@Cubs 7, Reds 3 — Jake Arrieta’s six perfect innings ended when he just missed gloving Billy Hamilton’s grounder. Two hits with two outs halved his 4-0 lead, but Arrieta rose to the challenge with his 9th strikeout, getting Ryan Ludwick as the tying run. Rick Renteria ran through four arms in five batters to hold Cincy at bay in the 8th, and Joey Votto’s whiff of leather widened the lead. Anthony Rizzo’s 3 hits and 17th home run led Chicago, which got just three other knocks.

• Arrieta’s on the roll of his life: Four games, 3 runs, 13 hits and 2 walks in 27 IP, with 36 Ks. He never before even had four straight quality starts.
• Devin Mesoraco homered in his 5th straight game, tying the Reds record shared by Johnny Bench, George Crowe, Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey, and Ted Kluszewski. The last such MLB streak was by Chris Davis, six straight in late 2012. Fourteen catchers have homered five games in a row, but only Walker Cooper made it to six.
• Mesoraco has 40 RBI in 43 games played, slugging .667.
• The last Wrigley no-hitter was in 1972, the controversial near-perfecto by Milt Pappas.

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Atlanta 3, @Houston 2 — Craig Kimbrel powered through George Springer with the tying run on second, handing Houston a fourth one-run loss in their last eight games. Aaron Harang shrugged off last week’s bashing with a solid six, and Atlanta overcame Springer’s early muscle-flex via brotherly love taps.

• The Uptons began the night with a combined .175 BA this month, and 46 Ks against 8 walks.
• Atlanta’s near the top of their division despite the 4th-worst run differential, thanks to a 15-10 one-run mark.
• Kimbrel recently crossed 1,000 batters faced, with a 43% K rate. No other pitcher has fanned 40%.

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Dodgers 2, @Royals 0 — Justin Turner opened the game by tripling to climax an 11-pitch skirmish, and Clayton Kershaw applied the resulting run towards LA’s first-ever win in the City of Fountains. The big southpaw dashed our hopes of a Vander Meer, but he went eight and whiffed the same for his 8th conquest, and back-to-back bagel starts.

• In his first game at 2B, Miguel Rojas flashed his shortstop’s arm to save Kershaw’s shutout, as he did in the no-hitter. Rojas had 50 games at 2B in the minors, with outstanding numbers (33 DPs, 3 errors).
• KC has scored one run or none in five of Danny Duffy’s 10 starts, including his 1-0 win. He leads the bigs with three losses when allowing one run.
• How close was Duffy to a scoreless game? It took three defensive near-misses to produce one run.
• Twenty-five different pitchers have notched at least three straight scoreless starts since 2011, Kershaw’s first Cy Young year. Cliff Lee’s done it twice, but Clayton never has.
• Will Kershaw’s DL stint keep him out of the Cy Young race? He’s unlikely to reach 30 starts or 200 innings, de facto minimums for a starter in a non-shortened season. But his wins, whiffs and ERA could keep the door open. He’s just two wins off the NL lead, and his K rate (and WAR per game) are the best of any with 10+ starts. The top two in total strikeouts, Stephen Strasburg and Johnny Cueto, are both seeking their first 200-K season. Of course, this is all way premature.

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@Rockies 10, Cardinals 5 — Justin Morneau spread six ribs over a trio of hits, as the hosts stopped a 7-game slide. Shelby Miller’s back stiffness led to 5 walks and an early exit; suddenly, the St. Louis rotation — sporting MLB’s best ERA — looks like “Wainwright & Lynn, then all hands pitch in.”

• Yeah, it’s Coors. But Corey Dickerson’s hitting .359/1.080 overall, with a .929 road OPS.
• The Rox slud for 8 games not long ago. They’re the only team so far with two skids of six-plus.
• How quickly we forget … Jason Motte’s had some bumps this year as he returns from everyone’s favorite surgery. Motte shared the NL saves crown in 2012, capping a 3-year stretch with the 4th-best relief WHIP.

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@Mariners 8, Red Sox 2 — Or, 20 to 5 for the first two tilts of this series, if you want to score that way. Kyle Seager drove in four with a pair of long hits, crossing the 50-RBI mark, and Mike Zunino’s 10th HR put him halfway to a new record for an M’s catcher. Brock Holt’s 2-run blow was all Boston could make of 10 ducks in the five frames commenced by Erasmo Ramirez; they went 0-9 with RISP, and A.J. Pierzynski’s 0-4 stranded nine runners.

• I did tell you the M’s had blowout potential.
• Stephen Drew is 6 for 45, with one RBI and one run, and the Sox are 4-9 when he’s played. But I’m sure the fans would never scapegoat him.
• Ten of Seager’s 11 HRs have come in Safeco. Only Richie Sexson ever hit 20 in a year there. Of their thirty-four 20-HR seasons since 2000, only John Olerud hit at least two-thirds at home (15 of 21 in 2001).
• Signs of a title defense in tatters: Boston’s scoring average and BA with RISP are below those of the Mets (3.79-3.95, .227-.228).
• Last year, Boston beat up the M’s by 6-1, averaging 8 runs.
• Jake Peavy’s 11-game winless slump: 5.88 ERA, 14% strikeouts. His season K rate is 17%, six points below his career mark.
• Joe Beimel(?) vultured the win with his 17th straight scoreless outing. I thought he retired three years ago.

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@Arizona 9, Cleveland 8 (14 inn.) — Aaron Hill got the group hug at the end of a long night, but the biggest plays came from the outfielders at the top of the order. CF Ender Inciarte’s 4th hit re-tied the game in the 11th, and he helped keep it tied in the 13th with an alert recovery after getting pinballed by a two-out bumper-thumper. His snap throw to the first relay man — the outfielder’s only job on that play — enabled a perfect strike by Didi Gregorius to nail Jason Kipnis, trying to touch ’em all. RF Gerardo Parra got the winning frame started with his 5th hit and a painful pilfering, then took third on Paul Goldschmidt’s flyout.

• It’s official: Carlos Santana is smokin’ hot. His .642 WPA in this game ranks 2nd-best for Cleveland this year, and 2nd-best among all losing players.
• Michael Bourn took strike three in the 12th with men on third and second, one out. Can’t happen. Bourn fanned four times on the night, and 21% of career PAs — a steep price for a handful of homers. His career .342 BAbip rates 7th of actives with 4,000 PAs, largely due to his speed. But his whiffs leave a lot of value on the table. Just five others with 300 career steals have struck out as frequently as Bourn, and they all were power hitters except Gary Pettis.
• One thing Addison Reed hadn’t done in this trying year was walk people, coming in with 4 passes in 31 IP. But he walked two of the first three tonight, and setting up Yan Gomes for the 2-out tying hit.
• I’ve seen peewee leaguers run a rundown better than this. The resulting run stood to cost Cleveland the game until Gomes came through at the last minute.

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@Angels 8, Twins 6 — All scoreless streaks end, but just a few self-destruct. Kyle Gibson walked the first two Angels and plunked another in a 5-run 1st inning, then served Mike Trout’s 2-run blast in the 2nd, right after his mates had pulled even.

• Gibson leads the AL with six scoreless starts this year, totaling 42 IP — but the blowups leave him with a 3.92 ERA.
• One might think “run support” upon seeing C.J. Wilson’s 3.70 ERA and 8 wins. Actually, he let in just 7 runs total in his other 7 wins.
• Is that really Albert hitting .161 with RISP, 0-11 with the bases loaded?
  …
  “It was all settled. Right here, in this office. Remember? Danny and me signed the contract, and you witnessed it….”
  “Carnehan!”
  “Peachy Taliaferro Carnehan … The same, and not the same, who sat beside you in a first-class carriage, on the train to Marwar Junction — three summers, and a thousand years ago….”

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Padres 7, @Giants 2 — Rookie righty Jesse “Noodles” Hahn fanned six of the first nine, and eight in all, for his third straight plus outing. The Pads pounced on Joe Panik’s second faux pas for an unearned pair in the 5th.

• Look, he’s 6′ 5″ and a buck-ninety. His curve makes knees and bats go limp. I’m calling him Noodles!
• BA-da-BIP! Two attacks by the Regression Monster have hiked Tim Hudson’s balls-in-play batting average from .260 to .285, near his career average. It’s sort of sad, but these things do tend to normalize over time. (Look out, Cueto fans!)
• And speaking of … Sez here that SF’s 3-11 skid is just a correction — a matter of distributing run elements and runs less efficiently on both sides of the ball. Their batting average has actually gone up in this span, while their HRs allowed have gone down. The “bundling luck” that served them for two months has defected. But they’re still two wins over their pythagorean norm.

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Tigers 8, @Rangers 2 — Ian Kinsler homered in his first guest appearance at his favorite park, and red-hot J.D. Martinez sparked a 5-run uprising with a tiebreaking 2-run shot in the 7th. Detroit’s 16-hit attack covered a rare Miggy mulligan, 0-4 with 2 Ks.

• Another big right-on-right night pushed J.D. Martinez to .400 in that split before his last at-bat (34-85), with 18 extra-base hits. He met his match in the 9th, whiffed by Joakim Soria, who’s held righties to 3 for 39 with 17 Ks. Still, the Houston refugee has a 13-game hit streak, 21-52 with 5 HRs, 7 doubles and 15 RBI.
• Adrian Beltre bagged hit #2,500, then added three more for his 30th 4-hit game. He’s closing on Buddy Bell for 6th all-time in hits by a career 3B, and nearing Brooks Robinson’s 5th spot in total bases. Beltre is 4th in games played at the hot corner, 7th in WAR and WAA.
• Texas hung tough for a while against a rash of injuries, but no one would be shocked if this six-game skid is just the first wave over the levee.

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@Mets 10, Athletics 1 — Who’s afraid of the big, bad A’s? The Mets tied their Citi Field best with four homers, assaulting Scott Kazmir’s AL-best ERA in the worst outing of his two-year comeback, and dealt MLB’s best team its biggest loss to date. Third musk-a-“d”-er Travis d’Arnaud returned from a 15-game romp in Las Vegas — 6 HRs and 16 RBI, topping his career totals for 70 MLB games — with a bust-it-wide 3-run bomb in the 3rd, to cap Kazmir’s damage at 7 runs, and give Mets fans some hope that “what happened there” won’t stay there. Curtis Granderson offset Oakland’s early run with a 2-run shot, continuing his month-long recovery, while doghouse inheritor Chris Young cracked a pair, and just missed becoming the first to make three trips out of the Citi. It all added up to this year’s first use of the second digit on the home scoreboard.

• Bartolo Colon jiggled his way to career win #197. He’s 6-0 in his last 7 starts, 1.58 ERA and 7-1/3 IP per game.
• But here’s what you really want to know: Yes, he extended his hitting streak. (Not pictured?!? Who’s runnin’ this penny arcade?)
• “Mets Considering Releasing Chris Young” — You couldn’t say the idea came out of left field. But Young started the year well; his ugly stats stem from a six-week stretch, 124 ABs, in which he’s started just 29 of 45 games, and has a .202 BAbip. He’s striking out less this year than his career average, and walking about as much. Nothing else in his ratios explains the lack of hits and home runs: Compared to career norms, his GB/FB ratio is flat, line drive rate is up, infield fly rate is down. Can a guy hit in bad luck for 30 games? That’s just how David Wright explained a recent 11-for-80 slump, in which he looked worse at the plate than Young has.

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Nationals 4, @Brewers 2 (16 inn.) — Anthony Rendon tied the game in the 8th with a drive off Will Smith, and Ryan Zimmerman connected eight innings later off Mike Fiers, in his fourth stanza. Washington’s bullpen turned in 10 scoreless innings in the franchise’s longest game since 1992.

• From 1993-2013, NL teams totaled 81 games of 16+ IP, at least two for every club but the Nats/Expos. San Diego had 10 in that span.
• Smith and Francisco Rodriguez have carried Milwaukee’s pen so far, but some cracks are showing. After 3 runs in his first 29 games (no HRs), Smith has been nicked in 5 of his last 12 (2 HRs). K-Rod let nothing across in his first 19 games, but 10 runs and 5 HRs in his last 20.1 IP.

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Monday Morsels

Reds 6, @Cubs 1 — Devin Mesoraco had 2 walks, 2 HBP, and a home run. That’s a first … at least since 1914. And not just any ol’ tater, but a grand slam, busting the game open in his last time up.

• With bags full this year, Mesoraco is 4 for 4, two slams. The searchable record for hits in all bases-loaded ABs is Torii Hunter’s 6 for 6 in 2010. Devin has active competition: Ian Desmond is 5 for 5 with a slam.
• Ah, but you can’t beat the sacks-full work of Don Lenhardt in 1952: 3-for-3, all slams. Here’s one; next came a walk-off after an IBB — and he was traded after the game; and number three, a few days later, a 2-out go-ahead slam against the team that dealt him.

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Cardinals 8, @Rockies zip — Lance Lynn tossed the third game ever in Coors with 8 scoreless innings, 3 baserunners or less.

• Cards’ 2nd shutout win in Coors. The other, one of three 1-0 home losses by the Rox in 2006 — the only such games in their history.
• Grizzly Adams, running wild in the Rockies. Naturally.

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Padres 6, @Giants 0 — Odrisamer Despaigne retired the first ten Giants in his debut (including Joe Panik). Despaigne logged 7 scoreless on 86 pitches (4 hits, no walks) and left for a PH.

• He’s the 4th Cuban-born pitcher with a debut scoreless start. Sandy Consuegra had a 5-inning shutout in 1950. Two years later, his teammate, Mike Fornieles, tossed a one-hitter; his team got just three hits. And El Tiante broke in with a 4-hitter, 11 Ks, against Whitey Ford.
• Despaigne’s 70 game score is the best in a debut start this year, displacing Jacob deGrom’s 69. (Anthony DeSclafani had a solid 56, rounding out “de” family.)
• The letter string “odr” never occurred before in a major-league name.
• “Odrisamer” is enough fun for one night … but Joe Panik, too? (What would Snoopy think?)

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@Orioles 6, White Sox 4 — Before Chris Davis did it, four Baltimore Orioles pinch-hit a walk-off-from-behind homer: Larry Sheets, with two outs, two strikes; Jim Dwyer off Dennis Eckersley; Brooks Robinson’s final homer; and Dick Brown off a rookie Mickey Lolich (giving Robin Roberts the 2-1 win).

• Chris Sale: 18th MLB start since 1914 with at least 11 hits and a home run, but 2 runs or less in 6 IP or less. (Notables: Victor Santos with 13 hits and 2 walks, 4 DPs; Johnny Hutchings, 4 walks and no Ks; Vicente Padilla, 4.2 IP, no DPs.)
• For Sale, it’s a career high in hits — but his 50th quality start in 70 tries.

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@Mariners 12, Red Sox 3 — John Lackey forgot to cover first on a potential inning-ending DP, letting the lead run score — and four more followed in the inning. I know it’s crude to enjoy that, but … I don’t like him. And my joy doesn’t hurt anyone, so I’m in the clear, ethically.