they need to catch. OK, we all know that the Mets’ offense has died, with 47 runs in 17 games this month; but LA has just 48 runs in 17 September games.

• For 2011-12 combined, among pitchers with 200+ innings, Ross Detwiler‘s 130 ERA+ ranks 11th, tied with Roy Halladay. Somehow, I would not have guessed that….

@Giants 9, Rockies 2: Suddenly, Barry Zito can’t lose, even when he allows 10 hits in 5.2 IP. SF has won his last 9 starts, in which he has a 3.96 ERA with 60 hits in 50 IP (.302 BA).

• Pablo Sandoval is the first SFG this year with 2 HRs in a home game. Pop quiz: Besides the Panda, who’s the only other Giant since Bonds retired with multiple multi-HR home games?
• First game this year with a GDP from 2 different #3 hitters on the same team. First such game in Rockies history; they’ve also had 1 such game by the nos. 2, 7, 8 and 9 spots. In MLB this year, the only spot left with no such games is leadoff.
• Rockies have dropped 6 in a row and 13 of 15. They need to go at least 5-8 to avoid their first 100-loss year, and 10-4 to avoid a new club record for losses.

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Pop quiz answer: This fellow had 3 such games.