(I kept hoping to get to the late games, but life intervened. These are games of Tuesday, June 3.)

@Marlins 1, Rays 0 — Henderson Alvarez went all the way on just 88 pitches for his third shutout this year, his only wins. Eight hits, seven singles and a 2-out triple, and no walks; three DPs (one by bunt) and two caught stealing. He even helped produce the run, his 2-out single in the 5th filling the bags for Christian Yelich, who worked a walk from 0-and-2 start.

• The fast-dimming Rays have punted eight straight, their worst skid in the last 5 years.
• First CG shutout in almost two years on 88 pitches or less. It’s the only such shutout in the database with 8 hits or more, trimming one pitch off David Wells’s 9-hit feat. (Full pitch counts go back only to 1988.)
• Alvarez joined Dontrelle Willis, A.J. Burnett and Kevin Brown as Marlins with at least 3 shutouts in a year. His four career whitewashes tie him for 4th on the club list, behind those three mentioned. Burnett won the only other 1-0 game in this series, a 2-hitter in 2005.
• Both Alvarez and tough-luck loser Chris Archer can boast of having thrown two shutouts within about a 2-week span, but Alvarez already owned the topper.
• In the past 20 years, only Carlos Silva allowed more than 8 baserunners while working 9+ innings on 88 pitches or less.
• Dropping the pitch count … Consider that Alvarez allowed 8 baserunners, but faced only 30 batters in 9 IP. Here’s a link to all games since 1914 with 9+ IP, 8+ BR, and no more than 30 BF. Can you explain the Cy Falkenberg game? Purportedly, a 9-IP CG facing just 26 batters. Is there a way for a batter to be declared out, without counting as a batter faced by the pitcher? (It could be just a typo, I guess.)
• Most wins with only shutouts is four, shared by Johnny Humphries (1941, 6 starts), Freddie Fitzsimmons (1935, 15 starts) and Irv Young (1910, 17 starts). One other did this with three shutouts (Ed Killian, 1903, 8 starts). Alvarez has started 12 games so far this year.

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Blue Jays 5, @Tigers 3 — So much for the “let’s go get a proven closer” strategy. Joe Nathan came into a scoreless game and set it on fire, starting with a walk to the leadoff man — four straight misses from an 0-2 count on Anthony Gose, a .243 career hitter with 3 HRs. Gose swiped second, two singles drove him in, and Nathan left a bags-full mess behind. Brett Lawrie’s 3-run homer off Al Alburquerque blew it open, rendering moot Steve Delabar’s two hair-pulling walks and a 3-run shot by J.D. Martinez. Casey Janssen got the last out, entering just as soon as an official save chance cropped up, as required by law.

Anibal Sanchez and Drew Hutchison each worked seven shutout frames, no walks, 2 and 3 hits, but left deadlocked with their pitch counts under 110. Twenty-six straight men went down from the 4th until Nathan came in for the 9th.

• Two HRs worth 3+ runs in the 9th inning or later: First such game since July 2012. First with one for each side since August 2010. First with one for each side in the same inning since Sept. 2007. (Do check that last linescore, and the pitcher who gave up the tying run in the home 9th.)
• Hutchison fanned Miguel Cabrera in consecutive at-bats. Hector Santiago is the only other pitcher to bag Miggy twice in one game this year.
• Second straight fruitless gem for Sanchez. His ERA is 2.15 in 9 starts, but just two wins; 2.79 ERA in 50 starts since joining Detroit, but only 20 wins.
• Lawrie went 0-3 with bases empty, natch. Updated splits: 20 for 52, 5 HRs with RISP; 17 for 107 with none aboard.
• Nathan’s been a bust so far, blowing 4 of 17 save tries and compiling -.69 WPA, worst of anyone with 10+ saves. Meanwhile, the rejected Joaquin Benoit is having his best year, at two-thirds the cost. Not claiming I expected Benoit to out-pitch Nathan this year; just thought a 2-year, $20-million deal for a 39-year-old pitcher wasn’t the wisest use of resources. Joe was great last year, but everyone gets old eventually.
• Detroit’s complementary players are free-falling around Miggy & V-Mart in the last couple of weeks.
• Possibly the first meeting of these squads with both in first place since they battled to the end for the 1987 AL East crown. (I’m just guessing.)

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@Cleveland 5, Boston 3 — Michael Bourn keyed Cleveland’s 5th straight win, doubling home two runs off Jake Peavy in the 7th after Boston had chipped away to tie it. Xander Bogaerts homered and doubled to lead that comeback, completed by Dustin Pedroia’s double off Scott Atchison. But Big Nick Hagadone got two big whiffs to end that frame with two aboard, and wound up with the win in his season debut.

• Peavy fanned just 3 of 27 batters, and has just one win through 12 starts this year (1.45 WHIP, 4.72 ERA). His 17.1% K rate is far off his prior career rate of 23.3%.
• Brock Holt and Bogaerts have been a dynamic duo atop the BoSox lineup, but Pedroia has just 4 RBI in 11 games since moving to the three-hole.

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@Reds 8, Giants 3 — Fours were wild as the Reds roughed up Tim Lincecum: 4 steals, 4 extra-base hits, a pair of 4-run outbursts in his 4.1 innings. Billy Hamilton had two hits, two steals, two runs, and Devin Mesoraco rocked Timmy’s world with a man aboard. Homer Bailey survived early troubles to last six for his 6th win.

• .347 BA, 9 HRs and 27 RBI in 28 games for Mesoraco. Shouldn’t he have a nickname by now? Maybe a tie-in to his hometown, Punxsutawney, PA? I’m whiffing here…. Anyway, all 9 HRs by the RHB Mesoraco have come off righty pitchers.

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Athletics 5, @Yankees 2 (10 inn.) — Brandon Moss led off the 10th by going upper-tank, his second full-count homer of the night, and the A’s pulled away from Adam Warren to finish a comeback win. Dealin’ Dellin Betances took the ball from Hiroki Kuroda and blew Moss away to end 7th with a 2-1 lead. But a heavy workload may have caught him in the 8th, as Alberto Callaspo worked a 2-out walk and Stephen Vogt doubled him home, each on a full count. The Yanks went quietly in their 10th, including DH Derek Jeter’s fifth out.

• Sore wrist and all, Mark Teixeira supplied the only pop off Scott Kazmir, who fanned 10 in 6.1 IP. Teix drove in both runs, with a bloop & a blast. He’s 12 for 23 against the little lefty, 9 RBI and 8 walks.
• Betances and Warren rank 1st and 3rd in both innings and pitches by AL relievers. Each had been very good before tonight, combining for a 1.55 RA/9 in 64 IP.
• Oakland’s #1 in defensive efficiency, among other things.

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Royals 8, @Cardinals 7 — A seesaw batter tilted blue in the end. KC snapped Pat Neshek’s scoreless streak at 20 innings, tying in the 8th on a pair of infield hits to set up the decisive one-two punch by Omar Infante and Eric Hosmer in the 9th off Trevor Rosenthal.

Wong-Dinger! Kolten’s first big-league homer was a thick cut of salami. But there were many courses left in this feast. Alex Gordon’s 3-run shot capped a 6-run 5th against Jaime Garcia. Their team cycle in that stanza included the first extra-base hit by James Shields, a 2-run double that beat Matt Holliday into the gap. Johnny Peralta’s second double of the night pulled St. Loo level, and Peter Bourjos brought the lead with his 2nd HR and the 7th run charged to Shields.

Wilking Rodriguez (would I lie?) debuted with a perfect 7th to keep the Royals close. Wade Davis picked up his 5th win, running his null string to 16 innings (5 hits, 3 walks, 26 Ks), and Greg Holland handled the Cardinals’ power core (such as it is these days) with two whiffs for his 16th save in 17 tries.

• Since 2013, Holland’s converted 63 of 67, AL best in both total saves and SV%, second overall in both measures.
• Just when you thought St. Louis had their legs under them, they’ve dropped 6 of 7, allowing 6+ runs in each loss.

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Seattle 7, @Atlanta 5 — John Buck’s first homer since last August 15 broke the tie with two outs in the 7th, leading Seattle’s 4th straight win. The 30-28 M’s have half a hold on a wild-card berth.

Buck’s 3 hits and 3 runs paced the offense, with a big boost off the bench. Atlanta routed Erasmo Ramirez with 5 runs in 3 innings, including Evan Gattis’s 3-run bomb. But Stefen Romero’s pinch-hit 3-run jack tied it in the 4th, the earliest pinch-HR since 2011. That came after a walk to Brad Miller, batting .169. Rookie Dominic Leone worked two perfect innings for the win, shaving his ERA to 1.40 in 26 IP and tearing the heart out of Atlanta’s order with four straight Ks, against the Upton brothers, Freddie Freeman and Gattis.

• Gattis has 33 HRs in 148 career games, tied for the 3rd-best home-run start in franchise history behind Bob Horner and Wally Berger.

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@Nationals 7, Phillies 0 — Jordan Zimmermann’s best game this year lifted the Nats back to .500. His recouped some of his luck on balls in play, holding the Phils to 5 hits through 8 IP with just 4 Ks. He came in with a .369 BAbip, 80 points above his mark of the last 3 years, which raised his ERA almost a full run despite no change in his underlying rates.

Jayson Werth’s 2-run double got the scoring started in the 3rd, and most of the lineup chipped in. Ryan Zimmerman came off the DL with two doubles, playing outfield for the first time ever; Denard Span had 3 hits and scored each time, and all four infielders either drove one in or scored.

• Phils have been blanked 8 times this year (T-#1), 23 times since 2013 (T-#2).
• Nats have series with the sub-.500 Phils & Padres before a tough part of their schedule, facing Giants, Cards, Atlanta & Milwaukee in 14 of 16 games.

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@Cubs 2, Mets 1 — All night, it felt like one the Mets would give away, and so they did, with each Cubs run coming in a left-on-left matchup. New York scored in the 1st, but then left men all over. Zack Wheeler held the Cubs in hand into the 7th on two singles and two walks. But in the 8th, Chris Coghlan clocked a 2-2 pitch from Josh Edgin for his first homer this year, first off a southpaw since 2010. Anthony Rizzo opened the home 9th with a single off Scott Rice, the other lefty. David Wright bobbled Starlin Castro’s grounder, getting the out at first but losing a possible DP as Rizzo reached second. With two outs and an 0-2 count, Rice went to the slider once too often, and Nate Schierholtz rifled his third hit for the win.

• The Mets still own just one 1-0 win in Wrigley Field. (Sorry, Fergie.)
• Since 2013, Luis Valbuena has 79 walks and 95 strikeouts — 13th-best ratio among those with 500+ PAs in that span. His 14.4% walk rate ranks 10th.
• New York’s stretch of 17 games in 16 solid days rolls on with three night games in Wrigley, then a flight to San Francisco with no day off. Sleep fast, boys.

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@Astros 7, Angels 2 — Jon Singleton‘s much-hyped debut included a bags-full walk for his first RBI, and something slightly jazzier for his second. Collin McHugh labored through 5 innings, burning 97 pitches on just 21 batters, but still earned his second straight scoreless win, with a 2.52 ERA and 0.92 WHIP in 50 IP.

• Josh Hamilton walked and homered in his first game since April 8. The Angels went 27-21 in his absence.
• Maybe it wasn’t McHugh’s pitch count that caused his early exit; maybe he just wanted to leave on a high note.
• Each RBI for Singleton came in the same inning as an error by the weighty first baseman. But it was his night, and neither boot cost a run.

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Orioles 8, @Rangers 3 — You can’t stop Nelson Cruz, but you might at least contain him if you don’t hang the breaking ball.

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White Sox 4, @Dodgers 1 — Looks like the layoff didn’t disrupt Jose Abreu’s timing. That’s a nice job of waiting for Dan Haren’s … what was that pitch, anyway?

• Shouldn’t every park have a section of the outfield fence at chest height, with seating right behind it? I love those corners in Dodger Stadium and Fenway.

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Followup from Monday — All game measures are since 1914, unless stated.

In either of the Yankee Stadiums, Kyle Seager is the first player to amass 12 total bases with no more than one homer. No Yankee has done that in any venue. Travis Fryman did it against the Yankees in a 1993 loss in Tiger Stadium, with a full cycle plus another double.

The oldest player in a cycle-plus was Phil Weintraub, age 36.201 in this 1944 Polo Grounds circus — 4 hits, 5 runs and 11 RBI. Ernie Lombardi, batting right behind Weintraub, still managed 7 RBI himself. Right fielder (and manager) Mel Ott notched his own unique feat with 6 runs and just 2 hits, thanks to 5 walks; the Giants accepted 17 walks, leading to 26 runs with “just” 18 hits. The pitching cousins, Rube Melton and Cliff Melton, squared off at the start; Rube took the loss, but Cliff didn’t last for the win despite being staked to a 10-2 lead. Oh, by the way — it was the first game of a doubleheader that drew a season-high 58,032 to the ol’ horseshoe; might have been a war-bond promotion. New York’s Rube Fischer took the loss in the nightcap,