@Marlins 2, Phillies 0: Youth shall be served. At the very least, with Miami, youth shall get playing time. Jose Fernandez (20) earned his first victory with a dazzler, allowing a hit to the 2nd batter and no more through 7 innings, while 22-year-old slugger Marcell Ozuna supplied the only run needful with his first career HR. Fernandez fanned 9, and sent 17 straight to the dugout between the hit and his only walk, both by Freddy Galvis. The other run off Cole Hamels was career HR #2 for Chris Valaika, who added a hit-saving play.

• Fernandez used just 82 pitches, but left for a pinch-hitter. He didn’t have a 2-ball count until Galvis in the 4th, and finished his stint with swinging Ks of Utley, Howard and Delmon Young, all representing the tying run. Foes are hitting .191 in his 4 starts.
• The Fish spawned their first shutout this year, while the Phils suffered their first 1-hitter since 2010. They haven’t been no-hit since Bob Forsch in 1978.

@Royals 2, White Sox 0: At the 2012 deadline, the Royals and Rockies swapped overpaid misfits in a mutual mulligan, returning Jonathan Sanchez and Jeremy Guthrie to their native leagues. Their subsequent fortunes could not be more opposite. While J-San has appeared 8 times, allowing 30 ER in 25 IP with 10 HRs, Guthrie was reborn in the heartland. With tonight’s 4-hit shutout, a career first, he is 9-3 with a 2.92 ERA in 20 starts for KC. He’s the first Royal since Greinke ’09 to start 4-0 in the rotation.

The big Sox threat came with 2 outs in the 4th, when Paul Konerko’s double sent Adam Dunn to 3rd. But Guthrie dug down against Conor Gillaspie and pulled out one of his 3 Ks. Their only other chance with RISP came in the 8th, but Jeff Keppinger grounded out with 2 aboard, and Guthrie closed it out with an 8-pitch 9th.

• Chicago’s Dylan Axelrod notched his 4th straight quality start, hurt only by a 2-out rally in the 1st. He plunked Billy Butler, Eric Hosmer singled, and Lorenzo Cain cashed both, slashing a triple past a diving Alex Rios.
• The Royals are 16-10 overall, 9-4 at home. They’ve allowed 2 runs or less 11 times already, winning all but an Opening Day 1-0 defeat in Chicago.

Reds 6, @Cubs 4: A milestone for Carlos Marmol, now the Cubs career leader in relief outings. I don’t think they gave him a cake on the field afterwards … Marmol opened the 8th with a 4-2 lead, walked 2 and hit 1; he came out, and they all came home, plus one. I guess there’s little chance for a change of scenery, him making almost $10 million in a walk year. But I hope Al Alburquerque is paying attention. Both are righties with a devastating slider, when it’s on, and Marmol’s 2010 season looks a lot like Al-Al’s career to date: .147 BA (.145), 1.19 WHIP (1.18), 16% walks (same), 42% Ks (37%), 1 HR (0). It’s hard to hold that fine line for long.

• Shin-Soo Choo hit the first pitch out of the park, and later walked and scored his 24th run, for a season pace of 125. Just one modern Reds leadoff man scored 120+ — Pete Rose, 130 in 1976. Choo’s also on pace for 344 times on base safely, which would shatter Pete’s 1975 record of 330.
• Hey, Alfonso Soriano is still playing! He was the offense today, four RBI on a pair of go-ahead 2-run HRs, surpassing his season totals in both departments … through 27 starts … all batting cleanup.
• Outside of Sori, Chicago had one hit and one walk.
• A bit surprised to see Chapman come in for the 9th as usual — day game after a night game of 32 pitches. But Dusty has his policies. Chapman walked Soriano with 1 out, fell behind 2-1 on Castro and ran a full count to Castillo, but he got the outs. No whiffs, though … that’s 3 Ks in his last 23 batters, if you’re looking for something to fret about.

Mariners 8, @Blue Jays 1: The 1979 Jays set the franchise standard for general futility, going 53-109 (50.5 games behind) while ranking next-to-last in runs, BA, OBP, SLG and ERA+. (Which tells you just how bad the A’s were that year….) This year’s model is now 10-20. Their last-in-the-bigs .226 BA got no help with today’s 6 for 31, nor did their AL-worst runs-allowed benefit from R.A. Dickey‘s 6-inning disaster start. I saw that ’79 team; these guys can’t be that bad.

• But Hisashi Iwakuma can be this good: 2.32 ERA in 23 career starts. He remains your MLB WHIP leader.
• If only he had more chances: With his grand slam off Dickey, Dustin Ackley is 13 for 22 with the bases loaded (counting 1 sac fly). For all other situations combined, he’s a .236 hitter.
• Michael Saunders is making up for lost time. Since his DL stint, 7 for 22 with 3 HRs, 8 runs in 5 games. The B.C. native has 5 HRs in Toronto (50 PAs), #1 on his visiting list.

Orioles 5, @Angels 4 (10): The buzz from Jason Vargas‘s 3-hit shutout Friday lasted two batters, as Manny Machado homered for the early lead, while Freddy Garcia held the Halos hitless through 6 in his season debut. LAA scored 2 tying runs in the 8th without reaching the outfield grass, but that just gave Balto a chance to reprise that ol’ extra-inning magic. Steve Pearce‘s 3rd hit of the afternoon — the first by the O’s in 12 chances with RISP — brought home the lead run with 2 outs in the 10th, and the Angels went quietly.

• Their 11-19 start ties the worst in franchise history, done 6 times before, all ending with losing records.

@Yankees 4, A’s 2: Phil Hughes had 9 Ks and no runs in 8 IP. Follow this through with me … Hughes has a gopher problem, but also a solid K rate — career per 200 IP, he’s averaged 28 HRs and 170 Ks, with percentages of 3.3% HRs and 20% Ks. You might expect that, when he’s “on,” both those elements would trend in his favor. But no: In 45 career homerless starts, his K% rate is 19%, just below his overall rate. And in 30 starts where he fanned at least 25% of batters, his HR rate is 3.6%, a tad higher than overall. So far, there’s just no correlation between those two important markers.

• Hughes would have allowed a HR today, if not for Ichiro.
• 82 strikes by Hughes is the highest AL total not by a Tiger this year.

@Indians 7, Twins 3: If Scott Kazmir can win a game, there’s hope for all of us! There’s a few things I haven’t done since 2010, either. But seriously, his last 2 starts are solid — 4 runs in 11 IP, and about 69% strikes. Even his best years peaked at 64% strikes. Of course, all these strikes have to miss some bats, and he’s fanned 11 of 45 in the last 2 starts.

• Jason Kipnis had his 2nd straight big game with a triple: 4-2-3-2, and homered for the lead they’d never surrender.
• Aaron Hicks has had a very rough start to his MLB career, so let’s give it up: Congratulations on your first dinger! Hicks also drew his 13th walk, and logged his first outfield assist on a throw to 2nd base.

Cardinals 7, @Brewers 6: A back-and-forth battle ended with Milwaukee’s 4th straight loss at home, and 4th in 5 tries against St. Louis, who won their 5th straight. The Cards are 12-6 on the road, and they haven’t even played the Cubs yet. Jon Jay started the comeback with a 2-run HR, and plated the decider with a single in the 9th.

• Daniel Descalso entered the game in a double-switch, hitting 10 for 60 this year — and shocked the world with a reversing 2-run HR in the 7th on a 1-2 pitch from southpaw Tom Gorzelanny, who’d been nigh unhittable this year.
• Carlos Gomez popped his 6th HR, but bobbled a leadoff single in the 9th, setting up the winning run.
• Jean Segura‘s 4th put the Crew up 2-0 after 2 batters, but they left the sacks full that inning and didn’t score again until their comeback 6th.

Tigers 17, @Astros 2: What went wrong in the 3rd? Detroit scored in 8 out of 9 innings, tagging a mere trio of Houston pitchers for 21 hits. Miguel Cabrera fattened his coffers with 5 separate RBI events in his 5 trips before bowing out mercifully (single, HR, walk, HR, single), breaking a tie atop the MLB hits race. Max Scherzer allowed a hit to his first batter, who was then caught stealing, down 0-4. The next Astro baserunner came with 2 outs in the 6th, and Scherzer left after 8, having upped his SO/BB ratio to 54/9. Ten straight quality starts by the Tigers rotation.

• I don’t wanna start any trouble, but … I think Miggy now leads in BA and RBI. Last year, it was a 2nd-half HR barrage — 26 in 75 games — that brought him the you-know-what.
• Torii Hunter had 4 hits and is tied for 2nd in that department, with a 240-hit pace. No teammates have reached 220 hits since Bill Terry and Freddie Lindstrom with the 1930 Giants, the only pair ever to reach 230.
• Austin Jackson leads the bigs with 30 runs in 29 games. Ron Leflore ’78 was the last Tiger with 125, Hank Greenberg ’38 the last with 130.
• What’s the most top-heavy lineup in history, the 1920 Yankees? Detroit runs, by batting order spot: 30, 25, 26, 18, 10, 11, 9, 11, 15.
• It still counts: Victor Martinez capped the barrage by ending a 30-game homer drought dating to 2011.
• And this is more progress, seriously: Al Alburquerque came in for a truly meaningless 9th and just threw strikes. He allowed 3 hits (for the 2nd time ever) and a run, but no walks, and only one 2-ball count.
• Believe it or not, this was only the 3rd time the Astros allowed 10+ runs, but it raised their season average to 6.1.

@Rangers 5, Red Sox 1: “Oh my god, that’s John Lackey’s music!” (Sorry, once in a while I have to do The Sports Guy.) Oh, how we’ve missed his mug.

• They called it a single plus throwing error on Will Middlebrooks that scored the deciding runs with 2 outs in the 4th, after two Lackey walks had filled the bases. What it really was: (1) a mental error by Will — charge that ball, take it before the next hop, and step on 3rd for the easy out — and (2) a Strangeglovian comic ballet by Mike Napoli, who seems to have planted his foot awkwardly on top of the bag, causing him to topple over on what should have been a pretty easy stretch. Not pictured, alas: Lackey’s immediate facial reaction.

D-backs 8, @Padres 1: With 7 smooth innings (1 run, 7 Ks), Patrick Corbin tied Arizona’s season-opening record of 6 straight starts of 6+ IP and 2 runs or less. That record was set by Dan Haren, for whom Corbin was traded by the Angels at the 2010 deadline. The first big-leaguer from Clay, NY (a little north of Syracuse) is 4-0, 1.80, and the team’s won all 6 games.

• Clayton Richard was strafed again, bloating his ERA to 8.54. He’d been 6-0 in 8 starts against the Snakes.

Nationals 5, @Pirates 4: I know they can’t pitch every day, but no Melancon or Grilli? In a home game tied in the 9th? Both have pitched twice in the last 7 days, Friday and Wednesday, and have an off day Monday. Tony Watson allowed the deciding run in his 2nd inning of work, after a shocking double steal.

@Rockies 9, Rays 3: No MLB video up yet of the unearned slam by Nolan Arenado that capped the scoring, but you can see his dainty little toe-tap at 0:21 of this one. Whoops, they just changed the scoring — what had been an E-6 is now a hit, so all 9 runs off Price were earned. At least the scorer didn’t yell at him. (And now Dickey’s 5.36 ERA is the better of the defending Cy Young winners.)

• Rox haven’t won 2 straight since their 8-game streak that ended April 20, going 5-8 since — but they’ve stayed in first place every day, and will regain sole possession if the following holds up.

Dodgers 9, Giants 8 (6th): San Fran came in 17-12, with 3/5 of their rotation in tatters. And then Ryan Vogelsong blew a 6-1 lead in a nightmare 5th that started with a walk to pinch-hitter Nick Punto and was capped by Punto’s double. (And yes, he’s still a PH in that 2nd AB.) Dee Gordon’s triple scored Vogie’s bequeathed runners, giving him a 7.20 ERA and consecutive disaster starts.

• Sample this: Punto’s hitting .350 (28-80) with a .447 OBP since joining LA last August in Boston’s Big Dump.

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Late Friday

@Padres 7, D-Backs 6: Big game for Miguel Montero, who could use a few more; he still has the 10th-worst WPA in the majors this year.

• Huston Street: 6 Ks, 4 HRs. He’s gone 18 straight games with 1 strikeout or less, his longest streak by far, totaling 10 Ks in those games. His career rate before this year was 9.2 SO/9.
• But I still believe this: A 9th-inning HR that still leaves you short is a rally-killer.

Rays 7, @Rockies 4 (10): Odd doings in the 8th: With 1 out and men at the corners, Joe Maddon had Jake McGee walk PH Troy Tulowitzki and pitch to Eric Young with the bags full. Was Joe putting faith in McGee’s career mark in those spots, 2 for 19, 10 Ks and 1 walk? He got the whiff, and Brandon Gomes got another to preserve the tie.

They roughed up Matt Belisle in the 10th to win it, starting with Ben Zobrist‘s leadoff double. His raw numbers aren’t impressive, but he’s #8 in WPA this year, 10 for 23 with RISP, .429 OBP in late-and-close. That double jolted the WPA meter by 17%, almost as much as Longo’s go-ahead single.

• E.Y. came in to replace Dexter Fowler (.310/1.030), who tweaked a hip in a bump at 1st base. Naturally, the last AB went to Young, who whiffed as the tying run.
• Nolan Arenado played his first home game and went 3-5 with 2 doubles and a single to start the 9th. His minor-league contact rate was excellent for a power hitter, and he has 2 whiffs and 2 walks in 24 PAs so far.
• I’ve burned myself before by doubting Fernando Rodney in print. But the guy we saw last year is gone, and he ain’t coming back. So far, everything’s reverting to career norms, starting with his strike %, and the Angel of BAbip is gone from his shoulder: .225 last year, .298 prior career, .333 this year.

@Rangers 7, Red Sox 0: Felix Doubront was one strike away from getting through 4 innings with 10 hits but just 1 run. He didn’t make it. Adrian Beltre cleared the bases with a full-count double, his first really big hit in about a month.

• Some baserunning stats can be much affected by who hits behind you. In 2011-12 combined, Elvis Andrus went 1st-to-3rd on a single in 58% of his chances (44/76) and was out just once. That was mainly with the dead-pull Josh Hamilton batting next. This year it’s Lance Berkman, who (when batting left) is much more apt to get hits up the middle. And this year, Andrus has taken 3rd in just 2 of 10 such chances, making 2 outs — including the unforgivable 3rd out in last night’s 1st inning.

@Phillies 4, Marlins 1: “T-bone! T-bone!” The Phils are 3-0 in Jonathan Pettibone‘s starts, 5-13 with the Big Three. Twelve ribbies in 9 games for Ryan Howard, plus 8 runs, suddenly slugging .519, his best since 2009.

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Scoring 3 runs or less (through Friday), the Giants are 7-8, the Royals and D-backs 6-8. (SF is 4-4 with 2 runs or less — 3-2 with 2 runs, 1-1 with 1 run, and one shutout loss.) Miami’s 3-20 scoring 3 or less, Toronto 2-16, Houston 2-15. The A’s, Angels, Tigers and Mets are all 1-10 scoring 3 or less.