@Padres 3, Pirates 2 — Everth Cabrera’s perfect push bunt was the lone safety for the winners. But it sparked a 2-run opening frame, thanks to Francisco Liriano’s wildness and two defensive gaffes behind him (one mental, one physical). Three more free passes (one to Ian Kennedy) forced in the third run, and the San Diego bullpen locked down late as usual.

Joaquin Benoit worked past Harrison’s leadoff double in the 8th (his third XBH) by setting down three straight lefties, and Huston “One-Way” Street extended to 18 this year’s longest streak of save conversions. He leads all pitchers in WPA so far (and all but five batters), as 8 of his 18 saves have sealed a one-run lead.

• It’s the 2nd win with just one hit in the last two weeks, but just the 3rd in Padres history. (Gotta love this 2-1 win, all runs on bases-loaded walks, and 5 walks in one inning by Steve Stone.)
• Three runs ties the searchable record for exactly one total base, done five times before, just once since 1950 — this all-around meltdown by Rick Honeycutt (now the Dodgers’ pitching coach), relieving in the 8th after an infield hit busted Ron Darling’s no-no bid. (One well-known game saw four runs with no total bases.)
• Second baseman Harrison was at the center of both misplays in the 1st, but the real fault lies with others. Travis Snider should have called him off on the pop to shallow right that went for a sac fly; if Snider catches that ball coming forward (as he easily could have done), the man on third would not have dared to dash for home. And Ike Davis, supposed good-glove first baseman, has to either scoop that relay throw (perhaps completing the DP), or come off the bag and smother it to hold Cabrera at third.
• If you’ve followed Liriano’s career, you know he’s never put two solid seasons years back-to-back, so his 1-6, 4.54 start is no surprise. As usual when he struggles, walks have been his downfall — six in the first 4 frames tonight, 36 in 69.1 IP.

Ian Kennedy improved to 5-6 with six effective innings, leaving for a PH after just 88 pitches. He has fine rate stats, so why hasn’t he had better results than a 3.42 ERA and 98 ERA+ before tonight? Out of 57 NL qualifiers, he stood 4th in K/9, 14th in WHIP and K/W. His HR rate is much better than average, and his 6 HRs have scored just 9 runs. His RISP numbers are better than with bases empty. No runners he left on have scored. Anyone?

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Seattle 2, @Atlanta 0 — Seven none-shall-pass stanzas by Hisashi Iwakuma. I still haven’t seen him pitch a game, but my crush is obvious. His walk rates since his 2012 debut: 8.3%, 4.8%, 2.1% (4 walks in 50.2 IP). David Schoenfield has a more nuanced appreciation.

Mike Minor was perhaps as good but not as lucky, with three of the five singles he allowed in 7 IP bunched in the 4th to build a run. Stefen Romero and Kyle Seager, heroes of the last two games, combined for an insurance run off Luis Avilan, and the bullpen was airtight to seal the mini-sweep, Seattle’s 5th straight win. They’re 2nd in AL run prevention, 3.76 R/G.

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Angels 4, @Astros 0 — Garrett Richards reversed a 3-start slump with eight innings of command & control, as close as he has ever come to a shutout. Jared Cosart matched those ovals through the 4th, but LA tallied thrice with two outs in the next two frames, with David Freese in the middle of both thrusts.

• Now that Josh Hamilton is back, Raúl Ibañez and his .140 BA are on borrowed time. At 20 for 143, Raul is threatening the worst live-ball average for that many hits. The “record” is .131 by the immortal Luis Pujols (20 for 153); the prior worst by an OF, 1B or DH is Marv Rickert‘s .146 (20 for 137).

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@Nationals 8, Phillies 4 — Eight career starts by Stephen Strasburg against Philly: 58 Ks, 6 walks, 2.32 ERA.

• Denard Span’s last 15 games: .380/.941 with 13 runs.
• The first three Phils in the order went 0-14.
• Anthony Rendon’s 8th HR gave him 54 career extra-base hits in 154 games, earning a tie for 6th in that pace in Nats/Expos franchise history. Five of the top nine on that list are current Nats: #1-Ryan Zimmerman (70); #2-Bryce Harper (64); #6-Danny Espinosa & Rendon (54); #9-Ian Desmond (52).
• Strasburg leads the majors with 101 strikeouts, and leads the NL with 83 hits allowed. According to my figgerin’ on this-here envelope, that means Washington’s Department of Defense is inefficient. Of course, sometimes “defense” and “pitcher” are one and the same.

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Blue Jays 8, @Tigers 2 — Detroit’s bullpen has yielded 10 runs in 4 innings over the last two nights, but this game turned in the 6th. Toronto rallied with two outs off Rick Porcello and pulled ahead, 3-2, on Adam Lind’s double. Detroit filled up with no outs in their half, driving R.A. Dickey off, but they couldn’t hit a fair ball off Aaron Loup. Toronto’s 24-9 since May began, and 5-0 against the other AL division leaders.

• Current Jays came in with a combined .408 BA off Porcello, and just 3 Ks in 74 PAs. Melky Cabrera homered and doubled in their three face-offs, now 10 for 20 in that matchup. Porcello’s had 2-out trouble all year.
• The moment we’ve all waited for: Offsetting home runs by M. Cabrera!
• It’s an official funk for Detroit, and I still blame those blasted Zubaz. After a 27-12 start, they’ve gone 4-12 since those playful tweets on their delayed flight out of Boston.

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Cardinals 5, @Royals 2 (11 inn.) — Matt Carpenter went 5-for-5 plus a walk and keyed all three scoring frames, the last one pulling out a win the Card had long seemed sure of, but almost gave away. Adam Wainwright went for the shutout, after mastering KC on 3 hits through eight. But the first man got aboard on a wild strike three, and Billy Butler’s single brought in Trevor Rosenthal. A walk, a groundout and Lorenzo Cain’s base hit tied it up, and both sides went quickly in the 10th. Ninth hitter Peter Bourjos drew a one-out walk from Kelvin Herrera, and stole second on a 1-1 pitch. Carpenter fouled off a pair and worked the count full, then stroked his second double for the lead. Allen Craig singled home two more, and Pat Neshek got the save.

• Carpenter’s hit .402 in his last 20 games, with 10 doubles, lifting his season marks to .307 BA and .395 OBP (the latter better than he did last year).

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Marlins 5, @Rays 4 — Donovan Solano golfed a 3-run shot off David Price for a 5-3 lead in the 3rd inning. Tampa’s bags-full, no-outs threat fell one run short in the 9th, as Steve Cishek got the last two outs with the winning run on second.

• Tampa jumped ahead in the 1st on back-to-back bombs by Ben Zobrist and Evan Longoria. First since April 13 for Zorilla, spanning 32 games in which he slugged .291 with 4 RBI (around a DL stint). Longo’s 2nd HR in almost a month; he slugged .290 with 4 RBI in his past 26 games, Rays going 8-18.
• Two infield hits to SS in the 2nd against Price. Poor shortstop defense (Yunel) is a factor in Price’s .336 BAbip so far, 55 points over his prior career mark, and even Longo has let him down. Can’t hang this on the defense, though; that’s just a good, old-fashioned meatball.
• This is just a crackpot theory, based on small stat samples. But is it possible that Price’s way of coping with the trade talk that’s swirled about him in the last two years has been to relax too much and just concentrate on throwing strikes? He’s getting murdered on the first pitch, with 4 HRs this year (including Solano’s) matching his prior season high, and a higher rate of first pitches put in play than in the past. His strike-one rate is also way up, but with worst-ever outcomes from that point.

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Athletics 7 @Yankees 4 — Jesse Chavez dug an early 4-0 hole on Jacoby Ellsbury’s 3-run mash. But with Vidal Nuno starting and the Yanks’ best bullpen arms likely to rest, an Oakland comeback felt almost foreordained. Three-four hitters Josh Donaldson and Yoenis Cespedes led the charge with 3 hits each and 3 homers between them, with Donaldson’s 16th breaking a 7th-inning tie in the debut inning of Jose Ramirez. A sloppy pair tacked on in Wade LeBlanc’s Yankees bow, and the Bombers went meekly to their 4th straight home loss, landing at .500.

• Chavez has prospered with the AL’s 2nd-best run support, 6.2 R/G.
• Dan Otero got two outs in the 7th to quell a Yankee threat, then handled the 8th with no sweat. He leads all relievers with 36.1 IP and 5 wins.
• Two taters gave Cespedes 61 in 319 games, a faster pace to #60 than all but four prior A’s. Betcha can’t name all four without a miss.

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Giants 3, @Reds 2 — Two homers with two outs in the 6th rallied the Jints, and four relievers split the last 8 outs with no one reaching safely. Mike Morse cranked his 12th to start the comeback off Tony Cingrani, and Juan Perez followed a hit by Brandon Hicks with his first round-trip trop (and first rib-eyes) this year.

• Ach, Billy! Caught stealing third with no outs in the 3rd. Three straight extra-base hits followed, but the Reds would get no more off Ryan Vogelsong.
• With the rubber game of this set coming Thursday, SF has lost just one of their past 11 series: the Bucs took two of three, May 5-7.
• The Bay Series won’t come for another month. Saints preserve us if both teams still have the #1-2 records at that point. (I’m calling it now: “West Coast bias!”)

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Orioles 6, @Rangers 5 — Balto’s balance overcame Adrian Beltre’s one-man show, as each Oriole run came on a separate play, four of them with two outs.

• Nelson Cruz reached twice on errors, the first two committed by rookie SS Luis Sardina, and Adam Jones drove him in each time.
• Beltre’s resurgence has been lost in Texas’s torpid play, but he’s been back to normal for the last month, .342/.941 in his prior 28 games.

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Diamondbacks 16, Rockies 8 — Ah, Coors Field! Keeping the memory of the last high-octane era fresh in our minds. Colorado seized an 8-5 lead in a wild 7th, hoping to end their 5-game slide — but saw the Snakes strike 11 times in their last two raps. Arizona’s #1-5 hitters each had exactly 3 hits, totaling 14 RBI and 13 runs.

• In the minors since the Australian jaunt, Didi Gregorius homered in his first time back.
• Since Coors opened in 1995, it’s hosted over 10% of all games where both teams scored 8 or more — 15% since 2012.
• Since 2012, the combined .297 BA in Coors Field is 27 points over #2. But this might surprise you: On the basis of total bases per hit, Coors ranks just 11th in that same span span. So they’re partying like it’s 1930, not 1999.

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@Twins 6, Brewers 4 — Milwaukee tied at four on an Aramis Ramirez 3-run homer in the 7th, in his first game off the DL. But the Twins struck right back starting with two outs in their half, notching the first earned run since April off Will Smith. Oswaldo Arcia delivered Josh Willingham, his 4th ribby of the night.

• You know that someone’s going deep against Marco Estrada; the only question is if there’ll be men on base. A pair rode home on Arcia’s 4th-inning blast. Estrada’s served at least one gopher in 11 of 12 starts this year, 42 of 65 career.
• Career homer #360 tied Ramirez with Gary Gaetti for 8th on the 3B career list; he’s 7th in HRs hit as a third baseman. (Beltre is 6th and 5th on those lists.)

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@Cleveland 7, Boston 4 (12 inn.) — You mean you didn’t stay up for the 2:02 a.m. ending of this one?!?

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White Sox 2, @Dodgers 1 — Chicago finished 63-99 last year, LA 92-70 — but they’re both 31-30 now. (As are most teams, it seems.)

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@Cubs 5, Mets 4 — Slog-o-rama. Irked as I am to see the Mets drop two straight to the #30 team, I’m even more offended that Edwin Jackson got a win for his 5-IP, 10-baserunner bog — and that Daisuke didn’t get the loss for his like morass.

• Bad night all around for NY sports fans, with blown leads everywhere.