Rough day for the Centrals, 1-7 in intradivisional contests. So we’ll start with an NLC showdown. (And if you read far enough, you’ll find something never seen before.)

@Pirates 5, Reds 4: Time and tide were sweeping away from the Bucs as they came to bat in the 8th. Down 4-2, with Chapman looming, they were about to fall farther into 3rd place in the NL Central. Jonathan Broxton hit Starling Marte with a 1-and-2 pitch leading off (he’s been plunked 12 times this year), but Neil Walker rapped the next for a 6-4-3. Andrew McCutchen beat out an infield hit on a full count, and up came Garrett Jones. Broxton fell behind, 2-and-1 —

“Stop!”, you say; “that narrative’s wrong! With a lefty slugger as the tying run, a lefty who doesn’t hit lefties at all — and with Chapman being the most devastating lefty-squasher known to science and having held Jones to 0-for-7 with 4 strikeouts — Q.E.D., obviously Aroldis was summoned for Jones!”

Ah, Grasshopper. When will you learn? Late relievers are like delicate Swiss watches; they operate on schedule, or not at all. The gears are meshed and fixed: Broxton pitches the eighth; Chapman the ninth. As it was written, so shall it be.

So Broxton came in with that 2-and-1 pitch — I don’t know what pitch he threw, but I know it had parents — and Jones dipped it in the river, washing away Cincy’s sweep hopes.

The rest was just a matter of time. The Reds could do nothing with Grilli or Justin Wilson — 6 Ks, one single in 3 combined innings. Jones lined out to short to start the home 11th off Alfredo Simon, starting his 3rd inning of work; still no lefty against that game-ending threat. But Zack Cozart misfired on a grounder, and Pedro Alvarez worked out a walk. With 2 outs, Travis Snider (wait, isn’t he a lefty who can’t hit lefties?) lined a 1-strike pitch into center, and Martin raced home with the game-winner.

• Cincy scored all their runs in the 1st, starting with a 1-and-2 HBP of Shin-Soo Choo. He was hit again in the 4th, and reached 3 times this game — but he also was caught stealing and went 0-for-3, with a called K to end the 8th with bases loaded.
• After a bit of a lull, Choo has been plunked 5 times in his last 8 games and 5 times in 6 games against Pittsburgh, up to 17 HBP for the year (tying his personal best) in 57 team games. Since 1901, Ron Hunt‘s 50 is the only season with more than 35 HBP. The Reds record is 24 by Jason LaRue. Choo has reached 58 times by walk or HBP, matching his hit total, generating a .441 OBP.
• Marte’s on pace to threaten Jason Kendall‘s club record of 31 HBP. He reached 4 times today but didn’t score, and his bat has cooled: In his last 15 games, 10 for 51, 1 RBI, 3 Runs.
• Broxton came in with negative WPA for the year; they owe him at least $17 million for the next 2 years. How do you just ignore a plummeting K rate in a veteran reliever?

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@Phillies 7, Brewers 5: Back to business as usual for Milwaukee gravediggers, er, starting pitchers. Mike Fiers got the first 2 out in the 1st, then surrendered 5 runs, including a cycle-plus-walk. Domonic Brown hit a 3-run shot in the 1st, a misplayed RBI triple in the 2nd, singled in the 5th and walked in the 7th. Cliff Lee was just dealing through the 7th, 11 Ks and no walks, 3 hits and 84 pitches. And then, poof, it was gone — 4 hits for a run (around a DP), a reliever, a walk, and Lucroy’s 3-run triple. The Crew went to the 9th down 4-7 and put the first 3 on against Bastardo, including a gratuitous walk that brought up the tying run. With 2 outs, an IBB to the winning run filled the bags for Martin Maldonado, who swung at the first pitch and flied out.

• Just anecdotal, but … it seems there have been a lot of games like Lee’s, where the SP has one awful inning in the midst of an otherwise pristine day.

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@Orioles 4, Tigers 2: What’s gotten into Rick Porcello? Wait, that’s a bad figure of speech these days … Anyway, Porcello fanned 7 through 6 dominant innings. He’d never gone 7-K in back-to-back games before — he had just 7 such games in 129 prior starts.

But whatever it was, Porcello lost it in the 7th, and a 2-0 lead with it. Chris Davis drilled his 20th leading off, then a single by Dickerson, a 3-and-0 count to Hardy and another single, and that was it for young Rick. Phil Coke gave up the tying and go-ahead hits, the latter to Nate McLouth (4 for 22 off southpaws before); both were bleeders, but Coke’s been a disaster all year. The O’s tacked on in the 8th, and Cabrera’s leadoff hit in the 9th went nowhere, as Johnson converted again.

• O’s rookie Kevin Gausman was hammered in his first 2 starts, but he logged his first QS today, with no walks and 1 run through 6.
• Davis added his 19th double, now slugging .754. He’s on a pace (which he won’t reach) of 54 doubles and 56 HRs. If Davis does get close to 50-50, wouldn’t it be fun to see Albert Belle come out of the woodwork to cast a Brian Kingman-style hex? (Actually, I have no clue what Albert the First is doing these days.)
• The all-crap starting lineup so far (min. 150 PAs through Saturday, based on OPS+): C/Alex Avila, 52; 1B/Ike Davis, 39; 2B/Danny Espinosa, 28; SS/Ruben Tejada, 51; 3B/Mike Moustakas, 48; LF/Juan Pierre, 51; CF/B.J. Upton, 34; RF/Jeff Francoeur, 57; DH/Victor Martinez, 61. (At last, a group that makes Frenchy look good!)

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@Twins 10, Mariners 0: Do not adjust your device: Yes, that was “Bonderman … Jeremy Bonderman” starting for Seattle, his first MLB appearance since 2010. Not a memorable return: 7 runs, 3 HRs, 1 K in 4.2 IP. Bonderman was so-so in 11 starts in AAA this year, with a worrisome K rate. Scott Diamond went 6 scoreless, stopping a 4-game slump. With 26 Ks in 56 IP, Diamond’s 4.18 SO/9 tops only teammate Kevin Correia among those with 50+ IP. Five singles and a walk for the Mariners, and one man to 2nd base, in the 1st inning.

• Twins catcher Chris Herrmann hit his first big-league HR; apparently not related to Ed Herrmann, also a lefty-swinging backstop.
• Minnesota hit 4 HRs for the 2nd time this year, both in the last 4 games.
• Their last shutout by such a big margin was also against the M’s, last August 29. That game saw 9 Ks in 7 IP by Sam Deduno — the last time a Twins pitcher fanned 9 or more. There have been 196 9-K efforts in MLB since the last by a Twin.
• Raul Ibanez went 0-for-3 on his 41st birthday.

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Giants 4, @Cardinals 2: The G-men needed a quality start to salvage something from this NLCS rematch, and Chad Gaudin delivered: 2 runs in 6 IP, in his first start since 2009. Rookie lefty Tyler Lyons took the loss, after winning his first 2 starts, each with 1 run in 7 IP. But the big hit came off his relief: Randy Choate came in to face lefty Brandon Belt with 2 on in the 7th, and Belt smacked a tiebreaking 2-run double.

• Buster Posey tied his career high with 4 hits. Lyons induced 3 of SF’s 4 GDPs.
• Really, I had no idea Choate was with St. Louis. This was his 19th game, facing 38 batters. He’d been effective before this, but you have to wonder a bit at his total of 2 strikeouts.

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Diamondbacks 8, @Cubs 4: Patrick Corbin has pitched very well, but nobody gets to 9-0 without a dollop of luck. For the 2nd straight start, Corbin allowed 4 runs in 6 innings, but in both cases, his mates grabbed the lead just after he’d let it go. Here, it was a 3-run surge in the 6th that began with 2 outs. Paul Goldschmidt had the 3rd straight hit to break the tie, and after an IBB, a 2-run knock by Cody Ross cracked it open. That damage all came off Edwin Jackson, who allowed 12 hits and 4 wild pitches, and fell to 1-8, 6.29. Carlos Marmol made a back-on-the-horse appearance but was bucked from the saddle again, walking 3 of the first 4 and letting in the last run; he’s walked 20 and allowed 15 runs in 22.1 IP.

• Corbin hit 2 and walked 2 in the 1st, but he escaped with 1 run in, and gave no more free bags.
• Goldschmidt, who began the day tops in NL OPS+ and RBI, reached 4 of 5 times up, scored 3, and swiped 2 bags.
• Snakes are 16-12 both home and away, and maintained their 2.5-game lead in the NL West. Only Atlanta leads their division by more than 3 games.
• Jackson’s had wild-pitch woes in the past, but he had just 3 all last year, and 3 this year before today.

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Rays 11, @Indians 3: The Rays are 19-17 against teams at .500 or better, the most such wins in the majors. Only the Jays have played more such games (18-26).

Wasn’t Tampa going to struggle to score this year? Take that expectation, plus the struggles of Cy Young winner David Price (1-4, 5.24, DL) and Fernando Rodney (5 blown saves, 5.16 ERA), and an off year so far by WAR darling Ben Zobrist, and you’d figure them for last place. Instead, they just nosed into 3rd in AL scoring at 5.03 R/G, a whisker behind Baltimore, and within striking distance in the AL East and the wild-card race. How are they doing it?

The big surprises on offense are James Loney (.919 OPS, 30 RBI) and Kelly Johnson (.870, 35), who’ve cost $4.5 million combined, less than half the salary of, say, Carlos Marmol. Both players are indirect fruits of the salary-loading by L.A. and Toronto. Johnson was a particularly interesting bargain; he’s had a few years as a productive hitter, and averaged 2.3 WAR from 2007-12, but they were able to sign him for one year at $2.5 million after a couple of down years. Both are hitting better than they ever have, and regression should be expected. But there might just be something about Joe Maddon & Co. that brings out the best from cast-offs.

Matt Moore and Alex Cobb have been even better than the rosiest hopes. But the other SPs have ERAs of 4.87 and up, and the bullpen’s been subpar; overall, the Rays are below average in runs allowed per game and in ERA+. They haven’t been lucky in 1-run games (6-11), but their overall record is right at their pythagorean estimate.

The constants are Maddon and Evan Longoria, who’s played every game and produced at his usual, high all-around level. But as in the past 5 years, when the Rays averaged 91 wins, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

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@Athletics 2, White Sox 0: “Ah, ChiSox! Ah, humanity!” Even with a fine outing by their ace, Chris Sale (1 run in 6 IP), Chicago could not avoid their 6th straight loss, hard on the heels of a long climb back to .500. Jarrod Parker continued his reversal of fortune with his 5th straight quality start, his 2.14 ERA in that stretch carving his season mark to a more presentable 4.90. The Sox mustered 3 hits overall, 2 in Parker’s 6.1 IP, and went 0-for-4 in RBI chances. They’ve been blanked in 3 of the 6 losses, falling to last in AL scoring at 3.44 R/G.

Chicago’s big threat came in the opening stanza on a hit and a walk with 1 out. But Dayan Viciedo’s 10-pitch AB ended in called strike three, and Adam Dunn went the same way more directly. Viciedo, the DH, had a brutal day in the cleanup slot. His GDP in the 4th followed a leadoff walk and preceded a fruitless double, and he made the game’s last out representing the tying run against Grant Balfour. The A’s closer remained perfect in 13 save tries, 10 coming in the last 30 days.

It was scoreless until the home 6th, when the A’s pounced on Sale’s lone walk, to Coco Crisp leading off. Jed Lowrie singled him across the diamond, and he came home agressively on Josh Donaldson’s medium flyout. Crisp and Lowrie manufactured the insurance run in the 8th; with Crisp on the run from first, Lowrie’s liner slipped behind the SS covering, and when Jordan Danks butchered the bounce, Crisp scampered all the way home. Crisp has scored 36 runs in 40 games, and has 28 walks against 16 Ks, with the 5th-lowest K rate among qualifiers. (Norichika Aoki is #1.)

• You’ve seen it a thousand times: With a runner in motion, a young fielder’s adrenaline starts pumping, and he rushes his normal activity even though he has no play. Danks approached the hop as though he had to come up throwing, but there was no need to hurry; Crisp was a lock for 3rd, and Lowrie had no chance to go past 1st. I’m not a big believer in hidden benefits of the running game, but it does seem that less experienced players are prone to overactive mistakes when a man is in motion. One of the hardest and most important things to learn is to read when you have no play, pull back, take a knee, and just keep the ball in front of you.
• The A’s won without an extra-base hit for the first time since last April. They’d lost 11 straight in that fashion.

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@Rangers 3, Royals 1: “Ah, Royals!” — wait, I used that one. Well, KC trailed 1-0 from the 1st to the 8th. They gifted the run: 2-base error by Alcides Escobar, Andrus moved up on a flyout and scored on a groundout to the pitcher. (Huh? why isn’t that among the video highlights?) They they bungled their one chance against Yu Darvish, loading the bases with no outs in the 2nd, then running into a flyout-DP on a questionable tag-up decision by Billy Butler. Even then they weren’t done; a dropped 3rd strike refilled the sacks, but Chris Getz flied out. Darvish went on to post 7 scoreless with a modest 6 Ks.

They finally broke through against Neal Cotts, who was unscathed in 8 IP this year. Alex Gordon led off with a double. Few teams would play for a tie on the road, especially this road park; but when you bat Escobar 2nd, what the hell else have you got? So Escobar sacrificed, and with the infield in, Gordon attacked on a chopper to 3B and dived in ahead of the throw; tie game. The rest of the inning was just frustration: Hosmer, safe on the fielder’s choice, was gunned down trying to steal; then a walk and a single were stranded.

And then they hand the ball to J.C. Gutierrez, one of those guys whose continued big-league presence is a complete mystery. (Let’s see … poor career numbers in the majors, awful in the minors last year, but hey, he had a good spring and he’s only 29 — let’s bring him north!) He got 2 outs, with some help, then he hung something to Profar, and the Rangers were back on top. Andrus manufactured an insurance run, and Nathan shut ’em down in the 9th.

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If you’ve read this far, you’ve beaten the high score — free games for you!

@Rockies 7, Dodgers 2: Ladies and gentlemen, assembled dignitaries and honored guests: What you are about to see will dazzle your eyes and boggle your minds. It cannot be true, yet here it is, uncovered for the first time in all its gruesome splendor:

• A 9-walk, 4-home-run outing by a single major-league pitcher!

No specific lowlights reel was compiled, alas, but you can see it in snippets.

• There are 5 searchable games with 9+ walks and 3 HRs, including one by Steve Carlton with 10 walks; one from the fairly short career of Cloyd Boyer; and a complete-game, 5-2 loss by Sugar Cain against a lineup with 7 Hall of Famers plus a 5-time All-Star.
• There’s 1 searchable game with 4 HRs and 8 walks, a 10th-inning 6-5 walk-off loss by Billy Pierce on (what else) a walk and a HR after he fanned the first 2.

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@Braves 6, Nationals 3: Atlanta took the early lead with a couple of HRs off rookie Nate Karns (4 taters in 2 starts covering 9 IP), and stretched it in a very ineffective appearance by reliever Zach Duke. The southpaw couldn’t get the lefty McCann to close the 5th, then he issued 2 walks to start the 6th, and both came around. Duke issued 4 walks in all, 1 intentional; he’d given just 2 unintentional walks in 20 IP. The hits and runs, though, were nothing novel; his ERA climbed to 8.71 and his BA to .349. Ian Desmond‘s solo shot was his first HR, 3rd XBH and 2nd run in 20 games.

• The Nats got 5 hits and no walks, as their OBP fell close to the bottom-feeding Fish. They’ve drawn 5 walks while losing 5 of their last 7.
• Ramiro Pena (2-run HR in the 1st) continues to force his way into the lineup. In his last 4 starts, he’s 8-16, 2 HRs, 7 RBI, 5 runs.
• B.J. Upton has an RBI hit in consecutive games, for the first time this year.
• Craig Kimbrel earned his 103rd save of at least 1 inning, and his 13th such with no strikeouts. Somehow, I’m surprised there are that many.

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@Marlins 11, Mets 6: Now firmly back to the embarrassing brand of baseball we’ve come to expect, the Mets were decisively swept by Miami. The Fish have given Matt Harvey (4 runs in 5 IP) his two shortest outings, totaling 17 hits in 10.1 IP. A rare Mets HR outburst had him in line for a win, but twelve outs is a lot for that bullpen …

… The lead didn’t last two outs, as Scott Rice walked ’em full, then gave up a tying double to Marcell Ozuna (5-2-3-4, 3B, 2B), ripped over Duda’s head. Rice had no control today; he bounced his next pitch badly with 2 in scoring position, 1 out — why did he stay in? Why did he even pitch to the RH Ozuna, who’s killed lefties in a small sample? Seems Collins was looking ahead to the next two LHBs, but … jeez, after 3 straight walks, 2 of those to lefties, can you expect him to be an asset when those next lefties come up? Rice gave up the lead on a groundout, then walked another and finally Collins came out. Just a blunder, seemingly focused on a future platoon advantage to the exclusion of seeing that Rice didn’t have it. I watched those ABs; he wasn’t “squeezed” and he wasn’t just missing; he was wild.

• Ed Lucas and Chris Coghlan are the first ever to get 3 hits in a game off Harvey. Lucas, age 31, debuted on Thursday, got his first hit Friday, 4 hits Sunday.
• Mets bullpen allowed 7 runs in 3 IP. Marlins’ pen allowed one infield hit in the 6th through 9th.
• Marlins had 3 wins by 4+ runs before this weekend, then won all 3 by such margins.
• No sugar coating: Harvey stunk today. Seemed like he and Buck didn’t adjust their approach after Miami scored 3 on 4 hits in the 1st. Only one more run came off him, but he was in trouble every inning.
• Omar Quintanilla was billed as a defensive upgrade on the injured and inept Ruben Tejada. But he’s been dreadful, 3 errors in 4 games, all just sloppy, and no impressive plays.
• In the postgame, Collins defended Rice vs. Ozuna by citing Ozuna’s .160 BA against sinkers. OK … but those outs just might have come on located sinkers.

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Random drivel

4 multi-hit games against Craig Kimbrel this year; none last year.

More than one way to skin a Buc … Cincinnati blanked Pittsburgh on 1 hit Friday, on 10 hits Saturday. This year’s high-hit shutout also went to Mike Leake, who started an 11-hitter against Miami.

Out of nine 1-hitters this year, the Pirates, Reds and Cardinals have all been on each end once.

If .333 is Houston’s .500, is Bud Norris (5-4) a Cy Young contender?

Sad to report that reliever Zach Putnam was one of those pummeled by the Snakes last night. He’s the only player ever to come out of Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, MI, which is across the street from Michigan Stadium and is the school my eldest sister, Diana, graduated from. (Would’ve been mine, too, had there not been an alternative for misfits.) Alas, it looks like Zach’s destined for a long career in AAA, unless he can pull off the ol’ switcheroo; he was all-Big Ten as both a DH and a pitcher.

There have been 4 games this year in which a team scored 4 runs with 3 hits. The Cubs did it twice, and had it done against them once, losing all 3.

Do you ever wonder why a standard U.S. monthly calendar starts the week with Sunday and ends it with Saturday? It’s been roughly a century since “weekends” were secured by organized labor; would it be so disruptive to have our calendars reflect the way we actually think? Isn’t it bizarre to have a two-day span that most of us think of as a block, instead be depicted just as far apart as possible?

30% of Carlos Marmol’s career HRs allowed scored 3 runs or more. Last year’s MLB average was 13%.

Forgot to mention another giant hole in Henry Rodriguez’s game: The worst stolen base rate in MLB history for any pitcher with 100+ innings. In 145 IP, 653 PAs, he’s allowed 38 steals — with just 2 caught. This year alone, 9 steals in 9 tries over 18 innings. Every other pitcher who’s allowed 8 or more this year is a starter with at least 34 IP.