Got a little caught up in my Metzgers … forgive me!

Mets 4, @Braves 3 (day game): Which reminds your Game Notes narrator, “Always set the DVR for Harvey!” Facing the batting strikeout leaders for the first time this year — and a watered-down lineup, at that — Matt Harvey kept the scoreboard’s first two columns barren until the 7th, then saw the no-no end comically when the first-base ump declined to receive Harvey’s timely toss, leaving Jason Heyward safe in a cloud of chalk. That brought the dreaded Freddie Freeman up as the tying run in a 2-0 game.

But on the 8th pitch, Freeman fanned — Harvey’s career-high 13th strikeout — and John Buck nailed Heyward at 2nd. Harvey finished the inning at 108 pitches, right on the cusp of “will he stay or will he go?” The Mets doubled their lead in the 8th, and it might have been the worst that could have happened to Harvey. He was left to hit with 2 outs, 2 on, and he worked a 9-pitch AB (5 swings) before succumbing.

If this is not a baseball truism, it should be: A pitcher allowed to bat with 2 outs in a scoring chance, in the hope of squeezing one more inning, will not get through that inning. Sure enough, Harvey walked Gerald Laird on 4, and Uggla singled on 1-and-2. And the inning got ugly. Simmons singled on 2-2 to load the bases, and Harvey was done at last. Soon it seemed the Mets were done, too, as their reliably leaky ‘pen let in all 3. With 2 outs and 2 on, Bobby Parnell was the 3rd reliever and the last hope to salvage Harvey’s gem. And though Chris Johnson worked him hard, Parnell delivered the third out, then got through the 9th with only minor angst. Atlanta finished with 16 strikeouts, their season high but for the Anibal Sanchez 17-K game in April. Harvey earned his first win 6 starts, and the Mets snapped their 3-game skid in Harvey games.

• John Buck, who played with Colby Rasmus last year, homered off little brother Cory, the 4th he’s allowed in 3 relief outings.
• Lefty Alex Wood, a 2nd-round pick just last year, took the loss in his debut start, allowing a run in 3 innings before a blister drove him out. Wood had a 1.72 ERA in 23 starts at A/AA, allowing just 2 HRs.
• Harvey after 25 career starts: 2.37 ERA (1 UER), 163.1 IP, 113 H, 49 BB, 185 SO, 9 HRs, 0.99 WHIP. (But only 9 wins … oh, you Mets!)
• Most 10-K games in first 25 (since 1916): 10, Gooden and Nomo; 8, Wood and Darvish; 7, Downing and Prior; 6, Feller and Harvey.
• Most total strikeouts as SP, first 25 career games: 223-Wood; 220-Nomo; 202-Gooden; 192-Prior; 188-Darvish; 185-Harvey; 172-Strasburg.

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@Red Sox 5, Rays 1 (day game): David Ortiz broke a tie in the 3rd with a 2-run single and added his 52nd RBI in 53 games played, as Boston improved to 8-2 against Tampa, pushing the Rays closer to the surging Blue Jays at the bottom of the AL East. Alfredo Aceves worked 5 and won his 3rd straight start, allowing one run each time and beating the Rays for the 2nd time in a week. He has a 2.22 ERA in 48.2 career innings against Tampa, with just 27 hits.

• Jacoby Ellsbury scored 3 runs for the first time this year.

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@Indians 4, Royals 3: Cleveland’s gift was all wrapped and ready for the bow. KC led 3-1 into the home 8th, all on freebies — 2 in a no-hit 3rd (2 walks, 2 wild pitches by Ubaldo Jimenez), another in the 8th after a 3-base wild throw by reliever Cody Allen. But reliever Kelvin Herrera walked the leadoff man, and the bats — held to 3 hits by starter Ervin Santana — came alive. Jason Kipnis greeted tough lefty Tim Collins with a tying double that pushed the lead run to 3rd, and Michael Brantley delivered a sac fly.

Vinnie Pestano just did survive the 9th, helped by some wacky baserunning (? — no video yet). A one-out hit with 2 aboard somehow ended with two in scoring position but the middle man tagged out at 3rd. A semi-intentional walk to Gordon brought up Eric Hosmer, who completed an 0-for-5 by grounding to 1st.

• Santana kept the KC-QS train chugging along, 1 run in 7 IP for their 11th quality start in 12 games. Royals starters have a 2.05 ERA in 17 games this month. Santana has lasted 7 innings in 7 straight starts, one off his career best.

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@Blue Jays 8, Rockies 2: Toronto scored 4 in the 1st on 6 in-house hits, then double the lead in their accustomed fashion with 3 HRs in the middle innings. Esmil Rogers kept the Rockies off the board until the 7th to win his 2nd straight start during the Jays’ 7-game streak, trimming his ERA to 3.14 from 6.38 a month ago. Homers by Edwin Encarnacion (19th) and J.P. Arencibia (15th), plus a double for each.

• The lowest OBP ever by a 30-HR man was .254 by Tony Armas, 1983. Arencibia is halfway to 30 HRs with a .243 OBP.
• Encarnacion’s HRs by month since 2012: 8, 9, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9, 6, and 3 so far this month.
• Is there something about Jeff Francis that beguiles big-league teams, or is he just here as known-quantity filler? Francis had two good years in 2006-07, averaging 207 IP with a 116 ERA+. But from 2008-12, he averaged 136 IP and an 88 ERA+ (not counting the year he missed). Last year was probably his worst, age 31, but the Rockies signed him for another year, and he’s fared worse than ever in 2013. Well, he does work cheap.

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Orioles 5, @Tigers 2: No fireworks from the marquee sluggers, but the O’s had other power sources to beat Verlander for the first time ever. J.J. Hardy and Adam Jones hit big flies, each following a walk, to produce all 5 runs. Despite 2 hits, Miguel Cabrera had an awful game: Out stretching on his first hit; 0-3 with RISP, each with 2 on (once with 3rd-and-1st, one out); and hit into a game-ending DP off Jim Johnson when he represented the tying run. Four walks and 7 hits in Verlander’s 5 IP, while Zach Britton earned his first win with 5.1 innings, touched only by Matt Tuiasosopo‘s solo HR after getting the big lead.

• Hardy homered twice against Verlander 2 weeks back. Jones had 2 singles in 26 ABs (8 Ks) against Verlander before his game-breaking 3-run shot in the 5th.
• It’s the first time in 51 starts that J.V. allowed 2 multi-run HRs; the last time was a double dose of Shelley Duncan.
• Oh, yeah — MannyMac did his thing. And his other thing. (Or do I have those backwards? After all, he did this, too.)

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Athletics 6, @Rangers 2: Yu Darvish fanned 10, padding his MLB lead, but Jarrod Parker bagged his 8th straight quality start as the A’s restored their 3-game lead out West. A turning point came in the home 3rd, when A.J. Pierzynski‘s 2-run hit cut the deficit to 3-2, with the tying run on 2nd and 1 out. Pierzynski tried to move up on an errant pitch and was cut down by John Jaso, who had homered in the top half. Oakland scored 2 in a sloppy 4th by Texas — wild pitch, E-Berkman, balk — and the Rangers didn’t get a hit after that abortive rally.

• Texas went 8-1 in Darvish’s first 9 starts (2.97), but 1-5 in his last 6 despite a 2.66 ERA.
• Lance Berkman‘s first 30 games: .303/.909, 17 runs. His last 31: .227/.620, 8 runs.
• Batting 2nd, Jurickson Profar sacrificed in his first 2 trips — man on 1st and no outs in the 1st, game scoreless, and 2 on with no outs in the 3rd, down 3-0. Maybe he was bunting for a hit, although he has no bunt hits yet in the majors. But Ron Washington’s small-ball outlook isn’t looking so good with the Rangers scoring less than 3 per game this month.

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Mets 6, @Braves 1 (nightcap): He’s thin as a bat handle, but Zack Wheeler pours an easy 97, and he if he ever commands it, he might be good. Wheeler walked his first batter and 5 total in a 6-inning debut, and had a man on base in every frame, but 7 Ks (4 with RISP) and 2 DPs kept the Braves from capitalizing. While Wheeler was shaking hands after 6 scoreless, Anthony Recker put him in the winner’s circle with a 2-run HR in the top of the 7th, the 3rd of his career, exploiting a 3-and-1 count against Paul Maholm. Atlanta got one back in their half and threatened more, but B.J. Upton tapped out with 2 on after a walk to Freeman — the 3rd time an inning ended with that sequence.

New York put it away with 4 in the 8th, everything after 2 outs, with some downside defense by the Upton brothers that almost suggested a collective haze after their collision in the 5th. With a man on 2nd and 2 outs, a pickoff throw skipped into CF, and Marlon Byrd had 3rd base easy. But B.J. acted like he had a play and tried to glove on the run, as if to come up throwing — and simply missed it, letting Byrd come all the way around to complete his hustle circuit. After a walk and a single, Justin juggled a hit to left, mooting any play at the plate, but he still heaved homeward to let the others move up, and they scored on a single.

• Wheeler joins Harvey and Masato Yoshii as Mets who won their debuts with 7+ strikeouts. Those 3 and Dick Rusteck are the only Mets to win a debut with shutout ball. Rusteck pitched a CG 4-hitter, but he got hurt, went back to the minors, and despite a long career in the bushes, he never won another game in the bigs.
• David Wright picked up hit #1,500, the 106th modern player to reach that mark by age 30. Robinson Cano hit that list this year, and the next should be Jose Reyes, who sits on the DL at 1,499. But don’t expect 3,000: Of the 28 retired players with between 1,500 and 1,600 hits by age 30, only Tony Gwynn reached the magic number. Six in all reached 2,500 hits, and barely half reached 2,000.
• Last Mets doubleheader sweep of Atlanta was September 2006 (even I don’t remember David Williams). Last time in Atlanta … let’s just say that Ron Darling was a young man, and the Mets were defending champs.
• Yep — no homer, no win for Atlanta; now 4-21 when they don’t go yard.
• It seemed gimmicky, having Wheeler debut in a doubleheader with Harvey, and not so promising to do it in Atlanta, where the Braves were 24-8 this year, and the Mets were 15-33 since 2008. Twenty strikeouts later, what was I worried about? Or in the words of George Costanza: “What, am I waiting to win an Oscar, here? This is all I’ve got!“

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A few from Monday:

Marlins 3, @D-backs 2: Three hits can be enough to win, if one is Majestic and another Dramatic. Only 5 of Giancarlo‘s 100 career HRs have been traced to RF, but maybe he just hasn’t seen many chest-high fastballs away while protecting with 2 strikes.

• Up a run in the 6th, 2 outs, 2-and-0 on Giancarlo: Just put him on. His career split on 2-0 pitches: 19 for 43, 7 HRs, 5 doubles. After a 2-0 start: 1.187 OPS, with a HR in about 9% of ABs.
• Jacob Turner‘s strikeout rate at every level suggests he must be exceedingly fine to make it up here.

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Royals 2 @Indians 1: By rule, it’s a wild pitch for Matt Albers, his 5th (and most costly) in 23 innings. But Carlos Santana knows you can’t leave the 5-hole open with the lead run on 3rd.

You know it’s a James Shields start when Carlos Carrasco sets down the first 13 Royals. Carlos was hammered flat in his first 2 outings, but he kept KC quiet into the 8th, and the Royals needed 2-out triangulation to locate the tying run. (Do watch at least 28 seconds of that clip.) Shields now has 7 no-decisions, allowing 10 runs in 49 IP. Since his last win on April 30, he has a 2.53 ERA in 9 starts averaging just over 7 IP — but is 0-4. On the bright side, the Royals have won his last 4 starts. They’ve now won 4 of 5 on this road trip, climbing back to .500 after a hellish skid, and nipping past Cleveland for 2nd place.

• Not pictured: xDavid Lough helped set up that go-ahead run by beating out a bunt, presumably a sac attempt with 2 on, no outs.
• Cleveland leads the majors in [wild pitches + passed balls], with 43. With Santana behind the plate this year, those events have come at a rate of 92 per 1,000 innings — more than twice the rate for Yan Gomes (43), who also has a vastly superior CS rate. Thieves are 7/15 off Gomes, 26/30 off Santana.
• Chris Getz to Michael Brantley: Pick on somebody else for a change! (Maybe someone batting over .215?)

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@Tigers 5, Orioles 1: The pregame storylines were both fulfilled: Max Scherzer‘s bid for 10-0, and a Triple-Crown smackdown between Cabrera and Davis. The sluggers held sway early, as first Miggy, then Chris, went deep in his first chance, and each singled in his next. Austin Jackson got the Davis run back — A-Jax had his 3rd straight multi-hit game since his most welcome return — so the score was 3-1 Bengals in the 5th when the stories intersected.

Max had fanned two after the first two reached, but then a grounder up the middle was gloved and eaten, the eleventeenth infield hit against Detroit this year. Bases loaded, and Davis up. On 1-and-2, Scherzer popped the mitt and 32,000 voices pleaded, but blue called it true: outside, ball two. Next pitch came one inch closer, but Davis sneered again and blue agreed, though the batterymates hopped and the crowd groaned louder. Full count. [Davis on 3-and-2 this year: 9 for 22, 5 HRs; half his 24 HRs came with 2 strikes. Gulp.] His pitch count near 100, the lead and his streak on the line, Scherzer had to challenge; he caught plenty plate, but Davis fouled it off. At last, the 26th pitch of the inning, thigh-high, outer black, and Davis swung through it: the 8th strikeout for Max.

And the last threat for Baltimore. Scherzer finished with 10 Ks in 6 IP, fanning his last two with a man aboard. Drew Smyly retired the last nine, 5 grounders, 3 Ks and a pop to end it; his ERA is 1.94 in 41.2 IP, 2nd among relievers. Cabrera finished 4-1-3-2 with one K, Davis 4-1-2-1 with two.

• This came exactly one year after the game that really marked the turning point in Scherzer’s 2012 season, and perhaps his career. He began that day holding a 5.76 ERA through 13 starts, but he notched 12 strikeouts in 8 IP without a walk or a run, fanning every Rockies batter except Marco Scutaro. In 33 starts from then to now — one season’s worth — Scherzer is 21-3 with a 2.78 ERA, 259 strikeouts and 55 walks in 213.2 IP.
• The runs Detroit could have scored this year with just a league-average DH … Two first-pitch GDPs with 2 aboard in a hitless night for V-Mart. Brayan Pena went 0-3 with RISP, and in between, he bunted into a DP. That wasted a 4-4 by Omar Infante hitting in front of Pena. Fourteen hits, including a 2-run HR, should plate more than 5. But good pitching covers many ills.
• After 2 matching ABs for Cabrera and Davis, I began to dream: Double-cycle? Wouldn’t that stir the pot a little! There’s never been more than one cycle in a game, at least in searchable games since 1916. But Cabrera only triples once a year, just to remember the feeling; he’s fallen “a triple short” 22 times. And Davis hasn’t legged one out since 2009.
• Highest season W% by a Tiger with at least 15 wins: .862 (25-4), Wild Bill Donovan, 1907. To best that mark, Scherzer would have to finish at least 19-3.

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@Braves 2, Mets 1: I really try to like Terry Collins, but so many of his decisions baffle me. I saw Freddie Freeman‘s first 2 ABs before I had to sign off on this late-starting game, and as sharp as Dillon Gee was in the frames I witnessed, Freeman was the one guy who was right on his stuff, lacing a double down the RF line and a single down the other one. So as much as I want to honor the desire to let Gee finish a shutout, I can’t endorse letting him face Freeman with a man on and 1 out in the 9th. And I would have said the same thing before Freeman ripped his 3rd game-winning hit of the year. And if you needed more reasons:

• Freeman vs. Bobby Parnell: 0 for 4, all strikeouts (with 2 walks, one intentional).
• Sending Gee out for the bottom of the 9th meant letting him bat in the top half, man on 1st and 2 outs, against a fresh reliever. He whiffed.
• The game was scheduled for 7:10, but started just before 11. Don’t know what time Gee first warmed up, but his last pitch was at 1:22 a.m. It just doesn’t seem optimal.

I sure hope that Gee staying to the bitter end was not related to his having driven in the Mets’ lone run. Ironically, a column in today’s N.Y. Times recalled a 1969 doubleheader where the Mets won both by 1-0, with the pitcher driving in each run.

During the run-up to Monday’s game, Mets media tried so hard to foster belief that Sunday’s come-from-behind win would provide a spark to a moribund offense. Fat chance: no team is better at crushing any fancies of “momentum”. Five of 8 regulars went hitless, and Gee got the only hit with a man in scoring position. And while Lucas Duda was 4 for 4, the respected veteran Marlon Byrd was brutal behind him, 0-4 and 3 of those with RISP, 2 whiffs and a DP.

Juan Lagares is the latest inappropriate contestant in the leadoff shuffle. Seriously, 2 walks and 21 Ks, and now leading off? He flailed at a curve at least a foot outside to end the 5th with a man on 3rd. Just start the lineup with Murphy and Wright.

Freeman joins some illustrious names among the 22 who’ve hit come-from-behind walk-off HRs against the Mets. Here’s the last off a Mets SP (and maybe the last time an IBB was used to get to Sammy Sosa). Anthony Young gave one up to Larry Walker during his astounding streak of 27 losing decisions. Johnny Franco and Neil Allen each gave up 2, with a slam apiece, and 2 for the Tugger, too. But really, Randy Myers — Rey Quinones?

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@Reds 4, Pirates 1: Four trots and another strong outing by Mike Leake, who’s just rolling: 6-1, 1.15 in his last 7 games.

• Seventh time the Reds have ever had 4+ HRs and R=HR. They’re 6-0 with 4 HRs, 0-1 with five; 4 of the 7 games were in 1954-55, when Big Klu was on the loose.
• Spectacular diving catch by Marte to end the 3rd and keep it scoreless. But no fielder could catch what Cozart hit in the 4th, and Frazier shipped to the same address to break a tie in the 6th.

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@Blue Jays 2, Rockies 0: At last, a Toronto signature for Josh Johnson, if not a W of his own: 10 Ks in 7.1 IP, holding the fort in a scoreless duel into the 8th. Maicer Izturis broke the goose-egg run with a 2-out, 2-run single.

• Up 2-0 in the 9th, Janssen fanned the first, went 0-2 on Colvin — then 4 balls, not the best spot for his 4th walk of the year. No worries: Arenado dipped, game over.

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P.S. Padres fans, forgive me for injuring Everth Cabrera with my attentions.