Now with all a moderate amount of new material!

Astros 7, @Brewers 0: Jordan Lyles is the first since 2009 to throw a shutout before his 22nd birthday, the first pitcher since 2010 to homer in his shutout, and the first since 1968 to combine those feats.

• Mike Fiers is the 10th in searchable history (and 2nd this year) to fan 10+ while suffering 4+ HRs. (By the way, Astros hitters fanned 13 times in all, but Lyles made contact in each of his 4 trips.)
• Houston has hit 4+ HRs just three times this year — two of them in this series.

@Cards 10, Nats 4:

• Carlos Beltran‘s 2 HRs gave him 334, 3 shy of Mark Teixeira for #6 on the switch-hitters list. Only Mickey, Eddie and the Chipper have reached 400.
• Lance Lynn joined the Dean Brothers, Kitten Haddix, Ernie Broglio, Johnny Beazley and Bill Steele as Cardinals with 18+ wins in their 2nd season. (Number of times they reached that mark thereafter: Dizzy Dean 4, Broglio and Haddix 1, the others none.)
• Helluva week for the Cards’ rookie SS Pete Kozma: 12 for 24, his first 2 HRs, 3 doubles, 11 RBI. He’s a career .236 hitter in 6 minor-league seasons.
• The Nats and Yanks are the only teams this year with 15+ HRs from all 4 regular infielders. Cincinnati can join with 1 more from Votto.
• The 2012 Nats finish at 48-33 on the road, the best in either league and 2 wins more than any prior edition. Only one of the four previous 90-win teams in club history had a winning road record: the ’87 Expos went 43-38 (but were outscored). The others had huge home/road win splits: 56/39 in ’79, 55/39 in ’93, 51/39 in ’80.
• Bryce Harper in September: .330/1.049, 7 HRs, 26 Runs in 28 games. Four more runs would give him 101 and set a new teenage record.

@A’s 5, M’s 2: The 137 OPS+ by Yoenis Cespedes would be the highest qualifying freshman mark since Albert 2001, and the 29th first-year mark of 130+.

• Tommy Milone is the first starter since 2010 to allow 9+ hits in less than 5 IP and escape with 2 runs or less. The last to do it: one Kris Medlen.
• Seattle had 5 hits with men in scoring position, but just 2 of those produced a run. Among their threats that fizzled: leadoff double in the 1st; 2 on with 1 out in the 2nd (on the subsequent hit, Justin Smoak was thrown out at home despite a bobble in RF; Smoak has the 3rd-worst rate of extra bases taken among all regulars); 1-out triple in the 5th; double & single to start the 7th (3 straight Ks). And in the middle of their lone scoring inning, Jesus Montero rolled into a 6-4-3 DP; he’s 2 for 31 with men on 1st & 2nd, and .215 with RISP over all.
• Bob Melvin on the bullpen phone: “Gimme me the righty with the .165 batting average!“

Yankees 9, @Blue Jays 6: New York’s late rally meant chiefly one thing: Andy Hawkins remains the last Bronxite with 30 decisions in a season (1989).

@Braves 6, Mets 2: Live-ball seasons with 10+ starts and a WHIP of 0.92 or less, sorted chronologically:

Incidentally, Medlen performed much better in the more challenging SP role, with a 0.97 ERA and 0.80 WHIP, 8.4 SO/BB, &c., &c.

@Indians 15, Royals 3: Luke Hochevar‘s baseball future is like an overcooked steak — very nontender. Few have ever pitched so poorly for so long — a career 78 ERA+ in 771 IP over 5 full season — and none did it with just one organization. Of this year’s 86 qualifiers, Hochevar is next-to-last with a 72 ERA+. (But at least he was better than Lincecum.)

@Rangers 8, Angels 6: With 994 extra-base hits, Albert has 42 more than anyone else in his first 13 seasons … even though he’s only played 12 years. (For a straight 12-year comparison, Albert leads Gehrig by 113.)

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Original post:

The Yanks and O’s both won and secured a playoff spot. The Rangers split with Anaheim; already in the tourney, they need one win in their final set at Oakland to lock up the West. The Rays and Angels now are Rangers rooters; they can only force a wild-card tie with Oakland by sweeping their own finales (TB-Baltimore, LAA @ Seattle) while the A’s fall flat at home. (Should that all happen, Jayson Stark’s head may explode.) New York hosts reeling Boston, who’ve lost 9 of 10. Detroit’s magic number is 1.

The Reds tied Washington for best record in the NL; Cincy visits St. Louis, whose magic number fell to 2, while the Nats host Philly. Milwaukee was rubbed out by Houston, while the Dodgers stayed the course with their 5th straight win and now host San Francisco, who (if I have my tiebreakers right) have nothing left to play for; the Giants trail the Nats and Reds by 3 for the best record, and have losing marks against both.

On to a very few game notes:

@Rangers 8, Angels 7 (2nd): Trailing 6-4 after Bad Ervin‘s unshocking implosion, knowing that a loss would drop them to the brink of elimination, Mike Scioscia tried to squeeze a few more outs from Jerome Williams in the 5th. But Mike Napoli‘s double tacked on two for Texas — he’d already homered twice in the game, and was 5 for 11 with a 1.720 OPS against Williams — so that Howie Kendrick‘s 3-run HR in the 7th left them a biscuit shy, and thus it would end.

• Koji Uehara fanned the side in the 8th, giving him 41 Ks and just 3 walks in 33.2 IP this year, as well as a 1.87 ERA and 0.65 WHIP. Uehara is homer-prone, but everything else about his relief record is phenomenal: In 142.2 relief innings, he’s allowed 94 hits and 17 walks, with 181 strikeouts. His career SO/BB ratio of 7.90 (including his 12 starts) is by far the best in MLB history with 200+ IP; #2 is Sergio Romo at 5.73 SO/BB.
• Derek Holland (6.2 IP, 12 H, 7 ER) notched this year’s 3rd winning start with 12+ hits (2 in Arlington, 1 in Denver), and tied for the 2nd-worst winning Game Score of 25 (the 23 and the other 25 were both in Denver).
• Santana had been splendid in his last 7 starts, with a 2.49 ERA and 0.87 WHIP. But pitching in Arlington just ain’t his bag — 90.1 IP, 27 HRs(!) and a 7.47 ERA.
• With the batting crown very much in play, Mike Trout went 0-3 in the nightcap, falling to .321. Cabrera still leads at .325, with Mauer at .323, Beltre at .319.

Tigers 2, @Twins 1: Detroit went 0 for 7 with RISP and gave Liam Hendriks his first-ever scoreless outing. But there’s more than one way to skin a cat, or to flip a deficit, or to redeem yourself for a GDP after an IBB to Miggy — or to clinch a share of first place.

• Another turning point: Scoreless in the 5th, Alexi Casilla Cobbed his way to 3rd with 1 away (bunt, steal, steal), but Anibal Sanchez whiffed Pedro Florimon, then retired Denard Span on a grounder.
• Looks like a routine save in the box score, but we know our Papa too well to fall for that.
• Detroit just barely won the season series from the last-place Twins, 10-8. On to KC, whom they’ve handled at an 11-4 clip.

Rays 6, @White Sox 2: A whiter shade of Pale Hose have swung the bats these last 2 weeks. Since rallying to beat Detroit, 5-4, on 9/17, the Sox have gone 3-10, averaging 2.6 runs and just over 7 hits. Today they were no match for David Price, now the first 20-game winner in Tampa history and most likely their first ERA champ as well.

• The Rays were nevertheless eliminated from the division race, and trail Oakland by 3 with 3 remaining.
• Price, the AL leader in Quality Start percentage, tied Justin Verlander with his 25th QS in just 31 outings, and beat Chicago for just the 2nd time in 6 career tries.
• The ChiSox close in Cleveland, where they’re 4-2 this year; they last swept there in 2010.
• In this 3-10 stretch, Kevin Youkilis is 12 for 52, 1 walk, 1 RBI, 3 Runs; Paul Konerko is 8 for 42, 3 RBI, 3 Runs; Adam Dunn is 5 for 46, 4 RBI (all in one game), 4 Runs; and the middle infield has sunk further into its black hole (Gordon Beckham 6 for 35, 2 RBI, 2 Runs, Alexei Ramirez 10 for 45, 1 walk, 3 RBI, 1 Run). It’s been a group effort.