Cubs 2, @Red Sox 0 — Not Stephen Drew … Really? Stephen, eight-for-sixty-two, Drew, who’d fanned in both at-bats?? … Well, he had seen 19 pitches from Jake Arrieta by that point.

So, what would you have done, if Arrieta had gotten Drew out with pitch #120, to complete eight no-hit innings?

His prior highs were 105 this season, 114 career. I can’t see letting him throw 130 pitches. They’ve been careful with him all year, under 95 pitches in seven of ten starts.

Is it time to look at precedents for his sudden emergence, at age 28, after four crappy years? (Mike Scott comes to mind, but we don’t want to imply any shenanigans by Arrieta.) Before this year, Arrieta’s strikeout high was nine, four times in 72 starts. He’s fanned nine or more in four straight games now.

• Arrieta’s last five games: 3 runs in 34.2 IP, 14 hits, 3 walks, 46 Ks.
• He’s allowed just four extra-base hits out of 49 total; opponents slugging under .270.

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@Tigers 5, Athletics 4 — Not quite the “ultimate slam” — there was just one out, and one strike, when Rajai Davis caught a hanging slider from Sean Doolittle, and turned a 4-1 deficit to stunning victory.

The joyful disbelief on Rajai’s face as he reached first said all you need to know about how devastating Doolittle has been on batters this year. But his blown save on Saturday was a recent sign that — twenty-six straight scoreless innings aside — he’s still just human, after all. Another was the walk that set the stage for Davis, after two piddling hits and an easy punch-out: Austin Jackson fouled off three 2-and-2 offers, then took two straight balls — the lefty’s first walk in five weeks, and second of the year. In 27 prior at-bats that reached a 2-2 count, Doolittle had allowed a single and no walks, with 14 Ks.

Still another reminder that sudden reversals do happen was on deck while Davis batted: Ian Kinsler hit a 3-run homer Saturday with two out in the 9th, dodging a 2-1 loss.

• Doolittle did have one other disaster this year, right before his scoreless streak: Tied 8th in Houston, four batters faced, four hits, all scored. And Mike Trout got him for a tying two-run homer in the 9th, back on April 15.
• Phil Coke, my favorite target, kept Detroit’s ship from sinking utterly in the 8th, after the A’s had cracked a 1-1 tie with three runs, and Joba Chamberlain foundered. Coke came in with two on and no outs, and got two grounders for three outs.
• There’s just one Tigers walk-off from 3 runs down in the database — the only one for any team with two outs and two strikes: in 1988, Alan Trammell off Cecilio Guante.
• Scott Kazmir tamed the Tigers for five innings, but a hip condition forced him out mid-batter in the 6th, lead run on second, after Miggy’s homer tied it. Dan Otero cleaned that up.
• So, what’s the story behind Otero? Waived twice in two days last March, he now has a 2.30-ish ERA in over 100 career innings. Super ground-ball rate, but doesn’t seem to be a submariner.
• For Tigers fans, nothing that comes before October can erase the sting of last year’s ALCS stunners. But doing this, to this team, while the champs were getting humbled in Chicago … that’ll hold us through the next slump, at least.

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@Padres 1, Reds 0 — Tommy Medica drew a leadoff walk from Mat Latos in the 5th, then stole second, moved up aggressively on a fly to left-center, and scored on Everth Cabrera’s flyout. Medica also had the only hit against Latos, who retired the other 21 he faced. Jesse Hahn didn’t go deep in this one, but he’s allowed just 3 runs in his last four games, with 31 Ks in 24 IP.

• Fourth time the Pads have ever won with just one hit — second this month.
• Latos gets just the 12th loss since 1914 allowing no more than one run, one hit and one walk in 7+ IP.
• Top of the 1st: Billy Hamilton singled, then thrown out by Yasmani Grandal. Todd Frazier walked, then doubled off by Cameron Maybin on Joey Votto’s fly.

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@Los Angeles 1, Cleveland 0 — This must have felt pretty sweet: Clint Robinson‘s first big-league hit was a pinch-single with two out in the 7th, plating the only run on a nicely worked full count — right after they had IBB’d the gimpy Hanley, also coming off the bench. Robinson is 29, with an OPS over .900 in the high minors, but has gotten only eight pinch-hit at-bats in two looks so far. I hope he gets a chance to stick, somewhere. Clint Barmes won’t last forever, and there should always be a Clint.

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Going back to Mike Napoli’s homer off Masahiro Tanaka Saturday … The last starting pitcher to surrender a lead-changing home run with two out in the 9th: Stephen Strasburg in Wrigley, last August 22 — and, like Tanaka, on his 112th pitch. Strasburg took a 4-1 lead to the 9th, gave up two hits for one run, then a tying 2-run shot to Donnie Murphy. Three other SPs did this since 2009, all in 2011:

• Cliff Lee — 0-2 count, pitch #115, tying solo by Jose Lopez.
• Mike Leake — 2-0 count, pitch #91, tying 2-run shot by Bryan LaHair. (Leake took a minimum-batters one-hitter into the 9th.)
• Clayton Kershaw — 3-2 count, pitch #112, go-ahead solo by Vernon Wells.

None of those four pitchers took the loss, as Tanaka did. Their teams all won; the Dodgers even rallied to get the win for Kershaw.

And while I have the list in front of me … In the last two years alone, Addison Reed has allowed eight lead-changing homers with two out in the 9th or extra innings. Eight! That’s more than the next two guys combined.

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As heard on SportsCenter … On Sunday, Jose Altuve swiped a pair in his fourth straight game — the first such streak since Ray Chapman, in 1917. (Yes, that Ray Chapman.) Altuve also had two or more hits in each game, which Chapman did not — so the streak (for all it’s worth) could be unique. Before 1980, the only ones with 3-game streaks of multiple hits and steals were Chapman and Bert Campaneris — and one of Campy’s games saw both his steals come in the 16th inning.

Among Altuve’s intriguing numbers:

• He’s on a pace of 70 steals and just 6 caught stealing, a 92% success rate. The record rate for 60+ SB is 91%, by Willy Taveras (68-7, 2008).
• His pace of 226 hits would shatter the modern record for a player listed at 5′ 7″ or smaller. (Jose is 5′ 6″.) Only six modern players of such stature have reached 200 hits in a season, led by the 209 of good ol’ Jigger Statz in 1923. (The Cubs in that decade cornered the market on 200-hit fireplugs, with Charlie Hollocher‘s 201 in 1922 and, of course, Hack Wilson‘s 208 in 1930.)
• Alas for Houston, Altuve is on track to score just 80 runs — mighty odd. He doesn’t walk a lot, but he still has a .386 OBP and ranks 5th in MLB in times on base (including errors). Adding his 29 extra-base hits, 36 steals, efficient baserunning (3 CS, 3 outs on base), and batting 1st or 2nd almost every game, it’s puzzling that he has a below-AL-average scoring rate per time on base. But the team splits dispel the mystery. Check these batting averages, starting with Houston’s #3 spot (look away if you’re squeamish) — .236, .198, .212, .225, .224, .216 and .217. That’s a composite .219 for #3-9 — so it’s as if Altuve is leading off for the Padres. Anyway … 80 runs would be the fewest ever in a full schedule for a .370+ OBP and 60+ SB.