I’m done sulking, so here’s a few updates on Friday’s games:

@Rockies 4, Giants 1: Jhoulys Chacin was the latest to stymie the tumbling Giants, yielding just 3 hits in 8 innings for his 2nd straight scoreless start, handing the champs their 5th straight loss and 10th in 12. A 2-run shot off Barry Zito in the 3rd ran the lead to 3-0 lead and Michael Cuddyer‘s club-record hit streak to 25 games; and before that buzz had quite passed, Wilin Rosario‘s wall-scraper pumped it up again.

SF finally got the tying run to bat with 2 outs in the 9th, but Brandon Crawford‘s power burst is a distant memory — 5 HRs in April, none in 52 games since — and his easy grounder gave the Giants a clear title on 4th place, 3 games under .500 and closer to last than to first.

• Buster Posey fans had plenty to smile at, as their man had 2 of the 3 hits off Chacin, then homered to bust up the shutout and snap Rex Brothers‘s scoreless streak (30 innings and 32 games, longest by either measure since Kimbrel ’11).
• I’m sure Chacin’s gotten over it … but you may recall that Cuddyer’s 2-out misplay cost Chacin a CG shutout. Had Cuddyer caught that catchable fly, Chacin (a) would be the first Rocky with 2 shutouts in Coors Field (only Tom Glavine has 2, out of the 20 ever logged); (b) might have been the 4th Rocky ever with 3 straight scoreless starts of any length, and (c) might have had an active scoreless streak of 27 innings.

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@Athletics 6, Cardinals 1: Bartolo Colon‘s 8 strong innings earned his 8th win in as many starts and 11th over all, his most since his 2005 Cy Young Award, and flushed the Cardinals from the top bough for the first time in 2 months. A 5-run 2nd, mostly with 2 outs, sent Shelby Miller to an early shower with nary a strikeout, the first time in his 17 starts that he failed to complete the 5th or log at least 3 Ks. Stephen Vogt homered for Oakland’s final run and his first MLB hit, snapping an 0-32 that began last year with Tampa. Colon set down the first 13 before the Cards finally pecked out a run, starting with a rare walk; Colon leads the AL at 1.1 BB/9.

• The Cards’ top 4 in the order all came in batting over .300 but went 2-16, both singles by Matt Carpenter that were promptly negated by DP grounders from NL BA leader Yadier Molina.
• At 40, Colon is the oldest with 11 wins since 2009, and is in range of the eighth 20-win year ever for that age group. Cy Young and Warren Spahn did it twice each, with one for Pete Alexander, Phil Niekro and Jamie Moyer. Six of those 7 years had exactly 21 wins, which happens to be Colon’s career high.
• 8 winning starts is the longest streak this year and matches Oakland’s longest since 2005 (Barry Zito).
• Oakland is 8-2 in interleague games, trailing only Tampa for the best percentage; Pittsburgh has the most wins, at 11-3. The A’s have the AL’s best home record at 25-12.
• Kevin Siegrist worked a hitless final frame for St. Louis, giving him 10 scoreless innings to start his career, with 2 singles and 3 walks (one IBB). The 6′ 5″ lefty began the year at AA but has now dominated at 3 levels.

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Indians 9, @White Sox 8 (second game): Intrepid Giants fans used to earn the Croix de Candlestick, so there must be a distinction for any ChiSox backers who stayed to the unthinkably bitter end of this nearly 8-hour twinbill. Addison Reed began the 9th with a 3-run cushion, but 3 straight singles and a wild pitch put the tying run on 2nd with no outs, and 2 fly balls brought Michael Bourn around to equalize. With 2 outs and nobody on, Reed grooved a full-count fastball to Nick Swisher, who went ballistic, launching it deep into the eerily empty RF stands — his 10th career go-ahead or tying HR in the 9th inning or later (9th most since 2005).

• First White Sox doubleheader since last May, when they were swept at Cleveland. First home twinbill since April 2009, when Colon paced them to a split with Seattle.
• 4 runs is the most Reed has allowed in a save chance. He’s converted 50 of 58 in his brief career.
• Jesse Crain, subject of much trade speculation, held the lead in the 8th, his first appearance since his 29-IP scoreless string was snapped by 3 unearned runs. Crain’s 0.50 ERA (2 earnies in 35.2 IP) would be the lowest live-ball mark with at least 30 innings.
• Whoever holds the radar gun earned his pay Friday: 771 pitches.

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Angels 4, @Astros 2: The Angels can get their 2nd straight winning month with a sweep, and Jerome Williams got them started right, working into the 7th and holding Houston to one run for his 6th quality effort in 9 tries. Two Astros errors helped the Angels tie in the 6th (Mike Trout single) and take an 8th-inning lead, with the speed of pinch-runner Peter Bourjos forcing the issue on a routine flyout. It was a good day for Hank Conger, who cut down both SB tries (the second of those one pitch after he dropped a foul pop), and doubled to start the go-ahead 8th. Not so great for Ronny Cedeno, whose errant relay let in that lead run, after he’d gone 0-2 with a DP, a strikeout with a man on 2nd, and a caught stealing.

In the 9th, Houston couldn’t turn Bourjos’s grounder into the 3rd out, and Erick Aybar followed with a 2-run single. The extra cushion helped Ernesto Frieri survive his customary leadoff walk. Since 2011, he’s walked the first batter 26 times in 160 chances (16%), trailing only Carlos Marmol (30) and Jose Veras (28); Aroldis Chapman is 4th (22).

• Trout landed this one to keep things tied in the 7th.
• Bud Norris has a quality start in 10 of his last 12 games, with a 3.12 ERA but a 2-5 record in that span. He’s tied for 5th with 4 starts of no earned runs in 6+ innings. His run support is tied for last in the AL, 2.9 R/GS.
• Jason Castro‘s 33 XBH trails only Posey among backstops. He’s 5th with 11 HRs and 3rd with 22 doubles, both tied with Posey; Buster has a triple.
• After the Halos edged ahead in the 8th, with 1 out and a man on 2nd, Trout was intentionally walked to bring up Albert, who complied with a 5-4-3 DP, his AL-high 16th of the year. It’s the 2nd time in Albert’s Angels career that a man was passed to get to him — both Trout, both in the last 9 days. The first time, he flared a tying single. In Albert’s 9 years as the regular #3 hitter for St. Louis (2003-11), that move was employed just once, and it worked like a charm.

— END UPDATES —

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@Pirates 10, Brewers 3: Gerrit Cole didn’t panic after a 3-run 1st. And after he’d batted twice, he had a 5-run bulge and his own first 2 tallies. When the night was done, his Pittsburgh Pirates stood alone at baseball’s pinnacle, with a nearly full house there to revel in their time.

Johnny Hellweg‘s bid for the first MLB win by a man born in Ann Arbor, MI started off like a June day in the Arboretum — mild and sweet and full of promise — with a whiff and two groundouts, but it was rough sledding from there. Clinging to the nub of his early lead in the 2nd, he walked Cole to load the bases, and 5 more runs would cross. Seven straight wins is the best by the Bucs since 2004; they’ve won 31 of their last 45.

• Cole settled in with 5 scoreless innings and wended his charmed way to his 4th straight win, backed by over 7 runs per game. He’s the only Buc in searchable history to start his career by winning 4 starts in a row.
• Ryan Reid gave the bullpen’s big boys a breather with a stress-free 3-IP save.
• Pedro Alvarez, who sometimes doesn’t get 2 singles in a week, knocked a pair in the big inning, and raised his BA to .246, his highest since a 2-for-8 start. His June OPS is near 1.100, with 23 RBI in 24 games.

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Tigers 6, @Rays 3: “Miggy to the Max:” Cabrera put up an early deuce, blasting the 2nd pitch he ever saw from Alex Colome to set Scherzer on the path to his 12th straight win. He put down the first 11 Rays before Zorilla went deep, and finished with 7 IP on 3 runs, 4 hits, a walk and 9 Ks. Cabrera would do it again (4-3-4-3), but with the lead down to one in the 8th, Prince Fielder broke a 21-game dinger drought with a moonraking rainmaker, cashing Miguel’s double for some welcome insurance. Joaquin Benoit closed it out with a hit and 2 Ks; he’s not blown a lead yet this year, and has just 1 game out of 32 with a small negative WPA.

• Uh-oh: Longo came out with a foot problem.
• 3 pitches, 2 HRs in Cabrera’s first 2 trips — the first dingers and earned runs off Colome, in his 3rd start. Miggy came in batting .423/1.250+ against starting pitchers, and .283/.875-ish vs. relievers (with almost twice the K rate). He added a single off Colome and a reliever double, both on 1-2 counts; he’s 16-48 on 1-2, slugging .542. Over all, he’s back up to .377/1.146, right where he was a month ago. In Detroit’s last 162 games (161 for Cabrera), he has 52 HRs, 158 RBI, 126 runs, 222 hits, .360 BA, 417 total bases, slugging .677.
• Fielder came into June with a 20-game dry spell, then homered in 3 straight.
• Scherzer still hasn’t gone the distance (he went 9 once), and his low-hit game is 2 for 7+ IP.
• Wil Myers is enjoying his own presence. He soloed and singled, scored twice, and is off to a fine start despite a 12-1 SO/BB ratio. But someone said he reminds them of Dale Murphy, and that I protest: Murph never pimped at the plate; Myers is making me hate him.
• Al-Al needs to go back down. Started the 8th with a 3-run lead, 0-2 on Yunel Escobar, lost him on balls. Nobody cares about your wipeout slider any more, Al.
• Memo to Kelly: Getting doubled off 3rd on a line drive to short — that should never happen. The infield was in, and Kelly took a huge secondary lead, hoping to score on a grounder. That’s an utterly wrong approach with a 3-run lead, 1 out and 2 in scoring position, with a .300 hitter on deck.

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Nationals 5, @Mets 4: The L goes to Bobby Parnell, but Terry Collins lost this game, beyond any doubt, wasting another Matt Harvey gem. Terry just had to bring in a lefty to face Denard Span, who was not even the tying run with 2 outs in the 8th. Never mind that Collins has no quality lefties, or that Span can’t really hurt you there, man on 1st with a 3-run lead; he’s driven home one man from 1st base this year. Never mind that even the next man up has just 1 home run, or that David Aardsma — once a successful closer, now back pitching well after a long run of injuries — had overpowered the last 2 after a leadoff single (whiff, foul pop). Never mind the flow of the inning. None of that matters: Span can’t hit lefties, so a lefty must pitch!

So Span flared a double, and that brought up the tying run. Off slinks Josh Edgin — what, you haven’t heard of our brilliant lefty specialist? –and in comes Brandon Lyon, to walk the rookie Rendon and load ’em up for Ryan Zimmerman. His double clears ’em (meatball), and there goes Harvey’s win. What a waste. (Collins used another lefty to get the last out, and had to PH for him, so if the game had gone extras, the ‘pen was now thin.) Terry’s mania for mediocre lefty relievers has cost this team games.

• Harvey threw 3 straight curves in the 5th: One got Jayson Werth flailing into the opposite batter’s box, 14 straight outs to start the game. The next had Ian Desmond digging for dirt. But #3 stayed knee-high over the plate, and Desmond punished it, tying the game. That followed a missed golden chance for the Mets, 3rd and 2nd with no outs.
• Harvey gave up 3 hits and that run in 7 innings, no walks, 11 Ks. And gets nothing. The top thing he shares with Seaver is a team that squanders his mastery. It’s the 9th time Harvey’s gone 7+ on 1 run or less, unmatched in the majors this year. Just 4 went as Harvey wins (44%), with 1 loss (11%). All other pitchers have won 69% of such games this year, and lost less than 3% (242-9 out of 349).
• In happier times … Eric Young needed all of his speed to score on this 2-out double, after his leadoff hit. Marlon Byrd was just fast enough to slide under the throw on the ensuing hit, and Josh Satin just beat the throw back to 2nd.
• Satin is 28 but has never gotten a shot despite a career .398 OBP in the minors. He’s reached in 16 of 32 trips this year (9 for 25, 3 doubles, 7 walks).
• A 10-pitch AB for Ross Detwiler was the longest ever against Harvey. It ended in a whiff, and just as you’d guess, Harvey led off the home half. (And yeah, I love that his walk-up is a U2 song 6 years older than he is.)

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@Braves 3, D-backs 0: Justin Upton‘s RBI single (his 7th) in the opening frame was all Julio Teheran and the bullpen would need. Teheran ruled by fiat, fanning 10 with 1 walk in his 6 innings, leaving for a PH with 2 on in the home 6th. His K rate’s blown up in his last 6 starts, with no cost in control: 46 Ks, 5 walks in 39 IP, now 81/17 this year. Atlanta’s won just 1 of their last 6 series, but they’re 26-11 at home with 5 more to go on this stand, and still lead the Nats by 5.5 games.

• In 2011, Teheran was the youngest pitcher in AAA, and one of the best, with a 2.55 ERA in 24 starts. In 2012, he was forced to repeat the grade, due to a crowded rotation (or so the Braves thought, anyway). This time he stunk it up, with the 3rd-highest ERA among those with 100+ IP. But here he is, succeeding in the majors and still just 22 years old. And one of just 4 Colombian pitchers ever to play in The Show.
• There’s time enough for Washington to mount a threat, but Atlanta’s already banked 7-for-10 in that series, so only 9 left, none until August 5.
• No Brave will ever again wear number 10. Even this Mets fan feels a little choked up.
• Miguel Montero had 3 Ks and a game-ending DP, his 12th (one shy of his extra-base hit total). Still hitting cleanup. They’ve gotten Aaron Hill back and soon(?) Eric Chavez, but they still look thin in the meat of the order.
• Are squeeze bunts on the rise? They’re actually waning: 95 RBI on bunts in 2011, 84 last year, and this one made 30 through almost half of 2013.

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@Rangers 4, Reds 0:Not good news for Johnny Cueto and the Reds. And Tony Cingrani, the replacement here and if Cueto makes a 3rd DL visit, walked 6 in 4 stanzas — 4 in the inning he took over, 3 of those in a row with 2 outs to force in 2 runs. Cincinnati had comeback chances, but went hitless in 10 RISP tries. First scoreless start by young Martin Perez, who gave up some hits but walked only one; that was his main bugaboo coming up through the minors, but he earned this promotion by slashing his walk rate almost in half.

• No production from Shin-Soo Choo of late: 1 HR, 5 RBI in his last 27 games (11-16 club record).
• Reds have lost 8 of 12, with 14 HRs but only 29 runs.
• Texas has back-to-back shutouts for the 3rd time this year.
• Last October, it was back spasms. Has Johnny tried yoga? He looks lithe enough in that twisting wind-up, but these nagging injuries have become a cloud over a team with title dreams.

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@Orioles 4, Yankees 3: “Surprise” starter CC Sabathia was near-perfect for 5 innings, and with a 3-0 lead he looked ready to boost his 17-4 record against Baltimore. But those wins were “then” … Four hits in the 6th — two in CC’s patch, and a long you-know-what by Machado, and the lead was history. Nate McLouth, in just his 5th southpaw start, started that tying rally with a hit, then put the O’s on top with this parachute jump; 3 of his 5 HRs have come against lefties.

• Robinson Cano singled three times, his second 3-hit game in the last 64. His last XBH came on the West Coast trip, 10 games back.

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Indians 19, @White Sox 10 (first game): If it’s not extra innings on getaway day, it’s a bullpen-burning barrage in a doubleheader tip-off.

• Three ChiSox served 5+ runs, first such game in MLB since last April. The Tribe used 6 relievers for at least an inning, the most this year in regulation.
• Cleveland’s first 14 runs scored without a HR. It’s been 30 years since the Tribe scored 15+ without tatering, led by Hargrove, Harrah, and a rookie named Julio Franco.