Game Notes is scaling back coverage in favor of depth, so we’ll focus on one division per day (both leagues), with occasional noteworthy games tacked on. We begin with the Central Divisions; but feel free to comment on other games.

@Tigers 6, Pirates 5 (box): Justin Verlander bounced back from the worst 3-game stretch of his career with 13 Ks in a solid 7 innings, and Jose Valverde whiffed Andrew McCutchen to end it with the tying run on 1st. Jhonny Peralta went 4 for 4, 3 of them plating men from scoring position, lifting his BA to .342. Prince Fielder scored 3 for the first time since 2011. Don’t let anyone tell you he moves well for a big man — he’s painfully slow, with by far the worst baserunning WAR since 2007 combined.

• Peralta has never hit .300 in a season; he missed by 1 hit in 2011.
• Jose Contreras, occupying a Bucs roster spot for some reason, let in the 2 runs that proved decisive by walking 4 while getting one out in the 7th.
• Miguel Cabrera fanned thrice for the first time this year, 2nd in the last 3 seasons.
• This was the start of a 4-game series, the 5th for Pittsburgh. In each of the previous 4, they lost game 1 and won the next 3. They’re 6-11 in series openers, 25-9 otherwise.
• Detroit reached a season-high 9 games over .500 and opened their largest lead in the division, 2.5 games over Cleveland.

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@Reds 4, Indians 2 (box): Struggling for runs all day, the Tribe got a pinch-bomb from Jason Giambi, tying the game in the 8th and knocking out Mike Leake with the first ER off him since May 8. But then came an interesting bottom half. Choo singled off lefty Nick Hagadone and reached 3rd with 1 out, bringing up Votto, followed by Phillips. What’s your move? (a) Let the lefty pitch to Votto; or (b) walk Votto and bring in a righty (and a better pitcher) to face Phillips. Terry Francona chose (a), and Votto made him pay. Francona went ahead and brought in the righty for Phillips, presumably sending Hagadone to look for the stolen horse.

It looked like “here we go again” for Ubaldo Jimenez and his 6.04 ERA when Choo homered leading off. But he was stingy through the rest of his 7 IP, holding Votto, Phillips and Bruce hitless, dialing up a key strikeout with 2 on in the 2nd to get to the pitcher, and inducing a couple of DPs.

• Votto with a man on 3rd and less than 2 outs, career: 47 for 133, .353 (counting sac flies as ABs), 7 HRs.
• Giambi’s 432nd HR broke a tie with Cal Ripken for #41 on the career list.
• Hagadone came from Boston in the V-Mart trade, but as a starter in the minors he struggled to stay healthy (and to throw strikes). Switched to relief in 2011, he put up solid numbers with much-improved control. But he has yet to gain traction in the majors, now with a 6.36 ERA in 47 career innings, and walks have been prominent in each of his 3 stints.

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Cardinals 6, @Royals 3 (box): The last thing the staggering Royals needed was to face the team with the majors’ best record, and Adam Wainwright‘s 2.38 ERA. They had their own ace on the hill, but today, James Shields didn’t have it, and Yadier Molina did. Starting in the #2 slot for just the third time ever, Molina faced Shields three times with a runner on, and he delivered each time: HR in the 1st, double in the 3rd, sac fly in the 4th.

KC answered the first two bells, scoring 1 in the 1st and 2 in the 3rd, and they came up with 13 hits on the day (12 off Wainwright, tying his career high). But a 2-out rally in the 4th died on Alex Gordon’s flyout, and they lost 3 runners on the bases, including this terrible play by Miguel Tejada — doubled off 1st on a sinking liner to CF to end the 8th at 6-3.

• Edward Mujica converted his 15th straight save — he also has 4 holds (hasn’t surrendered a lead all year) — and ran his walk-free streak to 19.2 IP, the 2nd-longest by an RP this season. (Both he and Jerry Blevins gave a pass in their 2nd game, and have gone 20 games since.)
• David Lough doubled his career high with a 4-hit game (the first by a KC leadoff man this year), including their only extra-bagger.
• No shock that Wainwright snapped his 3-game walk streak, since the Royals are next-to-last in the AL with 122 passes (and were last in 2012). With 6 walks in 80 IP, Wainwright is averaging 0.68 BB/9; the franchise record is 0.75, held by (of course) Bob Tewksbury, who also has their #2 and #4 marks.
• Also all over this game was #9 hitter, Daniel Descalso, who reached in all 4 trips, scoring twice, plus this run-saving play. It’s the first time this year that an NL 9th-place hitter has reached 4 times safely.
• Young Matt Adams took his first “collar & cuffs,” 0 for 5 with 3 Ks.
• Out of 41 qualified corner outfielders, Jeff Francoeur ranks last in OBP, OPS+, HRs (tied with Juan Pierre), and WAR. He’s a free agent this fall … I see him back with the Mets.

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Cubs 7, @White Sox 0 (box): Despite far more success in the last 60 years, the ChiSox remain culturally the second team in the Second City. And if you’ve been to any Sox game, not even a Sox-Cubs game, you’ve witnessed the intense resentment those fans hold for their North Side neighbors.

So imagine their frustration when, on the heels of a 9-of-12 hot streak that got them back to .500, the Sox were utterly dominated by Jeff Samardzija and the last-place Cubs. Samardzija tossed a 2-hitter for his first-ever shutout, facing one over the minimum until the 9th, then popping up Alex Rios with a man on 3rd to preserve the whitewash.

Samardzija’s gem was the first shutout by a Cub over the ChiSox since Mordecai Brown‘s 2-hitter in the 1906 Series, and the first by any pitcher in this matchup since their first regular-season series back in 1997. His 89 Game Score is also the best ever in this regular-season rivalry, and the best by any pitcher against the Sox since 2004. And it’s the first shutout by a Cub since another 2-hitter in 2011.

The score was 1-0 until the 5th, when Julio Borbon elevated his swing and his slugging average, smoking a 2-out, 2-run HR on chest-high cheese from Jose Quintana. It was Borbon’s 1st HR since 2010 and 2nd ever against a southpaw, and the 1st by a lefty off Quintana in his last 16 starts. Anthony Rizzo continued to shake off a mid-May slump with a double and a 2-run triple with 2 outs in the 7th.

• Samardzija has allowed 3 runs over 24 IP in his last 3 starts.
• Nos. 1-4 in the Cubs’ order collected all 9 hits, 6 runs and 6 RBI.
• Took me a while to grasp why the Cubs’ 3 runs in the 7th were earned runs, even though they came with 2 outs after the leadoff man reached on an error. The batter who reached on the error (after a dropped third strike) later made the 2nd out at home, trying to score on a base hit. So if you reconstruct the inning without the error, there would still be 2 outs and 2 on for Rizzo.

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Twins 6, @Brewers 3 (box): One of these struggling teams was bound to win, and with both Ryan Braun and Aramis Ramirez resting and Wily Peralta pitching, the book favored Minny. Peralta hurt himself with 5 walks, 3 of them scoring. Carlos Gomez twice moved the Crew within a run with solo HRs, but the Twins pulled away with their own solos, and the bullpen put up 3 zeroes.

• Milwaukee has 3 qualified hitters sporting OPS+ over 150 (Braun, Gomez, Segura). Is that rare for a bad team? Hell, it’s just plain rare. Seven teams in the modern era have met that criterion: the 2004 Cardinals (105 wins), the ’96 Mariners (85-76), the ’63 Giants (88-74), the ’29 Yankees (88-66, 2nd place), the ’25 Tigers (81-73), the 1919 Tigers (80-60), and the 1902 Pirates (103-36). The Brewers, not to rub salt in anyone’s wound, are on a 63-99 pace.
• Jamey Carroll went hitless today, but so far he’s been the best leadoff man Minny can find, getting on at a reasonable rate and scoring 11 runs in 14 games there. They’re still last in the majors in BA (.194), OBP and SLG (6 XBH) from that spot.
• The Brewers’ best SP by far has been Kyle Lohse, whose 3.76 ERA is a full run better than anyone else. And he’s the one guy they haven’t scored for, 2.1 R/GS; the others are 4.5 and up. They’re 2-7 in Lohse’s starts, totaling 8 runs in the losses.
• Just one SS in modern history (Nomar) has slugged .500 or better in his first or second season. After his 8th HR today, Jean Segura is slugging .558.
• Chris Parmelee came in for D in the 7th, then homered in the 8th. It’s just the 2nd HR since last June by a Twins substitute.

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Bonus game (you guessed it):

@Mets 2, Yankees 1 (box): One of the best games I’ve seen this year, and it didn’t even have Matt Harvey. The Mets rallied in the 7th and 8th to win the opener of a series that the pinstripes have dominated since its inception.

Through 6 innings, the game belonged to Phil Hughes and Brett Gardner. The righty was seeking his 3rd straight win over the Mets, and he controlled everyone but Jon Niese, who had 2 of the 3 hits. In the top of the 6th, Gardner turned a foul-line floater and Lucas Duda’s misguided dive into a leadoff triple, and Jayson Nix dropped another quail into right for the first run. Niese had escaped a bags-full jam in the 2nd with a 5-4-3 DP, and he kept the 6th under control with some good pitches to Robinson Cano to induce another pitcher’s friend. But the Yanks had the lead.

In the home 6th, Niese singled with one down, and Daniel Murphy stepped in with two away. His drive on a 2-and-1 pitch seemed at first to underline Murphy’s “warning-track power,” but then it kept carrying towards the 385 sign in left-center, and it had a chance. But Mets fans who remember Endy’s catch saw the same look on Gardner as he drifted back, timing it, timing it — “I got this” — then leaping. It took every inch of his reach, and he never saw the ball hit his glove, but Gardner’s spectacular grab robbed Murphy of a 2-run HR and preserved the lead for Hughes. Halfway to second, Murphy slammed his helmet and screamed in frustration.

But the worm soon turned, for all the principals. A Hughes sacrifice put 2 in scoring position with two down for Gardner, but he grounded out to Murphy. After the stretch, David Wright led off and was quickly down 0-and-2. He took one, fouled one, took another, fouled two more. Then Hughes spun one on the inner half, and Wright had lift-off. His first home dinger this year was a no-doubter, landing deep in the left-field seats and tying the game. Hughes mowed through the next 3 outs, but the game would go to the bullpens.

After the Bombers’ 8th ended in a pirouette/around the horn, Mike Baxter followed Ike Davis’s 3rd straight whiff with a shank to left that found the right side of the chalk and hopped over the railing. A walk and a passed ball had ducks sitting up for Ruben Tejada, sans RBI since May 8. The infield was in, and Tejada’s daisy-cutter to the right side was a good four steps to Cano’s left, the kind of placement that always scores that run. But Robby skimmed over, gloved and threw in one motion; and despite a nifty slide, Baxter was out by an eyelash, a great play by all and a good call by the ump. Two down; Murphy up.

Dave Robertson was not commanding his breakers, and when he fell behind 3-and-1, he had to come with the heat. Murphy’s bat flashed, and connected: a clothesline into center, gloved on two hops by Gardner as the lead run jogged home.

Bobby Parnell closed it despite a 4-pitch walk to Ichiro, the one guy in the inning without home-run power. He overpowered Overbay and Hafner to end it with Ichiro still glued to 1st.

The Mets won’t have much to cheer this year, but knocking the Yanks out of first place will do for one night.

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Leftover Chatter (through Sunday)

Adrian Gonzalez’s RBI portion of LA’s runs is up to 22% (36/164). He has more than Kemp and Ethier combined, or any other 2 Dodgers. Kemp/Ethier are 16/92 with RISP, Gonzalez 18/41.

Sunday was just the 2nd time this year that Kershaw had a 2-run lead at any point and didn’t hold it.

Guess I lost track of Jesse Crain after he left the Twins. Since joining the ChiSox in 2011, he has a 195 ERA+ — that’s 4th among setup men (15 saves or less in the span, min. 100 IP), and 7th in SO/9. Three-year deals for relievers often go bust, but Chicago signed him for 3 yrs./$13 million and he’s produced 5.3 WAR already, tied for 3rd among all RPs in that span. Maybe WAR isn’t the best reliever measure, but he’s done very well. (Now let’s see which team gets burned on his next contract.)

Marlins are last in NL OPS from batting order nos. 2 and 3, next-to-last from nos. 1 and 5.

• But you can’t beat this dysfunction: Mets are worst at the leadoff spot, 2nd-best at #2, worst at nos. 4-5, best at nos. 6-7, and worst at #8.

Miami has lost 5 straight and they look just about helpless at the plate, but their W% is still better than the ’62 Mets (and their pythag is 2 games better than that).

Chris Carter is pacing to demolish Mark Reynolds’s records for both total strikeouts (239 to 223) and strikeout percentage in a qualified season (38.5% to 35.4%). But … so what? He’s not the least productive LF or 1B around. Might as well give him a full season.

I keep forgetting that Oakland and Houston are in the same division. A’s are 9-0 against the ‘Stros, with 10 more to go!

A’s are 20-5 against losing teams, 8-18 against .500 or better. They have 13 games with the Angels after the Break; A’s are 5-1 so far, but that was another time.