Bad habits are hard to break, while ligaments are easily torn. There’s a mood of change in the game right now; why not just ban sliding into first base? Meanwhile, a night of heroic home runs and unsung long relief. But first … “Enough of your borax, Poindexter; we need action!“

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Reds 4, @Cardinals 0 — Mike Leake tied his career best with 8 scoreless innings, but who cares: Billy Hamilton made a difference at last! I don’t know a ball fan who’s not rooting for Billy to hit enough — oh, please let him hit just enough — to do things like these in the majors, instead of back in the bushes.

• This was almost the duel we’ve been waiting for. Not quite, since Yadi didn’t even throw — but even so, his complete lack of reaction, his studied indifference to the thief, makes it feel like the opening act of an operatic duel.
• Shelby Miller’s second start was somewhat better than his first, but again he was taken deep and took the loss. In ten career losses, Miller’s served 15 HRs in 58 IP; four HRs in 95 IP in his 16 W’s. 

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@Red Sox 4, Rangers 2 — With a late one-run lead, using a lefty on David Ortiz is just common sense, and the track record of Neil Cotts — five whiffs and a walk in six square-offs — made it a no-brainer. But the only thing this pitch gets done is the pitcher himself. Big Papi’s polar propulsion carried 400 feet, and so high into twilight that “fair/foul?” is anyone’s guess. The Sawx won the call and the series, after a slow start at home.

• Robbie Ross walked 6 in the first five innings, yet would have been unscathed but for his own errant throw — surely the most ill-timed attempt of this young season. His 2 walks in both the 2nd and 3rd were redeemed by DPs, the latter a 5-6-3 by Ortiz with the shift on.

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@Nationals 10, Marlins 7 — Q: “Werewolf?” … A: “There, wolf!” Jayson Werth’s first home run was a come-from-behind slam in the 8th — his first Nationals granny — after Carlos Marmol IBB’d Anthony Rendon, in the apparent hope of a DP. (Let’s rethink that one.) Jordan Zimmermann retired just five of his 14 batters, his quickest exit of 115 career starts leaving the Nats in a 5-0 hole. But Craig Stammen mucked out that stable and booked 3 more scoreless, and Bryce Harper’s ortizinal toast got them back in the game.

• Intentionally loading the bases with Marmol on the mound and one out … Yeesh. He might be the pitcher least likely to induce a DP, converting just 5% of his career chances (less than half the average). His bases-full record was already poor; in 99 prior tries, 5 HRs, 9 XBH and 14 walks, and all the slams immediately followed a walk. He’d faced Werth eight times before, yielding 4 walks and a single. But hey, what’s life without risk? — or, in Bullwinkle’s words….
• Seven teams scored 7 on the nose Wednesday; only the Fish were defeated. Still, it’s their 4th time with 7+ through 10 games; that feat took 32 games last year.
• Since 2012, Stammen has a 2.45 ERA, leads all pure relievers with 176 IP, and has the most relief stints of 2+ innings.
• Werth’s last lead-changing launch in the late innings was in 2010, against current teammate Drew Storen.

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Athletics 7, @Twins 4 (11 inn.) — A 3-run drive by Derek Norris redeemed yet another Jim Johnson collapse, and the A’s survived blowing a late 4-1 lead. Johnson retired one of his four batters, on a sac bunt attempt, but was spared the BS when lifted with all pillows taken and the lead down to one. Dan Otero inherited the mission: impossible and gave up a long fly that moved up all runners, but he escaped further damage and hung around for the win.

Minnesota kept the A’s on the shelf for nine straight innings, but the end caps did them in. Phil Hughes walked the first two men before pulling a Pelfrey: the next four hit safely after foul upon two-strike foul, producing 4 runs and burning 36 pitches with no outs yet. A DP got him through, and Hughes lasted the 5th. But his mates were stoned cold by the journeyman Jesse Chavez, who fanned 9 with no walks over seven, in just his 4th start out of 193 career games.

• Chavez owned a 76 ERA+ in 241 IP — the worst among actives with 50+ relief stints.
• When you see how close the play was on the Twins’ tying flyout, you wonder if better footwork by Josh Reddick would have made the difference. He had all day to plan it, but wound up with no forward momentum at the point of the catch. It was a great throw, showing why he’s been top-2 in RF assists the last two seasons.
• Rough day all ’round for Reddick: 4 whiffs and a dip in five trips, a first in searchable A’s history.
• Norris, the right-handed half of a catching platoon, has a career .190 BA against RHPs; he had pinch-hit against a lefty in the 9th, and stayed in.
• Before the 3 years are up and the $24 million paid out, Minnesota might wind up wishing they’d signed Phil Humber instead of Phil Hughes … maybe even Phil Huffman.

As a 21-year-old true rookie, Phil Huffman started 31 games for the ’79 Blue Jays (their third season), winning a nifty debut, but finishing 6-18 with a 5.77 ERA. He went back to the minors for eight more years, surfacing briefly with 4.2 IP for the ’85 Orioles. Out of 272 pitchers with exactly one year of 150+ IP in the expansion era, Huffman has the highest percentage of career innings in that one season.

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Tigers 7, @Dodgers 6 (10 inn.) — Victor Martinez kept his two-day perfect record against Kenley Jansen: Two at-bats, two game-changing hits. Tuesday’s last-gasp leveler went for nought in the end, but this Wednesday wallop stood up and stopped Detroit’s 2-game skid. V-Mart was all over the box score: He started the scoring with a 1st-inning sac fly, then reached base in his next four trips — but until the very end, it was nip-and-tuck whether he’d put more runs on the board for Detroit with his bat, or for L.A. with his defense in this rare catching assignment.

• Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition … or the full-count squeeze play.
• MLB.com has a highlight of Magic Johnson giving away a foul ball — not catching it, just the aftermath — and one of Anibal Sanchez talking after the game. (What’s with the backpack?) But there’s no clip of the play on which Carl Crawford earned his first steal of home since 2006.

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@Royals 7, Rays 3 — Alex Gordon finally put KC in the HR column. His “drive” with two on drifted back, back, back over the stunned Wil Myers (who broke in at the crack of the bat), and had just enough carry to cap a 5-run 5th against Jake Odorizzi. Gordon also had the go-ahead hit in the 4th, as the Royals came from behind.

• Jeremy Guthrie went 50-74 with the O’s and the Rockies, now 22-15 with the Royals — and has been the same pitcher throughout.
• Kansas City’s 7-game homerless start was unmatched since the 1990 Yankees, and unbeaten since the ’85 Astros went nine games. The longest streak of the live-ball era (outside of WWII) was 25 games by Cleveland in 1922.
• And bringing up the rear … At 1 for 26, Mike Moustakas is tied with Zack Cozart for the worst BA with at least 15 times up.

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@Braves 4, Mets 3 — Jason Heyward came in ice-cold, while Zack Wheeler had beaten the Braves all three tries last year, holding Heyward hitless in six trips. But their first meeting this year signaled change: An 11-pitch battle, ending with a rocket. Heyward lashed singles his next two times, with another RBI in the 5th, when five ATL ropes built the lead to 4-zip. Ervin Santana had total command in his Braves debut, but Fredi Gonzalez pulled him after 88 pegs, then had to sweat out the 9th: Jordan Walden walked the first batter, and Craig Kimbrel came on as soon as the save chance appeared, two on and one out. He missed with four straight to Curtis Granderson, and after a strikeout, two line hits pushed three across and the tying run to third. But Kimbrel was unperturbed, pumping fastballs past Ruben Tejada to end it.

• Range like this is one reason Heyward’s the clear #1 in RF defensive WAR over the last two, three and four seasons. (Peace, Parra fans; Gerardo played LF before last year.)

No aspect of Kimbrel‘s career start is less than epic, from ERA to strikeouts to saves. He has 143 saves in his first 235 games, 11 more than anyone else at that stage, and his conversion rate is a fantastic 90.5%. But a few have had similar starts, just from a saves perspective. Through 235 games:

• Jonathan Papelbon had 132 saves in 148 tries, 89.2% success rate.
• Joakim Soria, 130/142, 90.5% (a hair better than Kimbrel).
• Bobby Jenks, 125/141, 88.7%.
• Eric Gagne, 120/124, 96.8%.

Within a year of these snapshots, all four had slipped badly and/or been badly injured. The 235-game mark for Papelbon and Jenks came in their 5th year (like Kimbrel); Soria was near the end of his 4th year, and Gagne in his 6th, his 3rd in relief. Papelbon’s ERA was 1.84 through 5 years, 3.90 the next, and 3.12 in years 6-10. Gagne had a 1.79 ERA in his 3 full years closing, got hurt early the next season, and never got back to full-time closer status. Soria’s ERA was 2.01 through 4 years, 4.03 in year 5, then he missed a year-and-a-half, still trying to get re-established, with mixed results so far. Jenks never had the great ERA, but it was 3.09 through 4 years, 4.08 the next two, and he didn’t last through year 7. There’s no prediction here, just a reminder that any pitcher’s career is inherently fragile.

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@Cleveland 2, Padres 0 (1st game) — A San Diego SP has little room for error these days. Eric Stults left something upstairs for Jason Kipnis, and that was pretty much “ballgame,” as the Padres fell to 8 for 66 with RISP. Zach McAllister tied his career best with 7.2 shutout innings. Closer Chris Perez — er — John Axford pushed the tying runs into scoring position on a walk and a wild pitch with one down, but he survived.

@Padres 2, Cleveland 1 — Robbie Erlin picked up where he left off in his 2013 recall, holding Cleveland to 4 hits with no walks as the Pads earned a split. Chase Headley, whose 2012 RBI title is a gauzy memory, got his first steak of the year with a tiebreaking soft-serve off Trevor Bauer, who loaded the sacks in the 6th with a 1-and-2 plunk and a four-pitch walk.

• Erlin’s command-and-control righty who rolled up 5.4 SO/BB in the minors, but with a high HR rate. Since being recalled late last August, he’s allowed 8 runs in six starts (1.89 ERA), 7 walks and 30 SO in 38 IP.
• Bauer, the 3rd overall draftee in 2011 whose control has always been dicey, was sharp through five innings, and fought his way back from that jam to end strong with his career-best 8th strikeout.

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@Rockies 10, White Sox 4 — Six games at Coors so far, winners outscoring losers by 59-17.

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@Blue Jays 7, Astros 3 — The gifted but oft-injured Brandon Morrow mowed down 9 ‘Stros in the first five innings, and though he faded in the 6th, it was enough for his first win in almost a year. Morrow’s career 9.4 SO/9 ranks 10th among actives with 500 IP, but he’s never pitched 180 innings in a season, and turns 30 in July.

• Dioner’s back-door boogaloo got the fans in a tizzy, and moments later, Brett Lawrie brightened spirits even more.

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Orioles 5, @Yankees 3 — Just like his U.S. debut, the Bronx bow of Masahiro Tanaka had an early hiccup, a 3-run shot by Jonathan Schoop with two gone in the 2nd. But just as before, he stayed cool, used his wide repertoire, and finished the 7th no further marred, this time with 10 Ks against one pass.

• Tanaka’s the 9th pitcher since 1914 with 8+ Ks and no more than one walk in his first two career games. He joined Dan Tipple and Walter Beall as Yanks with a 10-K game among their first two. Tipple won that one, lost his next, and disappeared from the bigs, but had a long career in the high minors. Beall also failed to break through as a regular, and finished with 5 wins.

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Diamondbacks 7, @Giants 3 — Tim Lincecum would rather focus on the three games out of 10 in which Paul Goldschmidt didn’t go yard. But we don’t have to play along.

• Four-inning save by Josh Collmenter! Gene Garber had 13 of those among his 218 saves, and 52 lasting 3+ IP (one behind Hoyt Wilhelm).

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@Cubs 7, Pirates 5 — Five solo shots by the Bucs couldn’t overcome Chicago’s 18-7 baserunner edge. Besides the taters, Pittsburgh had just a walk in the 7th and a single in the 8th. The 5/7 combo ties the known record, done three other times, all since 1999; here’s the only one with 7 runs, none left on base.

• One other time Pittsburgh’s scored 5 runs on 5 HRs: 1973, off Don Sutton, for a 5-4 win.