Here’s some stuff that I didn’t get time to fully organize & tidy up…

Rays 2, @Red Sox 1 (day) — Unscheduled rotation anchor Cesar Ramos hasn’t gotten fully stretched out yet, but he’s yielded just 2 runs in 14.2 IP over his last three. Today’s odd outing: 14 outs, one hit, 6 Ks, 6 walks. But Tampa scored the lead run in the 4th on a force-feed by Jake Peavy, who walked three straight. David DeJesus drew the payoff pass, after he hit a tying homer in the prior session.

• One other start since 1914 has hit the Ramos high/low marks of less than 5 IP, 6+ walks and whiffs, one hit or less. (Unless you count the Feds, which I don’t.)
• Peavy’s walked 21 in 37.2 IP this year, 5.0 BB/9. He averaged 2.1 over the last three years. His 1.37 WHIP is highest since his rookie year, and he’s allowed 6 HRs — but the ERA’s 2.87, with none unearned. The homers all were solos, and he’s held batters to 5 for 37 with RISP. Something’s gotta give.

Rays 6, @Red Sox 5 (night) — Yunel Escobar homered off Koji Uehara in the 9th to put the Rays in sight of sweeping the day-night affair, and Grant Balfour pitched past a leadoff double by whiffing two to strand that man at third. Boston scored all their runs in the 5th when Chris Archer abruptly lost control, walking three and hitting one to bring the first run with two outs. Three singles brought four more, but Grady Sizemore was picked off first to end the frame with a man on third. Sean Rodriguez homered after Will Middlebrooks dropped a pop-up, closing the gap to one, then doubled with two gone in the 8th and scored on James Loney’s single, the second time those two produced a run that way.

• Archer walked 5 in 4.1 IP, after just 5 walks over 5 prior starts.
• Boston accepted 17 walks in the two games. Different umps at home plate, in case you wondered.
• Both expected contenders are now 13-16.
• What’s behind Boston’s 6-10 home start? Four one-run losses, for one thing. But their pitching has struggled in Fenway, giving up doubles by the bushel — 51 two-baggers in 16 games, 10 more than any other team. And their home walk rate is about twice as high as on the road.

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Dodgers 9, @Twins 4 (day) —

• No runs for Yasiel Puig, despite five times reached safely in the #2 hole. Such games happen about once or twice a year. My favorite from this century: In an 18-4 road win, Kaz Matsui had no runs or RBI from 3 hits and a HBP.
• Mike Pelfrey stands alone: No other with at least 5 starts this year has failed to last 6 innings even once. He is consistent, though: his ERA’s been between 7.32 and 7.99 after each of his last four outings.
• Miguel Olivo debuted for LA, and walked in his first time up. His battle with A.J. Pierzynski for lowest walk rate among active players is so close that a single pass tips the balance. After the day games, it’s Olivo 3.977%, A.J. 3.976%. (Contestants need at least 3,000 PAs to be eligible.)

Dodgers 4, @Twins 3 (night, 12 inn.) — After “all four” LA outfielders got to start the opening game, thanks to the DH, Scott Van Slyke made the most of his nightcap appearance. His leadoff homer broke the tie, and Drew Butera (another big-league son) tacked on his first since 2012. Minny worked Kenley Jansen to the bone in their half, filling up with no outs and getting the winning run to second on a two-out steal, but Chris Colabello’s line drive found leather deep at first base. I don’t know if Adrian Gonzalez had been holding Brian Dozier on before he stole — but if he’d been holding on that liner, it’s into right field, tie game.

The Twins’ Kris Johnson threw 106 pitches to get 13 outs in his second career start (4 hits, 6 walks, 5 Ks), but kept LA off the board despite two men aboard in all five innings that he started. They left three more in the 6th, after drawing even. Gonzalez offset Minnesota’s unearned go-ahead run with his 9th HR leading off the 7th.

• Van Slyke set up LA’s tying run in the 6th with a leadoff triple, first of his career. Just 90 more to catch his dad, who averaged 10 a year in his 6-year prime. Son didn’t inherit the speed, although he swiped a bag tonight. But more than half of his career hits have gone for extra-bases, including 12 HRs in 250 PAs. His OPS this year is 1.141 in not quite half-time play.
• Johnson has lasted just 6.1 IP in two starts, but he broke in last year with 6 innings from the bullpen in a 16-inning game — longest relief debut since this 2001 amusement.
• Juan Uribe walked three times in the nightcap. He had 2 walks in his first 28 games.
• Yasiel is a dope; what else is new. It’s physically impossible from there to nab a runner at the plate, unless he falls down. But Puig heaves it anyway, and two others move up.

Here, though, I’m not sure if Puig or the umpire is out of line. Rule 7.08(c): “Any runner is out when … He is tagged, when the ball is alive, while off his base. EXCEPTION: A batter-runner cannot be tagged out after overrunning or oversliding first base if he returns immediately to the base.”

Rule 7.08(j) covers the same ground: A runner is out if “[h]e fails to return at once to first base after overrunning or oversliding that base. If he attempts to run to second he is out when tagged. If, after overrunning or oversliding first base he starts toward the dugout, or toward his position, and fails to return to first base at once, he is out, on appeal, when he or the base is tagged.”

And Rule 7.10(c) says the same again, from the perspective of appeal plays: “Any runner shall be called out, on appeal, when … He overruns or overslides first base and fails to return to the base immediately, and he or the base is tagged.” (Note that “appeal play” is not limited to the dead-ball appeals we usually think of.)

“Immediately” and “at once” are synonyms, no doubt — but what do they mean in this situation? On one hand, yes, Puig’s return approach was glacial. On the other hand, he was moving that way, and he showed no intent to run toward second. Despite his leisurely saunter, we’ve all seen guys take far longer to get back after overrunning first base, because they ran 60 feet past. Puig came to a quick halt before the outfield grass. What is the exact basis of the out call?

Either way, that made six “outs on base” for Yasiel, tied for the MLB lead, and the first to complete the OOB cycle. In just 125 career games, 18 OOB — more than any player season since 2004.

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Mariners 4, @Yankees 2 — Rookie Roenis Elias fanned 10 Yanks in seven stanzas, his best efforts yet. He’s the first Seattle southpaw to whiff 10 Bombers since ____ ______ in 1998. Jacoby Ellsbury blasted off the home 1st, but the next three went down swinging. New York got three on in the 2nd, but a DP interrupted, and they had few threats thereafter, scoring an unearned run in the 6th.

• Key play in the 4th, two outs, two on, M’s up 2-0: Brett Gardner played it very safe on a soft liner into left, then spiked the short throw home. Michael Saunders doubled for a 4-0 lead off Hiroki Kuroda.
• Jacoby’s first home run in pinstripes gave him 14 HRs in 1,066 PAs since his 32-HR 2011 season.

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Orioles 5, @Pirates 1 (day) — Nick Markakis broke a 40-game HR drought that started last September. In his past 109 games, Nick had 2 HRs and 11 doubles out of 112 hits, and a .308 slugging average.

• Zach Britton earned his 4th hold to go with 3 wins, sporting a 1.10 ERA through 16 IP.
• Ike Davis, batting 2nd, went 0-5, now 0-21 since his Pirates slam….

@Orioles 6, Pirates 5 (10 inn., night) — Bucco leads of 4-0 and 5-4 slipped away, and Matt Wieters hammered heart-high heat to start the bounce-house. Stolmy Pimentel’s first taste of sawdust left Pittsburgh at 10-18, with half their games decided by one run (7-7).

After 5 scoreless innings, Brandon Cumpton’s last five appearances showed 2 runs in 27 IP. But the last out of the 6th escaped him, as four straight hits tied the game.

• … Davis broke his skid with two hits in the nightcap, still hitting #2.
• … and now Markakis has homered in two straight.
• A four-day layoff didn’t hurt Wieters’s hot start. Through 20 games played, he’s at .342-5-17.
• Big game for Gaby Sanchez, all for nought. His third extra-base hit of the night was a 2-out double with a man on first base in the 8th, but Pedro Alvarez could only get to third, and Starling Marte left him there.
• Chris Tillman forced in a pair with two down in the 1st. MLB walk rate is 7.7% with bases full this year, and 7.8% with none aboard. With two outs and bags full, 10% walks — but, just a .190 BA, and .567 OPS. The 2012-13 numbers for 2-out/bags full were 6.5% walks, but .229/.649. So maybe this new approach is optimal, and I’m the one who’s out of touch — or, just a small sample.

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@Reds 8, Brewers 3 — Tied in the 8th when Brayan Pena’s pinch-homer caromed off and over the RF fence to touch off a 5-run ramble, three scoring after a 2-out base-filling IBB. Three runs on 2 HRs off Marco Estrada, who’s served 11 HRs in 6 career games vs. Cincy. Defense-first backstop Tucker Barnhart hit his first; he’s thrown out 42% of minor-league base-stealers, but had just 13 HRs in almost 1,400 PAs. Jean Segura returned with 2 hits, drove in Milwaukee’s first run and later scored their second, starting a 2-out tying rally in the 7th.

• Almost a great night for Carlos Gomez: More fence-top thievery; a tying 2-run double with two gone in the 7th; and he didn’t start a rumble, even when Sliding Billy ripped him off.
• The “welcome back from triple-A” chat is a pregame staple; smiles could be scarce by 11 pm. Rob Wooten got right in the fray, trying for the last out of the 8th to hold the tide at 5-3. But he walked his first man, and let all three runners score.

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@Marlins 5, Braves 4 — Steve Cishek stranded three in the 8th to keep the one-run lead, and closed it out in order to secure the sweep in a back-and-forth game. B.J. Upton negated Miami’s early lead with his first 3-run HR as a Brave. The hosts squared up on a manufactured run, but Evan Gattis got the lead again in customary fashion, his 7th. Miami nosed ahead with four singles in the 7th, setting up against rookie Ian Thomas and cashing in with knocks by Stanton and McGehee against last year’s revelation, David Carpenter. But two pops to short left the bases loaded and the door open for another Braves comeback. Justin Upton started the 8th with a double, but two flyouts kept him anchored, and he died on third.

• In his Atlanta time, with two or more aboard, B.J. was 8 for 67 with 3 doubles, 7 walks and 27 whiffs (.352 OPS).
• First time since 2009 Miami’s won 3 straight games against Atlanta, and first at home since 2006. Braves were 22-6 at Miami in the past three years.
• Miami’s home W% ranked 27th for 2011-13, but they’re 12-4 this year.

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Blue Jays 7, @Royals 3 — I think our Brent was almost happy when his Royals went down 1-2-3 their last two chances. That kept them in perfect “3/4 time” this season: 0-13 when scoring 3 runs or less, 14-0 when scoring 4 or more. Last year’s longest loss string when scoring 3 or less was 19 games … by the Royals. But this year’s squad is still a long way from the 2008 Braves, who set the known one-year record by losing 45 straight games in which they scored 3 runs or less.

On the “4+” winning side, the known record is 34 straight games won when scoring 4 or more, shared by the 1977 Royals

• Chris Getz is back! Against his former KC mates, one of the most successful thieves of recent years singled, swiped a pair, and scored the first run on a groundout. Over the past five years, the punchless second-sacker averaged 17 for 20 in SB tries.

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@Rockies 7, Mets 4 — Juan Nicasio beat the Mets from both ends of the 60-foot stripe, with 7 no-sweat scoreless innings and 3 RBI on a double and a scalded sac fly. Carlos Gonzalez started the hit parade off Bartolo Colon with a solo crank in the 1st, before departing with his latest nick. Most of the subsequent damage came from singles, including Corey Dickerson’s drag bunt past the meditating Buddha that wound up as two in scoring position with no outs, and keyed their pull-away 4th inning. The Mets did nothing with Nicasio’s assortment after Juan Lagares’s game-starting double, so his ribby rope in the 8th and some last-gasp gestures in the 9th were far too late to change the outcome.

As I was driving home from work, two ESPN radio guys were reviewing the Mets’ pleasant start, but noting problems that remain. One said, “The starters don’t give you any length.” Pure ignorance: New York is 4th in the NL at 6.27 IP/GS, and 4th in quality starts among all teams. I flip the dial to Mets pregame and am reminded: Mets are the only team to get at least 5 IP from every start this year.

But Coors is where such streaks go to die.

• Dickerson added a triple among his 3 hits, now 13 for 34 and slugging .706 in a platoon role.
• Welcome back, Juan Lagares! Those doubles made a 10-game hit streak, surrounding his DL stint, and a hit in 14 of 15 games this year.
• Speaking of streaks, 21 straight for Nolan Arenado. But if he wants attention for his bat, he’ll have to stop making ridiculous plays look so easy.

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Late Wednesday

@Diamondbacks 5, Rockies 4 — With the Rox up 4-2 in the 9th, Rex Brothers got the save try instead of LaTroy Hawkins, who had pitched two days in a row. Rex had two outs and a man on, but pinch-hitter Chris Owings doubled on an 0-2 pitch. After he hit Gerardo Parra to load the bases, Brothers again got ahead 0-and-2, but his backdoor curve was all bark, no bite, and Martin Prado bounced it through the middle, tie ballgame.

Top-10th, after a leadoff double, Charlie Blackmon (he of the .374 BA and 18 RBI) bunted the runner over, to set up Drew Stubbs — career .213 BA with RISP, and 31% whiffs. Care to guess his outcome? Hint: It took three pitches, and all found cushioned leather seats. After that sad display, the baseball gods were wroth. (Yes, that’s really Montero’s first game-ending hit. He’s 9 for 28 career with the game tied at home in the 9th or later — but 0-7 in such RISP spots.

• Before those 0-2 safeties, Brothers had allowed just 9 hits in 82 career ABs settled on 0-2, including 24 straight outs — and 13 for 156 in ABs that started 0-2 (.083 BA, 63% Ks). But the third out can be the toughest. Hitters are 4-for-61 against him on 0-2 with one out or none, but 7 for 23 with two outs.
• Montero had 373 RBI from 2007-13, with no walk-offs. I checked the 155 players with 300+ RBI in that span, and found three others with no game-winners in that span: Curtis Granderson (518 RBI); Michael Cuddyer (504 RBI); and Manny Ramirez, 315 RBI. All three had at least two walk-offs before 2007, and Granderson has added two this year. So, Montero is still behind the curve.

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