@Brewers 1, Marlins 0 (13 inn.) — Caleb Gindl led off the home 13th with his first-ever home run, ending the longest 1-0 game in two years and sealing Milwaukee’s third straight shutout, tying a club record set in 1990. The Brewers have not allowed a run since the 5th inning of their last pre-Break game, a span of 35 innings.

Henderson Alvarez worked 7 scoreless with just 1 K, and got Miami’s first hit (the first of his career) in the 3rd inning. They got 4 singles all day — 2 in 8 innings off red-hot Wily Peralta, who’s allowed 1 run over four starts to slash his ERA from 5.58 to 4.30. His middle infielders each made an error to start the 7th and 8th innings, but Peralta brushed that off with two strikeouts and three grounders, one a DP. Francisco Rodriguez bolstered his trade value (he’s got to be traded, no?) with a scoreless 9th, leaving him with 3 runs allowed in 24.2 IP.

• Gindl, an outfielder listed at 5′ 7″, averaged 17 HRs per 162 games in the minors.
• It’s the Brewers’ first scoreless tie in extras won by a walk-off HR. They had one in the 9th back in 1992.
• Since 1977, there’s been just one later scoreless tie ended by a home run, that in the 15th. The last one later than that was in 1975.
• Milwaukee’s last walk-off HR was Sept. 1 of last year.
• One later walk-off HR this year, in the 19th by Brandon Moss.
• Miami’s #3-8 hitters went 0-27, with 3 walks.
• The only other major-league Caleb since 1872 also played today — a scoreless inning by untouchable Caleb Thielbar.

__________

Orioles 4, @Rangers 2 — Chris Tillman (12-3) won for the 8th time in 9 starts, and lasted 8 innings for the first time in that stretch. Tillman allowed his obligatory solo HR, to Adrian Beltre starting the 9th, and fanned 7. Darren O’Day got the last 2 outs, stranding another inherited runner; he has 2 saves, 15 holds, and has surrendered a lead just twice. Texas suffered their second home sweep this year and fell 3 games behind Oakland, and 2 behind Baltimore in the wild-card.

• Baltimore leads the majors in home runs, by a margin of 14. But they’re 11-10 without a HR. They’re also 2nd in doubles, and they hit 4 tonight, with 3 leading to runs.
• No double for Manny, though, and his drought reached 11 games. Machado had an RBI single, and drew his 17th walk, his first in 15 games.
• All those extra-base hits help make up for sub-par on-base skills. They’re 8th in AL OBP, but 3rd in scoring.
• Beltre’s HR gave him 3,997 total bases. Just six third basemen got 4,000 total bases — 5 HOFers, with Chipper to join when eligible. Beltre is 8th all-time in games at the hot corner.

__________

Pirates 3, @Reds 2 — Recently inserted for defense, Gaby Sanchez started a 3-6-1 DP that helped Mark Melancon get out of a bags-full, no-out mess with the lead intact. Jason Grilli notched his 30th save, securing another Jeff Locke win (9-2, 2.11). The southpaw walked 4 in 6 innings and wild-pitched a run home, but he allowed just one hit, a leadoff infield single by Shin-Soo Choo, whom Locke then picked off. Pittsburgh salvaged the series finale and restored a 3-game lead over the Reds, while holding 2 back of St. Louis.

__________

Rays 4, @Blue Jays 3 — With a week’s rest since his first career shutout, Chris Archer held Toronto to one run in 7 IP, trimming his ERA to 2.76 in 10 starts and helping the Rays to a road sweep. Tampa’s won 5 in a row for the 4th time this year, and 17 of 19 to reach 58-41, the club’s 2nd-best at this point. Evan Longoria’s 20th HR was one of three hit off R.A. Dickey, who’s allowed 17 HRs in 11 home starts, and 6 in 10 road games.

• Does that score sound familiar? In this 17-2 run, Tampa’s won six times by one run — all of them 4-3. They’ve allowed exactly 3 runs 21 times, most in the majors, going 18-3.
• Fernando Rodney walked the leadoff man with a 4-1 lead and gave up a 2-run double with no outs, but he held on for his 15th straight conversion. Rodney’s tidied up a lot of his stats in that run, but I’m still a skeptic. He came into last year with a career walk rate of 4.9 BB/9, sliced it to 1.8 last year, but it’s back over 5 this season.
• Toronto’s 7-16 since their 11-game win streak. They’re 10 games back of the 2nd wild card, with 6 other (non-seated) teams to pass, including K.C. and Seattle. It’s over.

__________

@Mets 5, Phillies 0 — We cannot dismiss the possibility that your narrator was wrong, and that this Harvey chappy was the right choice to start the All-Star Game, after all. This was his eighth 10-K effort in his first 30 career games, tied for 5th in the searchable era, and it left him with these career numbers after 30 starts: 2.38 ERA, 10.4 SO/9, 2.5 BB/9, 0.97 WHIP, .195 BA, .297 SLG.

The Mets, who have more power than you may have been led to believe, hit 3 HRs off Cliff Lee, with consecutive shots in the 1st by David Wright (#15) and Marlon Byrd (#17), and a 3-run wall-scraper by Juan Lagares in the 4th.

__________

Athletics 6, @Angels 0 — Bartolo Colon tossed a 4-hitter for his third shutout this year (tied with Justin Masterson) and his 13th win (tied with three others). Colon allowed only 2 hits before the 9th, and no runner reached 3rd base.

• The last A’s pitcher with 13 wins after 98 team games was Mark Mulder, 2004 (his last year with the A’s). Their last to win 20 was Barry Zito, 2002.

__________

Indians 7, Twins 1 — And speaking of Justin Masterson, the Cleveland ace had 6 no-hit innings before Brian Dozier doubled to start the 7th. Masterson left after that inning, in which Dozier scored on an error, having allowed the one hit and no walks, with 8 strikeouts. Jason Kipnis continued to rake, driving in 3 with a HR and single.

__________

@Cardinals 3, Padres 2 — This just in: Allen Craig hit an RBI single in his only RISP chance.

__________

Tigers 4, @Royals 1 — Miggy hit the first one — of the game, and of his second-half pursuit of the Triple Thingy — but it was Andy Dirks who broke a tie in the 5th with a solo drive off Criminally Unsupported James Shields. Brayan Pena tacked on two sac flies.

• Bruce Rondon worked his third straight perfect outing, and has now retired 12 straight batters. (Hey, we’re looking for any sign of a 3rd option in Detroit’s bullpen.)

So, who’s the most valuable relief tandem this year? The attention’s focused on Pittsburgh’s Melancon & Grilli, and they’ve been great — 88 IP, 14 ER, 1.43 ERA, 2 leads blown. Now, Detroit’s Drew Smyly & Joaquin Benoit: 98.1 IP, 19 ER, 1.74 ERA, 2 leads blown. Each pair has 111 Ks. Melancon/Grilli have 32 saves, but a 2-2 record; Smyly/Benoit have just 12 saves, but they’re 6-0. Before Sunday, the WAR score was 4.0 for the Tigers tandem, 3.2 for the Bucs bros.

I’m not saying that WAR is the answer. But Detroit’s duo have been great, and without the comfort of pre-assigned innings or starting out clean. Smyly’s entered in almost every frame, and he and Benoit have totaled 26 stints of more than one inning, while Melancon & Grilli have come in before their designated inning just once all year and never exceeded an inning. Melancon/Grilli have inherited just 2 runners (none for the setup man?!?), while Smyly/Benoit have inherited 24, and let in just 2. There might be another pair with more WAR when that stat is updated tomorrow — Texas’s Joe Nathan and Tanner Scheppers are close, and I haven’t exhaustively studied the lists — but for combined workload and effectiveness, I’ll take the Tigers.

__________

@White Sox 3, Braves 1 — Atlanta had 9 hits, 4 walks and 3 hits with RISP; Chicago had 5, 2 and 2. But the Braves blew bags-full with no outs in the 2nd (strikeout, line-drive DP), and a 2-out hit in the 3rd with the catcher on 2nd couldn’t score him. The Sox scored with a walk, a wild pitch and a single; a double and a dink; and a single, a steal, a boot and a sac fly.

Atlanta’s 1st in NL HRs, but 9th in BA, 13th in doubles, 12th in steals (31-20). They don’t take the extra base. They’re still a good team, and they’ll win this weak division. But maybe the lack of a chase has lulled them to lethargy: 42-41 is a half-year of mediocrity, and that’s what Atlanta’s been since their 13-2 start — yet they’ve widened their lead in that time. They’ve been alone in 1st every day since April 7, and ahead by at least 4 games since May 21. Will they answer the playoff bell?

__________

Dodgers 9, @Nationals 2 — Clayton Kershaw enjoyed three games’ worth of support, not that he needed it. All Kershaw allowed in 7 innings was a pair of Jayson Werth homers. But long before that, Matt Kemp homered in the first at-bat of his latest return, touching off a 7-run stanza that he capped with a double, for his first multi-XBH game of the year. Carl Crawford had 3 hits as well as a steal, each for the first time since May. And Hanley Ramirez has 9 HRs and 28 RBI in his last 29 games, with L.A. going 21-8.

Is it time to shut down Jordan Zimmermann, keep him fresh for next year? For three months, Double-N kept his team afloat; through July 1, they were 14-3 in his starts, 28-37 otherwise. But the strain may be showing: After 7 runs in 2 innings, he has a 5.44 ERA in his last 7 games. Some of it’s just luck distribution; his BAbip was .230 before this slump, but around .330 since.

__________

@Red Sox 8, Yankees 7 (11 innings that felt like 20) — Mike Napoli’s evening: strikeout, 3-run HR, strikeout with 2 RISP/2 outs, strikeout with 2 on/2 outs, bags-full GDP, walk-off HR.

Sabathia’s 5 innings: 7 runs on 9 hits, 5 Ks. First 5 IP for the Yanks’ bullpen: no runs on 2 hits, 10 Ks. Shawn Kelley fanned 5 in a row, upping his K rate to 38%.

• Remember the one other time CC allowed 7+ runs back-to-back? It was April ’08: Coming off his Cy Young Award and facing free agency, he allowed 9 runs in consecutive starts, falling to 0-3 with a 13.50 ERA. In his last 31 starts that year, CC had a 1.88 ERA. It feels like a long time ago now.
• Brett Gardner tied this year’s high with a 15-pitch battle against Junichi Tazawa, ending in a walk. Last year’s longest was 16; to enjoy that one fully, you have to follow the progression of Juan Francisco’s ABs.