Mariners 10, @Yankees 2 — “Cycle-plus” alert! Kyle Seager tripled in his first two times up — one normal, one peculiar — then flied out, doubled, and capped the rout with a 3-run kaboom. We still haven’t seen a real cycle this year, but the cycle-plus is far more rare. A cycle-plus has no single, but at least four extra-base hits and one of each flavor. There have been 243 cycles since 1914 (four by Mariners), but this was just the 50th cycle-plus, and the 6th with two triples — the first of those since Montreal’s Hal Breeden in 1973.

• Others with a cycle-plus against the Yankees: Fats Fothergill, 1931 (check the linescore); Johnny Grubb, 1982 (in a loss); and Roger Cedeno, 2001 (his only 2-HR game).
• Fothergill is one of eight players with both a cycle and a cycle-plus (since 1914). The others are Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx, Johnny Mize, Willie Stargell, Mike Blowers (cycle-plus for Seattle), and two current Yankees, Mark Teixeira and Kelly Johnson. (Teix did both for Texas in a one-month span of 2004; Johnson did his for Arizona.)
• Seager’s the 6th to go cycle-plus while playing third base, joining Blowers, David Wright, Chris Sabo, Grady Hatton and Pinky Whitney.
• Still no cycle in the new Yankee Stadium. One other game there with HR-3B-2B, by Robinson Cano in 2011.
• 12 total bases with no more than one homer: One other time in the last 5 years, by Charlie Blackmon this April 4. (But with no homers? Only Lance Johnson in the database, a 3-triple game in 1995.)

As for the game itself … Eight hits off King Felix in the first four frames, but only 2 runs. Ichiro tied it up with a 2-run infield hit off Felix’s cleat in the 4th, but his boo-boo on base ended that threat when the bags were filled up. The gift helped Felix find his groove, retiring the next nine, and the M’s broke through with 4 soft runs in the 7th off David Phelps.

• Hernandez is 9-5, 2.87 in 17 career starts against the Yankees, and 6-2, 2.07 in the Bronx.
• Seager’s caught fire after a slow start. He did almost nothing the first 19 games; but starting with a walk-off bomb on April 23, he’s hit .328 with OPS over 1.000 and 34 RBI in 35 games.
• Cano got back in the lineup, with a single and two walks.

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@Brewers 6, Twins 2 — Matt Garza’s first scoreless outing in 30 starts, stopping the longest streak of his career. His ERA was 4.60 in 24 games since the trade from Chicago. He’d pitched well in two prior starts against the team that developed him, but no wins. Jonathan Lucroy’s RBI hit in the 4th got the scoring started; he added a solo home run, and finished the game batting .325. Mark Reynolds grew the lead with his 13th HR, just his 35th hit.

• Will Smith got a DP to erase the man Garza left in the 7th. Besides his 0.35 ERA in 26 IP, Smith has let in just 3 of 18 inherited runners.
• Reynolds was just 11 for 79 at home before tonight, 3 HRs and 32 Ks.

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@Marlins 3, Rays 1 — Two walks by Alex Cobb keyed a 3-run 1st inning, and Randy Wolf made those stand up for his first win since 2012, logging six efficient innings. Casey McGehee had the big hit, after a walk to Giancarlo Stanton filled the bases. It was a seeing-eye single, of course; McGehee leads the majors with nine go-ahead singles. Twenty-three of his 36 RBI have come via the humble single, and no small number of those following a walk to Giancarlo.

• Cobb had only 4 walks over his last four starts, three of them scoreless.
• Brad Boxberger fanned the side in his inning. He’s been a mop-up man this year, but has 28 Ks in 19.1 IP, just 9 hits and 3 runs.
• With RISP, McGehee is 26 for 61 (.426), with 23 singles, 3 doubles, and 30 RBI. Bases empty, 21 for 111 (.189).
• How often does a team win when their #3 hitter only comes up three times? Miami left only 2 men on base, and of course didn’t bat in the 9th.

Neither team is where most pundits thought they’d be at this stage, but at least one part of the Sunshine State Showdown holds constant: They gave a war, and nobody came. The announced crowd was just over 18,000, less than half the capacity of Marlins Park. Last year’s home-and-home series averaged less than 17,000 fans. Miami’s attendance is up a little from last year, but they’re still last in the NL, while Tampa leads only Cleveland in the AL.

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@Cleveland 3, Boston 2 — Justin Masterson’s sterling effort was a long time coming, for both the year and the evening at hand. Masterson had yielded 6.7 runs per 9 innings in 11 starts since an Opening-Day gem. Tonight, he padded his AL lead with four walks in the first three innings, stranding the sacks full in a 28-pitch 1st, and starting a DP with two on to escape the 3rd — then flipped a switch and fired 25 strikes in a row, finishing with 10 Ks in 7 scoreless frames. Xander Bogaerts shaved the lead to one run with a 2-run shot, stopping Bryan Shaw’s homerless string at 42 games (1.05 ERA in that span). But Mark Rzepczynski got them through the 8th by getting Big Papi, and Cody Allen worked a clean 9th.

• Michael Bourn followed his Sunday heroics with a leadoff walk and leadoff triple his first two trips, scoring each time, and Lonnie Chisenhall’s two-out hit in the 1st built a 2-0 lead. John Lackey took his 6th career complete-game loss, all in road games.
• With Stephen Drew called up, Bogaerts played third and Brock Holt made his second start at first base. Both have been hot for the last month or so.

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Mets 11, @Phillies 2 — No bonus cantos tonight. Bartolo Colon’s fastball had its tail wagging happily, getting many called strikes with a pitch aimed at a lefty’s ribs that then caught the corner. Two run-robbing plays by backup CF Matt den Dekker helped Colon run his zero string to 16 before the Phils got a run in the 6th, and he worked into the 8th for his third straight win. A 6-ribby night by Wilmer Flores tied a team shorstop record, and septupled his season total for 50 ABs, as he shattered the Mets’ run of bags-full futility (6 for 50) with a double and his first grand slam.

• Generous hosts: Mets are 18-6 in Philly the last three years, while the Phils are 14-8 in Flushing.
• Winning 6 of 7 has the Mets a game under .500, and no more than 1.5 games from a wild-card spot. There is a ton of parity throughout MLB so far.
• It happens to most in their 30s: David Wright has lost a step on the bases. He was 17 for 20 in steal tries last year, and averaged 20-6 in his first 9 full years. This year, he’s been nabbed in 4 of 7 pilfering ploys.
• Bobby Abreu in 63 PAs: .397 OBP, .500 SLG (both just above his career norm), and no GDPs.
• Flores hit the 5th slam by a Mets shortstop. Jose Reyes had two, Rey Ordonez(!) and Howard Johnson one each. The 6-RBI shorstops were Jerry Buchek, 1967, and Dick Schofield, 1992. (Wait — Schofield was our regular shortstop in ’92? Man, did I check out on that season.)
• Mets have cornered the market on players whose last names start with a lower-case “d,” but we’ve yet to see den Dekker on the field with both catcher Travis d’Arnaud and pitcher Jacob deGrom.

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Royals 6, @Cardinals 0 — Danny Duffy & his backup band held the Cards to three singles, and KC tallied six times late to win going away. Salvador Perez was in the middle of both scoring thrusts, and Alex Gordon started it all with a solo poke.

• Scoreless through six … Taking nothing away from Duffy or Shelby Miller, the Show-Me Series opener showed why both teams are still looking for traction this year. Each came in averaging 3.8 runs per game — Cards 11th in the NL, Royals next-to-last in the junior circuit.

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@Dodgers 5, White Sox 2 (in the 9th) — Chicago was 21-23 when Jose Abreu got hurt, but went 8-6 in his absence. Not that they didn’t welcome him back with huzzahs. Clayton Kershaw set down the first 10 ChiSox before Gordon Beckham singled. Then he tried to bury an 0-1 slider down & in to Abreu, but he missed on both counts, and Abreu connected.

Jose Quintana should have been out of the 6th after fanning Yasiel Puig, but one infield error had already prolonged his task, and another one let in a run when Abreu couldn’t dig out a low throw from third. Quintana couldn’t stop the bleeding, and his 2-0 lead turned into a 5-2 hole.

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Late Sunday

Pirates 5, @Dodgers 3 — Andrew McCutchen (4-3-3-1) did everything in this game except tame the bees. (“Dammit, Jim! — I’m the MVP, not an apiarist!”) Critter-wrangling is a home-team duty, anyway.

It’s safe to say that Josh Harrison had a good read on the offerings from Chris Perez: He crushed a foul homer to left on 2-and-0, then went with the next pitch and hammered it out to right-center. Perez has allowed 15 HRs in 76 IP in the last year-plus; only Jose Valverde has a higher homer rate among all those with at least 20 games finished.

Insufficient power for a corner man has held back Harrison for some time. He batted .308 in his minor-league career, but averaged just 7 HRs per full season, and swatted that same number in his three prior MLB trials totaling almost one year’s play. But so far this year, age 26, he’s tripled that homer rate, slugging a solid .486 in half-time play. The expected-soon promotion of top prospect Gregory Polanco may push Harrison further down the depth chart, but his defensive versatility should preserve some significant role. At least, I hope so; I’ve really enjoyed his highlight-reel emergence.

Lefty Tony Watson worked a scoreless inning for Pittsburgh, as usual. Since last year, he’s emerged as a key part of their bullpen, because he gets righties out as well as lefties. And his role has grown with his results: Watson leads the majors with 14 Holds, and ranks 2nd in reliever Win Probability Added and WAR, 3rd in Adjusted Leverage Index among those with 25+ innings. Relief WPA leaders:

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The Dodgers might break their attendance record this year. The mark is 3.86 million, set in 2007 with an average of 47,618 per game. They’ve averaged about 1,600 less than that over their first 29 home dates, but attendance tends to pick up in the summer months, at least for a contender. Their top three attendance years — 2007, ’09 and ’06 — saw an average boost of about 4,000 after the first 29 home games.

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This puzzles me: The Royals have recalled Mike Moustakas, after just 8 games in the minors. Moustakas went 11 for 31 with a home run; problem solved, I guess. No, I shouldn’t be so flippant; the immediate impetus was the injury to fill-in third baseman Danny Valencia, and maybe Moustakas is the best available option. But what’s the big picture here? Moustakas has been seen as a key to their future ever since he was drafted #2 overall in 2007, so sending him down was obviously a tough call, even if well warranted by his dreadful hitting over the last two years. Given all that went into that organizational decision, wouldn’t you think they were more committed to it than to bring him back after eight games? What happens now if he continues batting .150?

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Tino Martinez will get a plaque in Monument Park.

Hunh.

Tino played seven years for the Yankees — 1996-2001, plus a 2005 swan-song — so he was part of four championships, and almost a fifth. I don’t really want to start a debate about how much Tino contributed to those teams, but here are the Yankees with 2,000 PAs from 1996-2001, ranked by WAR:

Tino had some big postseason moments, especially the huge game-tying homer in game 4 of the 2001 Series (with the Yanks one out away from falling behind 3-to-1), and the tie-breaking grand slam in game 1 of the ’98 Series. But his overall postseason numbers were pretty grim. Casting him in the best possible light by dropping 2005 and using just the dynasty years, Tino hit .247/.715, with -0.4 WPA.

The seven Yankees with 50+ postseason games from 1996-2001, ranked by WPA:

I like Tino. Yankee fans like Tino. It’s fun to say “Tino,” and it’s even better for chanting. I just never thought he’d be up on that wall.

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Buster Olney writes that Jon Lester “is off to the best start of his career, with a 3.15 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP.” Those figures are accurate, but the claim is clearly not. After 12 starts in 2010, Lester had a 2.73 ERA and 1.13 WHIP; he also had allowed just one unearned run then, versus seven this year. When you factor in that the AL ERA was 4.14 in 2010 and 3.98 this year, there’s no basis for the “best start” claim. I don’t mean to lose the forest among the trees; it’s a good start, and does fit Buster’s larger thesis. I just hate needless puffery.