Braves 3, @Nats 1: Eight straight for Atlanta, capturing the first series in what most see as a 2-team race with a chance at the sweep on Sunday. Last year, the Nats won the season series, 10-8; had that been flipped, the Braves might have avoided the wild-card game.

Win #199 for Tim Hudson featured 7 smooth innings on just 90 pitches, and a couple of knocks off Strasburg. Since his 1999 debut, Hudson has started 258 team wins, 24 more than #2 in that span (Sabathia). His 2.17 ERA in those games ranks 10th out of 97 pitchers starting at least 100 team wins since ’99. Huddy needs 21 more wins to pass Kenny Rogers for the top spot among Georgia natives. The Peach State has produced 3 Hall of Fame position players, but none who called the bump home.

• Phenom, meet phenomenal. Evan Gattis went deep with 2 outs after Ryan Zimmerman’s throwing error. Mamas, don’t let your babies pitch this man chest-high!
• Here’s why Jason Heyward had just 4 GDPs last year. Man gets up that line in a hurry. That one brought an insurance run.
• No ER off Strasburg, but he used 112 pitches over 6 innings. Pitchers were 4 for 76 off him before Hudson’s 2 singles.
• Pretty pitch from Craig Kimbrel to close it out. That’s 21 straight scoreless outings, going back to last year and counting the Wild-Card game. He set the club record of 38 in 2011.

_______________

@Angels 5, Astros 4: With 2 outs in the 9th, Mike Trout beat out an infield hit, then raced around as the winning run on a double down the line by Albert Pujols — his first walk-off for the Angels snapping a 5-game slide.

• Michael Roth, a 9th-round pick last year with 27 innings of pro experience, earned the win in his MLB debut by retiring all 6 men he faced, with 4 Ks in a row.

_______________

Giants 3, @Cubs 2: Madison Bumgarner faced a bind in the 2nd, 2 in scoring position with no outs. No worries: He fanned the #6-7 hitters with 5 swing-and-misses, gave #8 a pass, then dispatched Samardzija. MadBum has never allowed a hit to a pitcher with a man on 3rd — 0 for 18, with one run on a sac fly. The other tight spot was the 8th, when Santiago Casilla cleaned up some leftovers with a timely DP set up by an IBB.

• Rough day at the office for young Welington Castillo: A whiff with 2 on, a GDP, a leadoff whiff and that bags-full DP in the 8th.
• Heavy lifting by Casilla, who stayed for the save after the 8th-inning bail-out, giving Romo a break after Friday’s fumble. Since joining SF in 2010, Casilla has been one of the very best at stranding inherited runners, a frequent task for him.
• Pinch-HRs in consecutive games for Dioner Navarro.

_______________

Mets 4, @Twins 2: Bye-bye went Matt Harvey‘s no-no with 2 outs in the 7th, but it would be no surprise if he gets farther than that this season. In the longest outing of his short career, Harvey allowed 2 hits in 8 innings, with 6 Ks and 2 walks. He’s allowed 6 hits in 22 IP this year, and 48 in 81.1 IP career (.173 BA).

• Catching a day game after a night game, John Buck went 0-4, snapping his HR streak at 4 games, one shy of the Mets record. He’s caught all but 8 innings of their first 11 games.
• Scott Diamond‘s first start went smoothly until the 5th, when New York got 6 straight hits and scored all their runs.
• Since 1916, 11 Twins/Senators have begun their careers with 10 straight games of 4+ PAs. All got at least 10 hits except Aaron Hicks, who is 2 for 43. (Hang in there, Aaron — us Libras from San Pedro have to stick together!)

_______________

Tigers 7, @Athletics 3: Justin Verlander stopped Oakland’s win streak at 9, helped by a trio of Bengal bombs off Brett Anderson.

• This one ain’t coming back. In fact, had he let go, the bat might have cleared the wall, too.
• The A’s put 13 upon the sacks, but went 2-13 with RISP and didn’t HR for the first time since Opening Day. They began the day 1st in the majors with 19 HRs.
• Still slow going in V-Mart‘s comeback: 5 for 38, all singles. He’s only whiffed 4 times, though.
• Josh Reddick‘s now 4 for 33. Time for a ritual shave?

_______________

@Cardinals 8, Brewers 0: The matchup of #1 starters was true to its billing at the start, as the first 15 men went down in order. Until the home 6th, the sole tally was Adam Wainwright‘s liner just past a drawn-in shortstop. Wainwright opened the 6th with an infield single, and the inning bled all over Yovani Gallardo and his faulty relievers. Six more singles, Wainwright’s 3rd hit among them, plus a bonk and a boot, produced 7 runs for the Redbirds. The Cardinal ace coasted to a 4-hit, 12-K shutout, with a career-best 91 Game Score.

• Wainwright vs. Milwaukee, career: 1.93 ERA, 5.2 SO/BB, .188 BA (94 for 500). Ryan Braun 9-49, Rickie Weeks 7-40.
• Gallardo vs. St. Louis, career: 1-10, 6.84 ERA. It’s the 7th time in 15 starts that his runs exceeded his innings.
• First game of the year with no walks for either side.
• A 2-8 start matches the worst in Brewers history. That 2002 club lost 106 games; this team has flaws, but nothing like that.
• 3 Ks in each of Gallardo’s first 3 starts, and 26 hits in 16.1 IP. Just once before had he gone even 2 starts in a row with 3 Ks or less.

_______________

@Red Sox 2, Rays 1 (10): Jon Lester continued his comeback with 7 stout frames, his backstop made big plays on both sides of the ball, and his infielders backed him with solos and duets. But the game was settled by the bat and legs of Jacoby Ellsbury, who was 0-for-4 until his 1-out single in the 10th. Shane Victorino waited patiently for the expected steal, which came on the 4th pitch and wound up with Ellsbury on 3rd after an overthrow by the just-entered backup catcher. With 2 strikes now and a 5-man infield, Victorino reached for a back-door breaker and guided it just enough for the game-winner, his first since 2009, and the BoSox walked off with a bounce.

• Jose Molina led off Tampa’s 10th with a double, then left for a pinch-runner who never budged. It was a logical move, but Molina has a career 39% CS rate, Jose Lobaton 18%.
• More angst for Joel Hanrahan, who walked the first 2 in the 9th and got bailed out by Koji Uehara. Hanrahan’s last outing was a walk-fueled massive meltdown.

_______________

@Pirates 3, Reds 1: Four out of five for the Bucs, but the struggles continue for some: Russell Martin, 2 for 31; Pedro Alvarez, 3 for 35. Clint Barmes is 4 for 30, but he was in the middle of the go-ahead run, capped by Starling Marte’s plate coverage on 1-and-2.

• Johnny Cueto left in the 5th with a triceps injury. Last year was his first time past 186 IP, and he went 19-9 while leading the NL in ERA+. But then he got hurt after one batter in the playoffs, and didn’t return. He was off to a good start this year,
• Alfredo Simon allowed 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk over 2+ IP. Each of the 4 who reached base fouled off at least one 2-strike pitch. Was there a flukier season than Simon’s last year? Coming in with a career 5.18 ERA, 1.47 WHIP and massive 1.7 HR/9, he allowed just 2 HRs in 61 IP, stranded 16 of 20 inherited, and logged a 2.66 ERA, despite a 1.43 WHIP.
• Reds have dropped 4 of 5 on their first road trip. Last year, they had the 2nd-best road record in MLB, and won both road games in the playoffs.

_______________

@Blue Jays 3, Royals 2: SS Munenori Kawasaki went 0-for-1 in his big-league debut, but he drove in the first run with a sac fly and scored the second after a walk in front of a signature blast by Jose Bautista. R.A. Dickey picked up his first win since last year’s Cy Young Award, holding KC off the board into the 7th in the longest and best outing by a Toronto starter so far.

• James Shields tossed a 2-hitter but lost on the HR — just like his last start for the Rays.
• Bautista vs. Shields: 9 for 28, 4 HRs.

_______________

@Marlins 2, Phillies 1: A leadoff walk, a clean hit, and a boot that was scored as a bingle snapped Miami’s 6-game skid in group-hug fashion. Another sharp start by Jose Fernandez — 6 scoreless, 2-hit innings — still wasn’t enough for a win, but he picked up his first hit and RBI with a 2-out, “swing-like-you-mean-it” hack off Cole Hamels.

_______________

More junk from Friday games:

@Cubs 4, Giants 3: A placid pitchers’ duel topped with a frothy finish — 5 runs on 6 hits in a see-saw 9th that featured great plays and poor ones.

• In 2009-10, I saw Angel Pagan as a great fielder. But no longer. The game-winning hit was eminently catchable, yet Pagan clearly shied from Wrigley’s wall; he tiptoed the final steps, then reached instead of jumping. I root for him, but his fundamentals and grasp of game situations remain poor, in my opinion. (And for exhibit #101 in Why I Hate Starlin Castro, just watch him after he hits that ball, clearly thinking it’s gone.)
• This, on the other hand, is a beautiful baseball play from start to finish, and shows why hitting the ball in the field of play can be so much more exciting than leaving the yard or missing entirely.
• The closers’ double-meltdown was a rarity. Since the start of 2011, it’s just the 2nd time that 2 RPs blew a save in the same game while scoring worse than -0.7 in WPA; the other happened across town.
• First time since last July that Sergio Romo failed to hold a lead. He had 41 [saves+holds] last year, counting the postseason, and 25 the year before, while blowing just one lead each season. That’s why his WPA ranked 15th among relievers in that span despite modest totals of innings and GF. He gave 3 hits for just the 2nd time since late 2011.
• Dioner Navarro‘s tying pinch-HR was his first ever in that role.
• Cubs had 3 HRs, but were 0-for-8 with RISP. They’re one of five teams so far batting .162 or worse in RBI spots; those teams are a combined 17-33, with all but the Dodgers under .500.

_______________

Toronto’s Aaron Loup is the first big-leaguer from Raceland, LA, just south of Lac des Allemands, and just up the road from my ancestral home of Golden Meadow in bayou country. (By the way, Loup Garou is a French werewolf legend, but I guess that nickname’s taken.)

When Jose Bautista last fanned 4 times in a game (Sept. 2009), he followed with a HR binge that prefigured his 2010 explosion.

Is Alex Gordon the AL’s best left fielder? He’s tops in WAR over the past 2 years, by 13.8-7.3 over Josh Hamilton, and trails the superstar by a sliver in OPS+.

_______________

Shelby Miller‘s strike percentage was the best since Mark Prior 2003 for age 22 or under with 100+ pitches. More than 1,000 starts since then met those two criteria.

Mitchell Boggs got the save, but his performance thus far is making folks antsy, especially with Jason Motte’s return now looking dicey. Milwaukee’s 9th began with the #9 hitter, so with a 2-run lead, Boggs had a huge incentive to avoid a walk that would give Ryan Braun a chance. But he walked Norichika Aoki on 5 pitches, and Jean Segura‘s line single brought up Braun as the winning run. Boggs punched out Braun and then Rickie Weeks to close it, but this was the 3rd time in 6 games that wildness put him in jeopardy.

Those whiffs in the 9th were the Crew’s 2nd and 3rd chances with RISP, all ending the same.

_______________

No video clip of Josh Hamilton’s basepath boo-boo, but I’ll bet you won’t see another game end this way for a while: “Double Play: Foul Popfly: C (Behind Home); Hamilton out at 1B/C-2B.”

A rare road win for Bud Norris. His career splits: 3.50 ERA, 18-15 at home; 5.25 ERA, 12-23 away.

Ten down, 22 to go for Chris Carter, chasing Adam Dunn’s record whiffing streak to start a season (non-pitchers). The pre-2000 record was 15, matched or topped 7 times since then.

Albie Pearson‘s 132 OPS+ in 1963 is the best live-ball mark by a player listed at 5’5″ or less. Jose Altuve is at 138 so far this year. Since 1946, the only qualifiers at that height were Pearson (4 times), Freddie Patek (8) and Altuve (1 and counting).

_______________

After ‘Zona’s win, teams getting no extra-base hits are 6-26 so far this year; 45-278 (.139) last year.

_______________

Vance Worley, the Twins’ Opening Day starter, has allowed 25 hits and 17 runs in 12 innings — but no homers.

Enjoy it now, Mets fans: I’m pretty sure they won’t hit .322/1.019 with RISP all year.