Nationals 7, @Phillies 3: “Nat Gio” set a franchise record with his 21st win, and

only a party pooper would dwell on Dickey’s NL-best numbers in IP, SO, QS and QS%, Game Score Average, CG, SHO, IP/GS, and being nice to kittens.

• Bryce Harper‘s late surge — 27 Runs in his last 28 games — gives him a shot to be the 2nd teen to tally 100 times. Seven more would pass Buddy Lewis for the record. He’s already tied Lewis for the under-20 mark of 240 Total Bases, and also owns the teen season mark of 53 extra-base hits. He’s 5 away from Rusty‘s 59 walks.

Dodgers 8, @Padres 4: It happens every time — you IBB a guy with first base open and 2 outs, then you hit the next 2 batters, and before the inning’s done, 4 runs are home.

• First time since 2006 that each side had an RBI HBP.
• Bobby Abreu stole his 399th base. His season high is 40. Out of 104 players with at least 300 SB since 1901, only 5 have a lower max: Vada Pinson (32 max, 305 career); Derek Jeter (34, 348), Reggie Sanders (36, 304), Andre Dawson (39, 314), and Larry Bowa (39, 318). Five others peaked at 40, including Willie Mays (338).
• Last 20 games for Hanley: .225 BA, no HRs, 4 Runs, 3 RBI, 1 walk, 26 Ks. Hitch your wagon to a star!

@Giants 7, Diamondbacks 3: Barry’s backers barrel on! For the first time as a Giant, Barry Zito has won 4 straight starts, bringing his record to 14-8 despite a career-worst 84 ERA+. He can thank a run-support rate that’s 3rd in the NL (5.8 runs per 27 outs while he’s in the game). A 6-run 2nd did the trick last night, capped with a 2-run shot by Marco Scutaro. He’s hitting .406 in September, with 21 Runs and 21 Ribs in 23 games, and .365 in 56 G for SF.

• Scutaro would be the 2nd Giant since 1930 to bat .360+ with at least 250 PAs.
• ABs with men in scoring position this year: Scutaro, 153; Ryan Braun, 134; Josh Hamilton, 130; Edwin Encarnacion, 105.
• Buster Posey is your new title-eligible BA leader in the NL. He would be the 2nd SF Giant ever to win the crown, and the 3rd Giant since 1930. He also nosed ahead of McCutchen in the OPS+ race.
• When Ryan Vogelsong toes the slab tonight, the Giants will become the 9th team ever to have 5 guys make 30 starts. SF’s regular rotation has started all but 2 games, and Cincinnati’s all but 1; every other team has at least one 6th man with 5+ starts.

@Rangers 9, Athletics 7: Oakland bashed 5 HRs, but Texas grabbed a 5-0 lead in the 1st and matched Oakland’s rallies in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, until the A’s (despite 3 solos in the 8th) finally ran out of time. Travis Blackley was knocked out early for the 2nd game in a row, giving 2 first-inning HRs.

• Matt Harrison labored through 6 for his 18th win, first Ranger to that mark since 2004.
• The A’s lost with 5 HRs for the first time since this 17-16 Arlington slugfest in the heyday of you-know-what.
• The 4-game split left Texas 4 games up with 6 to play, the last 3 set for the East Bay.

@Tigers 5, Royals 4: Detroit squandered Doug Fister’s record feat when Joaquin Benoit put too much meat on the Country Breakfast platter. But Prince Fielder, who was erased at the plate in the first, sneaked a hustle double to start the ninth, and with a little helped kicked in by KC’s fifth error, the Bengals celebrated the end of their home schedule on a 4-game spree to finish at 50-31, the most home wins in MLB to date.

• Through 7 scoreless frames, Fister threw 60 strikes in 82 pitches, allowing just 1 hit as he sought his 2nd straight shutout. But in the 8th he wilted — 4 hits, 3 runs, the last set up by Avila’s passed ball, drew KC close enough for Butler’s blow to matter.
• Detroit is 11-4 against the Royals, with 3 to come — but in KC, where they were swept a month ago.

Rays 3, @White Sox 2: When last they played, a 3-game series at May’s end, Chicago rode a 5-game wave that would reach 9, sweeping through Tampa Bay into the Central lead; they hadn’t been 2 games from first since then. But the Rays’ Revival Tour came to the South Side on Thursday, and when Adam Dunn swung through Fernando Rodney‘s change-up, the Sox were drooping ’round Detroit’s spiked feet, while Tampa’s 8th straight win had them at 86-70, 2 games from a wild card — exactly where they were at this point last year.

Save for a few particulars — one “No. 1.5” right-hander squeezed an extra inning from his 117 pitches, the other summoned up two timely double plays — the sides were level to the 9th; each scratched in turn in stanzas four and five. Then Longo got enough of Brett Myers‘s slider, and then came Rodney and the bull’s-eye shot. He ran his latest daisy chain to 16.2 IP while setting a new franchise mark with his 46th save.

• What’s that you say? You’ve never seen a scoring balk o’erturned?
• But surely, then, you’ve seen this one: from stolen base, to flyout, then to DP on appeal, all in a few short but mistaken steps.
• Chicago has lost 7 of 8, dropping 5 games in the tables. Three more against the Rays, then off to Cleveland.

@Blue Jays 6, Yankees 0: Brett Lawrie hit his first longball in 2 months, Double-E tried out the Atkins Diet (3 ribs, no taters, first time this year), and Brandon Morrow painted seven ovals on the scoreboard, trimming New York’s Eastern lead to 1 as Baltimore rested.

• The Jays last blanked the Yanks a year ago, with Morrow on the hill.
• Interesting contrast: ESPN.com’s sidebar read “Escobar booed in first home game since slur.” The lead said “a smattering of boos.” Yankees’ announcer Michael Kay pointedly observed an absence of boos, while noting that the crowd was sparse enough that any vocal opinions should have been easily heard.

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Hard times for the hangers-on:

@Reds 2, Brewers 1: Agony for the Crew. With a 1-0 lead in the 9th, John Axford got the first two on strikes, then yielded a tying HR on the first pitch to Todd Frazier, a single by Jay Bruce, and — after three full-count fouls — Dioner Navarro‘s game-winning gapper.

• Navarro’s hit is a triple in the box score. Hunh? He had barely touched 2nd base when Bruce scored. See rule 10.06(f).

Mariners 9, @Angels 4: Sometimes momentum is only as good as tomorrow’s relief pitchers. Trailing 3-2 after 6, any Haloed hopes of repeating Wednesday’s walk-off imploded along with the bullpen that allowed 6 runs in the last 3 frames.

• John Jaso homered and doubled to boost his 141 OPS+. He would be the first Mariner since 2005 at 140+ in at least 300 PAs.
• Mike Trout went 4-0-0-0 with a walk, now hitting .247 with 4 RBI in 24 September games.

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@Mets 6, Pirates 5: Win #20 was no cakewalk for R.A. Dickey, even though Pittsburgh’s plunge from contention had been cemented with Wednesday’s shutout loss. Dickey fanned 13 in 7.2 IP in the home finale, becoming the 4th Met ever to reach 220 Ks, but was bedeviled by former teammate Rod Barajas, who belted a long double and a HR in his first two trips. Travis Snider used the chain-link fence to steal a HR from Mike Baxter at a stunning altitude, the greatest catch I’ve witnessed live since Endy ’06. But David Wright broke a tie in the 5th with a 3-run blast that escaped Snider’s sphere of influence, and that lead withstood even the typical 4-outs, 2-runs performance of New York’s leaky pen.

• Dickey’s latest streak — 8 games of more than 6 innings while yielding 3 runs or less — is the longest by a Met since Ron Darling ran off 12 to start the ’88 campaign (Dickey’s feat matched by Bobby Jones ’97 and Dwight Gooden ’90).
• Mets are 22-10 in Dickey’s starts, 50-74 otherwise.
• Others with their first 20-win season at age 37 and up: Mike Mussina (39), Jamie Moyer (38), David Wells and George McConnell (37).
• I guess someone’s selling “vintage” Mets jerseys — I saw “GROTE” and “KINGMAN” in today’s crowd.
• Pedro Alvarez added 3 to the Pirates strikeout mark he set on Wednesday.

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None of the AL home-run leaders tallied; Hamilton (43) still leads by 1 over Cabrera and Encarnacion, with Dunn and Granderson each another step in back. Cabrera (1-4, .327) leads idle Mauer (.323) and hitless Trout (.320) in batting, and tops Hamilton by 8 in RBI.