• A starting nine to honor the Kentucky Derby winner: Orber Moreno, Neal Ball, Joe Circle, Jimmy Ring, Emil Planeta, Joshua Glober, Richard Circuit, Pablo Sandoval, and this mysterious fellow. (Fight song and epic poems supplied by Henri Rondeau.)
• Unless KC wins their next 4 games, this will be 2nd straight year that no team won more than 20 of their first 31 games. The last such year was 1996.

And now to the games. As always, I’m sorry if your faves are neglected; no slight is intended.

Sunday games

@Rangers 4, Red Sox 3: A sweet piece of 2-strike hitting helped Texas complete a sweep and grab a share of the majors’ best record, previously held by the BoSox alone. Boston rolled into town smokin’, winning 7 of 8 and averaging 5.3 R/G for the year. But Texas pitchers danced a three-step on those hot bats, allowing just 4 runs and 15 hits in 3 games, with 31 punchouts. Yu Darvish gave up two early HRs, including Big Papi’s 2-run shot, but he shut them down on 1 hit from the 3rd through 7th and finished with 14 Ks, tying his best. Nelson Cruz tied it up in the 6th with his own 2-run drive off Jon Lester, and a 2-out rally in the 9th, helped by a wild pitch, culminated in Adrian Beltre‘s punch over Pedroia.

• The recent focus on strikeouts should raise appreciation of Beltre. Out of 91 batters with 50+ HRs since 2010, only Albert Pujols has a better ratio of HRs to whiffs, and just 2 others have a lower overall K rate (including his teammate, Ian Kinsler).
• Jason Frasor got one big out, retiring Mike Napoli with 2 aboard to end the 8th. Napoli had a single in 10 ABs this series, and has gone 4 whole games without a ribby.
• Lance Berkman was the 2nd #3 hitter this year to receive 2 IBBs in a game. Pujols had 2 such games, with Hamilton going 0-9 behind him.
• Boston C David Ross homered and stole a base, the 2nd of his career. He’s the first backstop with that combo this year; there were 11 last year, with 2 by Miguel Olivo (who also had 2 games with a HR and a CS).
• Kind of an arbitrary distinction, but … Is Ross the best #2 catcher of this generation? This is his 11th year of regular play, averaging about 200 PAs per year, with just one year in which he reached 300 PAs or started more than half his team’s games behind the plate (2007, 98 GS). He ‘s amassed 8.5 WAR, a 101 OPS+ and 38% CS in playing time equivalent to about 4 starting seasons. Of the other active, longtime backups — including Henry Blanco, Jose Molina, Yorvit Torrealba — only Kelly Shoppach can hang with Ross on both sides of the ball. Shoppach has a big platoon split, but Ross hits both sides about the same. Why did he never take hold as a #1? Perhaps because his one year in that role was one of his worst years at the plate. This may be the role he’s best suited for.
• (Thanks to Steve Helsing for information on this play — apparently not a sac attempt.) I don’t understand this strategy: Tied in the home 7th, Craig Gentry led off with a single, and Kinsler bunted him up. Gentry’s a base-stealer, 37 for 45 in less than 600 career PAs. Kinsler’s a pretty good contact hitter, and he’s a power hitter, especially at home (.528 career SLG). Why bunt Kinsler, to set up Elvis Andrus? Andrus does have a career .335 BA with a man on 2nd base only (61 for 182), but a lot of his hits don’t score the runner, partly because 20% of his career hits stayed on the infield. Looked at in those terms, his RBI average is just .209 in that spot. It’s nuts to have Kinsler make an out on purpose to set up Andrus.

Marlins 14, @Phillies 2: On any given Sunday … Miami scored 9 runs off Roy Halladay, in this order: 2-run double, 3-run triple, 4-run HR. (Their next tally was a 1-run single, but much later.) Halladay walked 3 and hit a man, just in the 1st inning, and afterwards dropped a sore-shoulder bombshell.

• Adeiny Hechavarria (4-1-2-7) topped by 2 the prior RBI record for a Marlins SS. He has 10 RBI this year on 3 hits. It’s the 2nd game this year with 7+ RBI but 1 run or less; there were 22 such games in the past 22 years. A current manager is the only guy since 1949 with 7+ RBI and no runs. (Oddly, the othertwo such games in searchable history happened 5 weeks apart in 1948.)
• A thoroughly modern game forJustin Ruggiano (3-4-2-3): plunked in his first 2 trips, then whiffed, walked, and homered twice — his first 2-HR game. He had just one prior HBP in 640 PAs.
• First time over 8 runs for Miami this year. They had totaled 8 runs in Kevin Slowey‘s prior 6 starts. Spread the runs around better, he could be 6-0 instead of 1-2. His worst game was 3 runs in 6 IP. The scores of his other games were 0-3, 0-2, 1-2, 2-1, 3-4 and 2-1.
• It’s Philly’s biggest home loss margin since 2007, 2nd-biggest loss margin ever against the Marlins.
• In the Philly 3rd, down 9-0, after a leadoff walk, Raul Valdes bunted — a sacrifice attempt? — and popped into a DP. Valdes began the day 5 for 11 with 2 doubles. I don’t know what to say.

Cardinals 10, @Brewers 1: St. Louis hammered an unusually wild Marco Estrada, sweeping a 4-game set against Milwaukee for the first time and becoming the first NL team to 20 wins. Jaime Garcia won his 2nd straight of 8 IP and 1 run. Estrada came in averaging 1.9 BB/9 since the start of 2012, but he hit a man and walked 5 within the first 3 frames, 2 more than his previous high. Estrada forced in 2 runs in the 6-run 2nd, and when he did hit the zone, bad things happened.

• STL has allowed 2 runs or less in 16 of 31 games, tops in the majors.

@Royals 6, White Sox 5: Last time out, Addison Reed survived two 9th-inning walks in a 2-run game. Not this time. Billy Butler split the gap on a 2-out, full-count pitch (after starting 1-2), and the free start helped C George Kottaras score from 1st to tie the game. Lorenzo Cain began the 10th with his 3rd hit and later stole second, but there he remained with 2 outs. An IBB to Chris Getz and an UIBB to Kottaras brought up Alex Gordon, who lofted one to right that fooled the heck out of Alex Rios. It bounced safely on the grass, and the Royals did the same.

• 2nd straight game where Rios missed a very costly play that a good RF would have made.
• KC brought a 3-1 lead into the 7th behind Wade Davis — his 3rd real good start, against 3 stinkers — but the usually reliable bullpen got ripped for 4 runs that inning.
• Chicago’s .281 team OBP is the worst in the majors. They’re also last in AL scoring, OPS/OPS+, walks, and various aspects of RISP hitting (worst BA and OPS, fewest chances). That they’re not worse than 12-17 attests to their solid pitching (which takes a hit with Peavy ailing) and to a lack of “wasteful” scoring. They’ve scored no more than 7 runs in a game (every other AL team has at least 3 games with 8+), and the average margin of their 12 wins is just over 2 R/G. They have not exceeded their Pythagorean estimate, but somehow it feels like they have.

Rays 8, @Rockies 3: 3 HRs off Alex Cobb, but the Rox went 0-9 with RISP, while the homerless Rays went 5-10. Jhoulys Chacin returned from the DL and got through 7, but took his first loss. Three hits and 3 runs for James Loney, now batting .398 — mostly in a platoon role, but he’s 7 for 11 vs. lefties.

• Even in Coors Field, hitting 3 HRs (exactly) is usually good for a win — .699 winning percentage all-time. The Rockies themselves are 120-47 (.719).
• Rookie Nolan Arenado moved up to #2 in the order and went 5-1-2-1, with his 3rd HR (against 3 Ks). The club has been looking for its next third baseman since Garrett Atkins imploded in 2007.
• What happens when you combine power and a low K rate, in Coors Field? You get the prime years of Larry Walker, Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki. Arenado fanned in just 10% of his minor-league PAs; it’s too soon to define his power potential, but he’s 22 and starting (and hitting) in the majors.
• Rox are 5 games ahead of last year’s pace, Rays 5 games behind.

Athletics 5, @Yankees 4: Wait, he’s not a LOOGY any more? Boone Logan, who’s faced a LHB in about 60% of PAs the past 2 years, began the tied 8th against a trio of powerful righties, and the second one took him deep.

• Wait-wait — Bob Melvin walked the potential winning run (Cano), so that Grant Balfour could face Vernon Wells, who had homered off Balfour in 2 of their last 3 meetings? Was it meant as an exorcism? In the first game of the series, Melvin let Balfour get the last out of a very cheap save, perhaps to counter the memory of his past Bronx blowups, and our hidden microphones captured Melvin’s advice.
• I know this is sacrilege, but … “Preston Claiborne” sounds more like a Chairman of the Board than “Whitey Ford,” don’t you think? Especially if it was Preston Claiborne III. Also … Preston attended Tulane University, and probably gave up a HR or two to a lefty batter in a home game at Turchin Stadium. If one of those balls had rolled to the nearest thoroughfare, it would have wound up on Claiborne Avenue.

Tigers 9, @Astros 0: After wiping out Houston Saturday, Detroit went for the sweep in a potential “trap” game — one of the starkest pitching mis-matchups of the year, Justin Verlander against Philip Humber. The Tigers took care of business early, scoring 7 in their first 2 raps, then watched the game’s top ace toy with the Astros. The tall righty out of Goochland H.S. took a no-no into the 7th, lost it on a Carlos Corporan single, and left after 7 (2 hits, 9 Ks) with a 1.55 ERA.

• Humber’s probably not the worst pitcher in the game, but at 0-7, 8.82 ERA, he’s put his name in the hat. His last 4 starts add up to 15 IP, 27 ER, 35 hits, 9 walks and 8 Ks. He’s fanned less than 10% of all batters this year; he beat 18% last year, even with a 6.44 ERA.
• Seems nobody’s talking about Verlander, who went past 1,500 career strikeouts today. Is it a case of, “OK, we’ve seen your regular-season dazzle; but call us when you win a championship”?
• Andy Dirks, hitting .200, batted 2nd in place of Torii Hunter and went 4-3-4-2 with a HR. Hunter ‘s hitting .361 from the 2-hole, but Dirks is 8 for 14 there, with both his HRs (and 10-60 elsewhere). So, it’s great hitting in front of Miggy, right? Meh. The #2 men hit .257/.710 last year, and in 2011 (when Miggy hit 4th), the #3 men hit .276/.748. You’re always alone in the batter’s box.
• No style points on either end of this (except maybe chunk-style), but it’s still a good play by both.

Orioles 8, @Angels 4: Baltimore closed their longest western trip at 7-4. Jason Hammel is 3-0 the last 2 years when allowing exactly 4 runs in 6 IP; all other AL starters with those numbers are 25-58 (.301).

• Of all the things Halo fans never thought they’d see this year, a weekend where Hank Conger started at DH might say the most.
• The Angels’ worst season was 1980, both in losses (95) and W% (.406). They’re at .355 now, a 104-loss pace. (Really 105, but I rounded down, out of pity.)
• The combined .393 W% by the LA-area teams would be the worst ever. There were 5 prior years when both had losing records: 1968, ’87, ’92, ’99 and 2010 (both 80-82). The prior worst combined W% was .417 in 1992.

Reds 7, @Cubs 4: Cincinnati has won 11 of 13 in Wrigley since the start of last year, 8 of those without hitting a HR. Dusty goes for win #1,600 Monday night against Atlanta, the team where his pro baseball career began almost 46 years ago; that would break a tie with Tommy Lasorda, who managed almost half the games Dusty played in.

• They faced stiff competition, but 11-20 is the Cubs’ worst start since 1997.
• Once a year, I have to get this rant off my chest: When all is said and done, I think the Cubs will regret not returning Starlin Castro to the minors at the first sign of immaturity, instead of handing him a long-term contract. Yes, he’s good enough to play in the majors. Yes, he might well earn that money, by market rates. And no, I have no recent incidents to cite. But has he progressed as a hitter at all since the day he arrived 3 years ago, 6 weeks past his 20th birthday and after just 57 games at AA? And what incentive does he have now? Who knows what might have been, but I think whatever star potential he had went poof when the star-hype came too soon and the kid-glove treatment followed.

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Stuff

The 83 Game Score by Jose Fernandez was the best for age 20 or under since King Felix decreed an 86 in 2007. The last to reach that score at or under Fernandez’s exact age (20 years, 277 days) was Ed Correa in 1986, a 3-hit shutout in Yankee Stadium (85 GmSc). Dwight Gooden owns 12 of the last 17 games that meet the Fernandez criteria, including one at the exact same age (that was his 9th career shutout).

This clip of the last out looks like a new reality show: Starter watches from inside a cage as a reliever tries to preserve his win. Utley just missed tying the game on that swing.

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Had the Dodgers hung on Saturday, it would have been the first team win in AT&T Park when their SP allowed 5+ runs in less than 2 innings. Those teams are now 0-17.

Walk-off HRs by the same team on consecutive *dates* last occurred … when? Not this year or in 2011-12. (I’m too lazy to check for consecutive games on non-consecutive dates.)

The last walk-off HR on an 0-2 count was exactly one year before that of Guillermo Quiroz. It was a 2-run shot by Jhonny Peralta off Matt Thornton that turned defeat into victory.

Brandon League has allowed 5 career walk-offs taters, to players born in Venezuela, Cuba, South Korea, North Dakota and Arkansas.