Even on a light day, I couldn’t quite touch ’em all.

@Dodgers 6, Phillies 4: Are they really back in this thing? Six straight $odgers wins, and the rest of the division going 14-26 in their last 10 games, brought L.A. 6 games from the top spot and 2.5 from 2nd.

Zack Greinke was in the soup in 6 of 7 innings, allowing 12 hits and 2 HRs, so when the fans stood to stretch, Zack stood to be the loser. And with the lower half hitting, there seemed but little chance of Yasiel‘s getting to the bat. But A.J. Ellis worked a leadoff walk, representing the tying run, and Juan Uribe did the sensible thing by bunting towards immobile Ryan Howard. The big man toppled, and Uribe had his first bunt hit since 2008. A sac moved them up, but Justin De Fratus whiffed leadoff nullity Skip Schumaker, then got 0-2 on Puig with drop-off sliders. The third one stayed up, and Mr. Moment improbably pulled it through the 5/6 hole for the decisive runs.

• Greinke joins Adam Wainwright as this year’s only winners allowing 12+ hits — the first such by a Dodger in 20 years. Three DPs, and a pickoff on a pending bunt, helped control his damage.
• Puig with 2 or more on base: 5 for 7, 2 HRs. In the 7th inning or later, 12-23, 8 RBI.
• LA is 14-23 in their own division. Without those games, the best record of the other 4 teams is 1 game over .500 for Arizona.

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Mets 3, @Rockies 2: A game snowed out in April was made up in 95-degree sunshine, and the Mets found a ray of hope in a 7-4 road trip that took them to 4 cities in 3 time zones with a trio of walk-off losses. Marlon Byrd‘s late heroics made a happy flight home: He homered in the 8th to flip a 1-run deficit, and he helped hold that slim lead in the 9th with a spot-on toss to stop the rampaging Michael Cuddyer.

• His backing band pushed Jeremy Hefner into a corner in a 2-run 2nd, but he fought back with 4 zeroes, and his rare bout of contact hitting narrowed the gap in the 5th. Tyler Chatwood was otherwise in control, but a leadoff walk in that inning led to the lone run. His was the 25th start against the Mets of 1 run or less in 6+ innings; only Miami has suffered more.
• Before now, Byrd in Coors was more emu than eagle: 15 for 65, 1 HR, no walks.
• When Jon Niese was still healthy and Zack Wheeler was coming up, Hefner was a candidate for the bullpen. Now he has a 1.80 ERA in 5 June starts, and 10 QS in 15 tries.
• New York’s batting splits for the 7th inning onward don’t stand out on their own, but they’re better than those for innings 1-3 and 4-6. They’ve scored about 35% of their total runs from the 7th on, the highest of any MLB team; the average is 28%.

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Rangers 2, @Yankees 0: In 7 prior tries, Derek Holland hadn’t sniffed a win or even a quality start against New York: 0-5 with an 8.85 ERA, 11 HRs in 39.2 IP. But the Dutch Oven won back some respect today, cooking up a tasty 2-hitter for his first-ever win backed by 2 runs or less. Jayson Nix was the only Yank to get halfway home, on a walk and a steal as the tying run in the 4th; but Vernon Wells swung through on 3-2 (he fanned in all 3 trips), and Holland faced the minimum from there on.

Phil Hughes was just good enough to lose, lasting 8 for the 2nd time this year but dropping his 4th straight home start; he’d never lost 2 in a row there before.

• Rangers’ first Bronx series win since 2009. They went 2-11 there in the past 3 regular seasons.
• Last one-man Ranger shutout in Yankee Stadium was 1993, Kevin Brown: Bernie, Boggs, Donnie, Paulie, Maas, Dion, Nokes, Spike & Kelly.
• Holland hurled 4 shutouts in 2 months back in 2011, but he’d gone 8 scoreless just once in his last 54.
• When you’re hitting worse than Wells, you can’t afford to take those woes to the basepaths.
• But you can’t take chances down 2 with no outs, can you, Cano?
• The Yanks have scored 14 runs in the last 8 Hughes starts, dropping his season average to 2.95.
• How far to the Yankee cheap seats? Not Profar enough.

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Diamondbacks 3, @Nationals 2 (11): Didi Gregorius picked a great time for his first-ever bunt hit. He looked like a veteran of many squeezes past, beautifully dragging a tough outside pitch and even beating the throw as the lead run scored in the 11th. Cody Ross helped set up that run with his first sacrifice in over a year, after Montero‘s leadoff double. The first 7 frames belonged to Patrick Corbin and Stephen Strasburg, who each yielded a 2-run HR but little else. Corbin trailed 2-0 when he led off the 6th with a single, and Aaron Hill tied it with one swing on a misplaced fastball.

• The squeeze was the game’s only hit with a man in scoring position.
• Marquee relievers have “their” innings, but Josh Collmenter has “next.” In extra innings, hitters are 13-60 (one double), with only one run scoring on his watch. All 4 of his wins this year came in extras, with 3 this month alone. His career relief ERA is 1.79 in 90.2 IP, with a 1.04 WHIP, averaging over 2 innings.
• 5 straight no-D’s for Corbin, averaging 7 IP and 2 runs — but it’s a team game, and the Snakes have won 4 of those. They’re 15-1 on his day, 27-35 otherwise.
• Through 2012, pitchers hit Strasburg 4 for 72 (40 Ks, 1 run). This year, 6-23 (9 Ks, 3 runs).
• Nats have scored 3 runs or less in 12 of his 15 starts, going 6-9. Now they head to Flushing, having scored 12 runs in 5 games off the Mets.
• Wait, now — this happened, and The Natural wasn’t even in the park?

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Angels 3, @Tigers 1 (10): Don’t know who wasn’t available, but Jim Leyland must have been desperate to have Phil Coke start an inning whose 2-3-4 hitters were dangerous righties Trout, Pujols and Kendrick. Albert’s no-out double sent home the lead run and poised Trout (4 hits) to score on a sac fly, and the Angels swept 3 from Detroit for the 2nd time this year. Jered Weaver went 7 in his best game since the injury, while Doug Fister rebounded from his worst of the year with 7 effective innings.

• Since 2011, Coke’s .331 BA allowed to RHBs (139 for 420) is 2nd-worst among southpaws with 150+ IP. Just the 3rd man out of the pen today. Drew Smyly had 3 days of rest, but maybe he’s dinged, or getting ready to move into the rotation?
• Albert’s double was almost reeled in by A-Jax on a post pattern, but it would have put the lead run on 3rd with 1 out anyway.
• A series of atonements for J.B. Shuck, whose glaring misplays helped kick away Sunday’s game. He went 6 for 14 in this set, scoring 5, and started the winning rally today.
• Detroit’s top 4 went 1 for 16, 0-4 with RISP.
• Trout in 6 games vs. Detroit this year: 13 for 31, no walks, 2 HRs, 3 doubles. Cabrera in those games: 10-23, 3 walks, 2 HRs, 2 doubles. Almost the same, except: 8 runs, 11 RBI for Trout; 2 runs, 4 RBI for Miggy.
• 9 straight for the Halos over the Bengals is 2nd-best in their history. They took 14 from 2002-03, when Detroit was down and out.
• “KOHHHHHHNNNNN!!!” Hitters are 12 for 80 off the right-hander.

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@Red Sox 7, Blue Jays 4: Boston celebrated one month alone at the top with a flash mob, scoring 7 in the 2nd off Chien-Ming Wang, then coasting home in the series opener. Just 3 Sawx reached base in their 7 other innings. The Jays made some noise in the 8th, driving out Jon Lester and getting the tying run on deck with no outs and the top of the order up. But Reyes, Bautista and Encarnacion went down against Junichi Tazawa, and it was no time to relish productive outs.

• Except for this once, Fenway hasn’t been kind to Wang: 6.52 ERA, 1.72 WHIP in 9 starts.
• The last time he faced Toronto, Lester was near-perfect. But in 10 starts since, his ERA’s 6.42.
• The Jays used 4 relievers who all came out with ERAs under 2; the team is 1st in reliever WHIP, 2nd in ERA. Juan Perez set down 9 straight and has not allowed an earned run in 15 IP this year; the 34-year-old had just 28 prior big-league innings.

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Orioles 7, @Indians 3: The O’s are #1 in homers, but they’re also 10-9 when held in the yard. Don’t know their complete record when “abandoning [an] effort to touch the next base” (see 0:55 here and 7.08(a)(2) here), but at least they’re off the schneid.

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@Twins 3, Royals 1: KC went 0-6 with RISP, but that’s not really their problem; before tonight, they were hitting .279 with RISP (4th in the AL), but .247 with bases empty (near the league norm). Their problem is 43 HRs — not just last in the majors, but barely half the AL average — and 188 walks (next-to-last in the AL). They’re on a 92-HR pace; that would be the lowest AL total since 1992, including the strike years.

To put it in a player-year context, the Royals are averaging 10 HRs and 43 walks per 650 ABs; that’s untenable. You’d have to say they’ve been lucky to average 3.86 R/G.

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Late Wednesday

@Dodgers 4, Giants 2: Clayton Kershaw must have thought “here we go again” when Buster Posey‘s single put the tying runs aboard against Kenley Jansen with no outs in the 9th. But Jansen’s a League apart from his predecessor, and he just overpowered the middle of the order — whiff, whiff, kindling — to preserve Kershaw’s first win in 7 starts. He has 11 straight starts vs. SF with at least 7 IP on 2 runs or less, and owns a career 1.34 ERA in 19 starts against that archrival.

Pass the salt and pepper, or, why your Game Notes narrator never gambles: After Hanley Ramirez was out of the lineup for 7 straight games in his second return from the DL, I wrote something like, “That’s it, then — he won’t be healthy this year.” Well, Hanley has not only started 11 of the last 12 games, he’s been on fire, hitting in 10 straight starts and with a .395/1.156 line for the dozen, with team highs of 4 HRs, 11 RBI and 9 runs. (And now that I’ve even my words, just watch him sit out tonight.)

If you looked just at his bases-empty numbers, you’d never dream that Tim Lincecum was struggling. During his two Cy Young seasons, The Freak averaged a .221 BA, .296 OBP and .312 SLG with nobody on — just about the same as this year’s .216/.295/.319. But with anyone on base, hoo-boy. From 2008-11, Timmy had the best men-on OPS of all 123 pitchers who had 400+ IP in that span, and the 8th-best reduction in OPS for that situation compared to his over-all mark. But since 2012, his men-on OPS ranks 94th out of 105 pitchers with 200+ IP, and 90th in the percentage difference between men-on and over-all.