Athletics 9, @Marlins 5 — Oakland blew a big lead in the 6th, but pulled even in the 8th on Josh Reddick’s two-out triple, then scored four in the 9th on five singles off Steve Cishek. A clean closeout by Sean Doolittle — 12 strikes, one ball — ran his season line to 55 Ks and one walk in 38 IP. Oakland’s won NINE games that they trailed after seven innings …

• … 9 out of 30, a .300 W%. All other AL teams have won 41 of 482 (.085) when behind after seven.
• Another improbable run-stopping peg by Yoenis Cespedes (who also had the go-ahead hit and scored three times). If you were coaching a young player, how would you react to that play? Oakland led 2-0 in the 3rd, two out and Fish on first and second. The hit was towards left-center, and Giancarlo’s not slow. It took quite a heave to get him by a hair, and the throw soared over the cutoff man; if they don’t get the out, it’s 2-1 with two in scoring position for Marcell Ozuna. I can’t make up my mind: Ending the inning is huge, but the odds were long.

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@Brewers 3, Rockies 2 — K-Rod blew the save with another home run, but Milwaukee got right back to work on win #50. Mark Reynolds led off with a single, Jean Segura bunted him up, and Ryan Braun delivered with two outs, his first game-winning RBI since April 2012.

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Atlanta 4, @Philadelphia 2 — Freddie Freeman’s three-run shot was a surprise burst of run support for Julio Teheran, reaching his season average before the game’s first out. Freeman doubled home another with two out in the 2nd, matching his ribby count for the last 17 games. Teheran hit a snag in the 4th, when the Phils halved the lead with the help of an Andrelton Simmons error. But he got the last two in that frame with the tying runs on, and then sailed through the seventh for his 7th win.

• With 119 innings through 17 starts, Teheran’s on pace for 238 IP — the most for Atlanta since 2000, and some 50 more than he had last year, his first in the rotation.

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@Yankees 6, Red Sox 0 — Boston brass have been mulling whether to fish or cut bait in the month left before the trade deadline. This game may help the decision: When you can’t even hit Vidal Nuno in the Stadium, it’s time to sell. They got two hits in Nuno’s 5.2 innings, three for the evening, and advanced just one of their six baserunners, on a two-out walk. Kelly Johnson and Brett Gardner homered back-to-back in the 4th off Brandon Workman, and Brian McCann tacked one on in the 8th.

• Nuno earned his first win at home. He’d allowed at least 2 runs and a homer in all eight prior home starts.
• Brock Holt was Boston’s only impact player, with a double, a walk, and two splendid grabs, one maybe a home-run theft. dWAR doesn’t like him at third base, but he’s taken to the outfield like a horse to pasture, and seems to be leading the BoSox in playing baseball well.

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White Sox 5, @Blue Jays 4 — Chicago built a 5-2 lead on four homers, one of them historic, then just barely held on through a wild 9th. An error by Connor Gillaspie filled the bases with one out for the top of the order, Jays down by two. But Jose Reyes bounced out to complete an 0-5, and Melky Cabrera followed suit.

R.A. Dickey whiffed six of the first twelve (including career #1,000), with no hits or walks. Then Jose Abreu punished a full-count floater, and Dayan Viciedo poked one to right with two out. Edwin Encarnacion and Dioner Navarro answered back-to-back in the 6th. But Abreu led off the 7th with his 25th, and after Adam Dunn took a 4-pitch stroll, Alexei Ramirez hit the 4th bomb off Dickey.

• Abreu’s the fastest ever to 25 career HRs, reaching that milestone in game #67 — five games before Rudy York, ten before Mark McGwire.
• A DL stint cost Abreu half of May, but he’s come back firing with 10 HRs in 23 June games, hitting over .310.
• Dickey’s allowed 4 HRs once before — a record-tying six bombs, back in 2006.

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Cardinals 3, @Dodgers 1 — Carlos Martinez allowed nine runners and got just 13 outs, but great defense held LA to one run, and the bullpen gave up just two singles while logging the last 14 outs. Slumping Yadier Molina homered for his 5th RBI in 28 games (.191 BA in that span), and Jhonny Peralta’s maybe-catchable fly fell between Scott Van Slyke and Yasiel Puig near the track and scored the go-ahead runs. St. Louis turned two DPs, and threw out three Dodgers advancing.

• Pat Neshek’s one-two-three 8th (with an inherited runner) gave him 16 straight batters retired in his last six games — his second such streak this year — and an 0.551 WHIP in 32.2 IP. The WHIP record for 60+ IP is Koji Uehara’s 0.568 from last year. The righty Neshek has held lefties to 3 for 36, an .083 BA. The known record for RHP vs. LHB in 50+ ABs is .095, by Ernesto Frieri (2012, 10 for 105).
• Dee Gordon had 3 hits and drove in LA’s run. He’s hitting .348 with RISP (23-66).
• Matt Holliday’s slow first half looks like last year, but worse. Will he catch fire in July once again? Holliday averaged a steady 145 OPS+ from age 30-33, ranking 50th all-time for that span — but everyone gets old, eventually.

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@Royals 8, Angels 6 — Omar Infante’s first grand slam capped a 7-run 3rd off Matt Shoemaker, as KC built an 8-2 lead. The Angels knocked out Jason Vargas in the 5th, with three in and three on, none out, for Albert Pujols. But Michael Mariot retired Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Howie Kendrick with just one run scoring, on Albert’s flyout, and Greg Holland’s clean save polished off five hitless frames by KC’s bullpen.

• Infante was #2 among actives for most bags-full PAs without slamming. Rafael Furcal’s still searching, at 125 PAs. The known record is Ozzie Smith’s 205 PAs; Oz did bat .317, with just 6 Ks.
• Mike Trout on a 3-1 count, career: 31 for 63, 7 HRs, .968 SLG. His 18th of the year had some carry.
• First 2-HR game for rookie C.J. Cron, who’s having a fine year in half-time play.
• Albert’s 12 career slams all came for St. Louis. With the Cards, he hit .386 and slugged .772 with the sacks full — two bases per hit — plus 22 sac flies in 159 PAs. With the Angels, he’s 3 for 27, all singles, with his first sac fly tonight.

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Reds 6, @Giants 2 — Who said Johnny Cueto’s due for more BAbip regression? Oh … right … Well, maybe the peekaboo windup is fooling the Regression Monster just as it’s done to hitters this year. Cueto fanned only three, but worked into the 9th once again, dragged away against his will when the Giants’ third hit and second walk produced a gimme “save” chance for Aroldis Chapman. Billy Hamilton and Todd Frazier had 3 hits apiece at the top of the order.

• In his last 20 games, Hamilton’s slugging .532 with 16 RBI and 16 runs, and the Reds are 14-6. As Christina Kahrl noted, Hamilton’s base-stealing success has been less than expected (33 SB, 10 CS), but his modest power and strong defense have more than made up for that. He’s on pace for about 4.0 WAR, which only 16 rookies have achieved since 2000.
• Cueto’s ERA peaked at 2.14 in his third start, and has stayed under 2.00 ever since. In his 8 wins, he’s allowed 8 total runs (6 ER) and averaged over 8 IP.
• Since 2011, Cueto has 558 IP and a 2.45 ERA, about 0.85 below his FIP.
• SF’s 4-13 slump has shrunk their division lead from 9.5 games to 2.0.

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@Astros 4, Tigers 3 (11 inn.) — Jason Castro got the hero’s laurels, as his winning blast stopped Detroit’s win streak at seven. But the game’s star was Jose Altuve, who had 4 hits and created Houston’s first 3 runs almost by himself. In the 1st, Altuve singled and stole second, then “stole” third (a wild pitch six feet from the catcher) and scored on the overthrow. He tied the game in the 5th with a liner over the drawn-in shortstop, and hustled it into his 24th double. An infield hit put him on third, but Justin Verlander fanned Jon Singleton on three swings. So when George Springer drew a pickoff throw to first, Altuve dashed home with the lead run — his 32nd steal (against 3 CS), and second career theft of home.

Detroit had a homer, six singles and two walks in their first four raps, but they tallied just twice — two DPs, two men out stretching — and got two singles the rest of the way. Two infield errors produced the tying run in the 8th without a base hit. Ian Kinsler’s 3 hits gave him six straight multi-hit games, but the next three Tigers (Torii Hunter, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez) went a combined 0 for 14.

• At the midway point, Altuve is batting .342 with 111 hits, 32 steals and 24 doubles. Who’s had 200 hits, 60 SB and 40 doubles in a season? Only Ty Cobb himself (1911), and “the Ty Cobb of the Federal League.”
• Second basemen with 200 hits and 60 steals? Never happened, not even in the 19th century.
• Live-ball seasons of .340 BA and 60+ SB: Kenny Lofton (1994) and Miguel Dilone (1980).

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@Rangers 5, Twins 4 — Nick Tepesch baked up seven donuts for the first time, and Joakim Soria narrowly missed blowing a 5-0 lead in the 9th, ending with a whiff and a groundout with the tying run on third. Adrian Beltre drove in three and hit his 9th HR, snapping a 19-game “drought” (.370 with 12 RBI). Shin-Soo Choo had 3 hits in his return to the leadoff spot, after a deep slump batting 3rd.

• Beltre might not get his usual 90+ RBI this year, but he’s hitting .333 with RISP, way above his career mark. Opportunity just isn’t knocking.
• Twins shortstop Jorge Polanco broke in with 1 for 2, tripling home two in that 9th — the franchise’s first triple-and-2-RBI debut (at least since 1914), and the 3rd by any SS in searchable history. The 20-year-old was brought straight up from high-A ball; he hit .308 and slugged .452 at class A last year, with 10 triples and 32 doubles. He’s the 18th Dominican native to play shortstop this year; eight are full-timers.

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@Cubs 7, Nationals 2 — The batting order is an essential difference between baseball and other major sports: The worst hitter in a lineup gets about the same chance as the best to affect the outcome — often more, due to the somewhat random distribution of men on base when they hit. And so it was today for the Cubs’ backup catcher, John Baker. After a promising start to his career, Baker had hit just .206 with no homers in small-time play since 2010, and 15 for 94 this year. But today he came up three times with someone on base, and hit safely in each — key hits that fueled Chicago’s three scoring frames. Baker’s first 3-hit game since 2012 tied his career high with 4 RBI, helping the Cubs take two in a row from the NL East leaders and lock up their first non-losing month (14-11).

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Rays 5, @Orioles 2 (day) — Both young starters struggled with their control. Alex Colome escaped major self-damage in his first start this year, yielding just one run in 5.2 IP despite 4 walks and 2 wild pitches, thanks to a couple of DP grounders. Kevin Gausman wasn’t so lucky. Coming in with a string of three well-earned wins, Gausman walked four, hit one and threw a costly wild pitch, leading directly to three of the five runs on his ledger in five-plus innings.

• Brandon Guyer paced the Rays with 3 doubles and four times on base.
• Brad Boxberger faced five batters, 4 Ks split up by a home run — the 8th such appearance in searchable history.
• Relievers fanned 12 of 24 batters, the starters 4 of 47.
• As sometimes happens, Gausman’s walk rate has risen as he’s climbed the ladder: 6 walks in 61 IP up to AA, but a more typical 3.0 BB/9 in AAA and MLB.

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Thursday

@Dodgers 1, Cardinals 0 — Justin Turner’s pinch-hit in the 8th cashed a rare rally in this pitcher’s duel, pinning a tough loss on Adam Wainwright, as LA reached their midpoint on an 8-2 upswing. The Dodgers went hitless through five, but Josh Beckett was also sharp, and Matt Kemp’s perfect strike got the resurgent veteran through the 7th unscathed. Juan Uribe, back after 5 weeks, singled to start the winning push (just the third hit off Waino), and Miguel Rojas’s second hit of the game set up Turner’s payoff.

• On a team full of A-list celebrities, role players like Turner and Rojas have managed to stand out. Turner has hit well, whether starting in Uribe’s absence, or off the bench; he’s 6 for 15 as a pinch-hitter, with 6 RBI, and leads MLB with 4 tying or go-ahead RBI in the pinch. Rojas debuted this month and has already made highlight plays at third, second and short, showing a strong arm and a natural feel for infield rhythms.
• Since 2010, Wainwright stands alone with five complete games of two hits or less , including last month’s near-perfecto — but not a no-hitter.
• The last five no-hit pitchers own 13 career CGs of two hits or less, and 7 no-hitters: Homer Bailey 2-for-2, Tim Lincecum 2-for-3, Josh Beckett & Henderson Alvarez 1-for-2, and Clayton Kershaw 1-for-3.
• Beckett has consecutive scoreless starts of exactly 7 IP, 4 hits and 2 walks — two out of six such games in MLB this year. He’s the all-time leader with five such games.
• This year’s Dodgers are 7 games ahead of last year’s squad (38-43), who also won 8 of 10 leading to their midpoint.
• “Dodgers 1, Cardinals 0” bodes well for both Don Mattingly and Mike Matheny. Every Dodgers manager in the last 100 years beat the Cards by 1-0 has wound up in the Hall of Fame: Joe Torre, Tommy LaSorda, Walter Alston, Leo Durocher and Wilbert Robinson. Likewise, the last four Cards skippers who lost such a game — Tony LaRussa, Torre, Whitey Herzog and Red Schoendienst. The Cards haven’t beaten L.A. by 1-0 since 1992.

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@Brewers 7, Rockies 4 — Both halves of Milwaukee’s second-base platoon homered, leading the Crew to a MLB-high 49th win and their best first half ever. Leadoff man Rickie Weeks whacked Christian Friedrich’s first pitch, and later doubled to start Milwaukee’s comeback after Ryan Wheeler slammed Wily Peralta (first pitcher slammed twice this year). Will Smith preserved a one-run lead in the 7th after inheriting two men aboard with one out, fanning the dangerous lefties Justin Morneau and Corey Dickerson, sandwiching a pitch-around walk to Troy Tulowitzki. Scooter Gennett’s pinch-blast was the coup de grace, and he handled the game’s final chance at the keystone.

• Milwaukee leads the majors in slugging and total bases by second basemen, and in OPS and total bases by catchers.
• Just one other pair of Brewers ever homered and played 2B in the same game: Jim Gantner & Brian Giles (the first), 1985. They combined for 6 HRs that year. Last MLB pair to do it were Matt Carpenter & Daniel Descalso, last June 6.
• There are 29 such games in all. I can find just one pair that repeated: Davey Lopes & Lee Lacy, both games in 1978, including one of Davey’s rare starts in CF, his original position. I like these two games: Steve Lombardozzi & Ron Washington, who both hit exactly 20 career homers. And Eddie Stanky & Bill Rigney sharing the leadoff spot, followed by SS Alvin Dark, who hit a pair. All five players who homered in that game went on to managerial careers, including Giants catcher Wes Westrum and Cubs 1B Phil Cavarretta, who took the reins from Frankie Frisch later that year.

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Tigers 6, @Rangers 0 — The Rangers had pummeled Rick Porcello more often than not in seven past meetings. But tonight, he avenged his worst game of the year with his first-ever shutout, on three singles and three walks. Miguel Cabrera’s four knocks included his MLB-high 28th double, while Ian Kinsler started three DPs to ease Porcello through his few brambles. Texas wilted after the third twin-killing, as their last 11 men went down in order with just one ball out of the infield.

• Porcello’s 3.41 ERA is a full run below the steady average of his first five seasons. If he’s pitching better, it doesn’t show up in his “TTO” rates. But the expected improvement of Detroit’s infield defense this year was predicted to help him the most. Sure enough, his DP rate is twice his prior average, and miles above all other qualifiers — 33% vs. 24% for #2.
• The streaky Bengals are the first with two skeins of 7 wins or more; five others have one each.
• Kinsler’s five straight multi-hit games ties his career best.
• All three AL Martinezes started this game. Detroit’s duo won by default, as Texas SP Nick Martinez walked 5 in just 2.1 IP, charged with 4 runs.
• Swingman Scott Baker turned in this year’s longest relief stint, 6.2 IP.
• For what it’s worth (not much) — Wins by active pitchers now age 25 or under: Porcello 71, Bumgarner 58, Sale 38, Strasburg 35. Porcello’s the 11th modern pitcher with at least 10 wins each year from age 20-25 … and the “ugly duckling” of that group.

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@Angels 6, Twins 4 — Yet another strong pitching performance — seven one-run stanzas by Jered Weaver — led to six wins in a row for the Halos, who share the AL’s #2 record at 44-33.

• Few pitchers have feasted on losing teams as much as Weaver. His career ERA is 2.49 against sub-.500 teams, 3.90 against those at .500+, and 3.25 overall. Among pitchers with 100+ career starts, that’s the lowest active ratio of sub-.500 to overall ERA, and 11th-lowest of more than 1,100 searchables all-time.
• Their strong place in the the playoff chase should make the Angels even more eager to shore up an awful bullpen. They’ve gotten 33 starts of 7+ IP so far, one off the MLB lead. But getting such length is harder in October: For 2009-13, AL starters went 7+ IP in 32% of regular games, but just 26% in the postseason.
• Mike Trout hasn’t slugged .600 in a year yet, but he’s at .606 now. He’d be first Angel ever to slash .300/.400/.600 — and the second in MLB to do that in 500+ PAs batting 2nd.
• Didn’t Trout say in the offseason that he meant to be more aggressive early in the count? Maybe he was playing possum, or maybe the pitchers just had other ideas. His pitches per PA is up 7% versus 2012-13, and the number of PAs settled within 2 pitches is way down.
• Joe Mauer drove in three with two doubles, and got the tying run to bat in the 9th. But it’s 43 games since his last homer. Minnesota’s #3-6 spots are all slugging .382 or less.
• “Defensive Indifference; Mauer to 3B.” Two outs in the 9th, tying run up. He should not take that base: It gains them absolutely nothing, and he might fall down.

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@Pirates 5, Mets 2 — This Polanco’s swing is not so placido.

• Josh Harrison has played in the outfield the equivalent of 40 games, and has 5 assists.
• The Bucs are back over .500, and they’ve already finished the bulk of their schedule with the NL’s three best — 20 down, 12 remaining vs. MIL, SFG and LAD. All that said … Last year’s Pirates went 40-34 against teams at or above .500; this year’s band are 23-30.

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@Phillies 5, Marlins 3 (14 inn.) — A long time between game-winning blasts for Chase Utley: His last was in Sept. 2006, his second full year, and his last walk-off hit was in 2007. Utley had key hits in the 4th and 5th, as the Phils rallied to level at 2-2. Marcell Ozuna’s 13th HR put Miami on top in the 7th, but a two-out groundball gave Jeff Baker double trouble, and the stop-and-drop muff tied the game. Cole Hamels served up three solo HRs in 7 IP, and six Philly relievers dialed up a zero.

• Hamels has gone 7+ IP in 10 straight starts, the longest such streak this year, with a 1.88 ERA, but just two wins.
• I haven’t brought my glove into a game in a while — but I would, if I had seats in Giancarlo’s range. No way would I bare-hand one of those screamers. (By the way, that trajectory reminded me of a famous dinger.)

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@Houston 6, Atlanta 1 —

• Jarred Cosart has a decision in 10 straight outings: 7-3, 2.67, eight quality starts. And a 2.96 ERA through 26 career outings.
• I’m sure Philly fans can recite this by hard, but I just realized: Cosart and Jon Singleton both went to acquire Hunter Pence at the 2011 deadline. A year later, the Phils peddled Pence to the Giants for quite a bit less. He did hit very well down the stretch in ’11, and the Phils won 102 games — but they lost the first round to the Cards.

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Wednesday

@Rays 5, Pirates 1 — David Price has fanned 10 or more in five straight games, the first such streak since 2004 (Johan Santana). Poor Charlie Morton fell to 4-9 despite 2 ER and 11 Ks in seven innings, his first time in double figures. The Rays bunched three of the four hits he’d allow (plus an error) into a 3-run 1st.

• Price is averaging 8.5 strikeouts per game — a rate achieved in 30-start seasons only by Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, Dwight Gooden, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling and Yu Darvish.
• All 19 of those years produced a winning record. Price is 6-7.

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Cardinals 9, @Rockies 6 — Yohan Flande?

@Angels 6, Twins 2 — Yohan Pino?

• Seems only fantasy players and west-coast fans are talking about Garrett Richards: Four runs over his last five outings, and 99 Ks in 101 IP this year.

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@Brewers 9, Nationals 2 — Scooter Gennett’s 2-out grand slam led the Crew’s mugging of Stephen Strasburg, tying his career high of 7 runs allowed. Milwaukee’s two homers backed Marco Estrada, who worked into the 7th sans gopher ball, snapping his 12-game streak (tied for longest since 2008).

• Strasburg, the NL leader with 123 Ks, saw his hits rate rise to 9.54 H/9. His career high is 7.68 H/9; the highest ever with at least 220 Ks was 9.12 H/9 by Bobo Newsom, 1938, with only Long Tom Hughes joining the 9+ club (1901).
• With the slam, Gennett is now 6 for 10 with the bags full, plus two doubles. All against righties, of course.

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Tigers 8, @Rangers 6 — Victor and J.D. Martinez doubled on consecutive pitches in the 1st, then homered the same way in the 5th, off different pitchers. Ron Washington doesn’t read computer printouts: he brought in a righty specifically for J.D. Martinez, although he’s slugging .772 off righties, batting .118 against lefties.

• Three hits for Adrian Beltre, now batting .328. His .315 mark for the last 4 years trails only Miguel Cabrera (1,500+ PAs).
• Carlos Pena hit his first homer for Texas since his original call-up in Sept. 2001. In that same game, Alex Rodriguez hit #50 for the first time.
• 20 HRs, 22 Ks for V-Mart. In the expansion era, 35 HRs with less than 50 Ks has been achieved by Barry Bonds (3 times), Don Mattingly and Henry Aaron.

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Atlanta 4, @Houston 0 — Alex Wood spearheaded Atlanta’s 10th shutout win, and no one fretted over their 0-for-6 with RISP. Justin Upton’s 2-run shot loosened up a 1-0 game in the 7th, and the other runs scored on productive outs. No team has fewer of those, nor a worse rate.

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@Orioles 5, White Sox 4 (12 inn.) — Baltimore won on a wild pitch. But some thought that runner should have been out on the previous play — for deliberate contact by the third base coach, when David Lough fell down after rounding the bag. Rule 7.09:

“It is interference by a batter or runner when — (h) In the judgment of the umpire, the base coach at third base, or first base, by touching or holding the runner, physically assists him in returning to or leaving third base or first base. … PENALTY FOR INTERFERENCE: The runner is out and the ball is dead.”

Did Bobby Dickerson “physically assist” Lough? Probably not. Looks like he only patted Lough to get his attention, to make sure he got the message to get back to third — and Lough probably was already thinking the same. But why have a rule that creates unnecessary judgment calls, instead of a sensible blanket rule? A base coach must stay in the box at all times when the ball is live; if he touches a runner while out of the box, the runner is out and the ball is dead.

• Shortly after Nelson Cruz’s 2-out slam in the 8th tied it 4-all, the game was delayed. Am I the only one guessing, “a shower of sparks from a shattered light standard”?
• Cruz has 8 slams and .753 SLG with the bases full, both ranking 7th over the years he’s played.
• Conor Gillaspie’s batting .333, with no homers. Two players since 1940 have qualified at .330+ without going yard. One was Matty Alou, 1968 — part of a 4-year stretch averaging .335 and one dinger. Do you recall the other, utterly random year? Only time this guy ever had over 412 PAs.

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Dodgers 5, @Royals 4 — Dee Gordon was all over this game and its box score: 4 hits, 9th triple, 40th steal.

• In the modern era, only Ty Cobb, Eddie Collins, Willie Wilson and Juan Samuel have had 70+ SB and 15+ triples.
• But Gordon’s home park works against him, ranking annually among the lowest in triples park factor. No one has topped 7 triples in one year at Dodger Stadium.
• Yasiel Puig doubled and tripled, his first extra-base hits in a week.