I meant to cover all the games, but the ‘Stros wouldn’t stop hitting….

Astros 16, @Mariners 9: The dam burst. By the 2nd inning, Houston had 9 runs, 10 hits and 2 HRs, all more than any of their first 7 games, and equaling their runs total from their last 6 games. A home run in the 4th by the indomitable Jose Altuve gave him three-fourths of the cycle, and gave Houston a 13-0 lead and their highest run count since 2010 (when they scored 18 with no dingers).

• Water, water, everywhere … Every Astro starter had a hit and either a run or an RBI — except Brett Wallace, who donned the golden sombrero and now has 17 whiffs, 1 walk and 1 single in 22 trips this year.
• Houston had 40 total bases in regulation for the first time since 2000.
• 5 Astro homers for the first time since this 2009 classic — a 6-5 loss, with Cincy’s Justin Lehr allowing all 5 HRs, 11 hits and a walk in 5 innings — but just the 5 runs. (Lehr’s career lasted just 2 more games.) Jeff Keppinger hit 2 HRs for the only time in his career. In between two HRs, Hunter Pence made the first out at 3rd base, trying to stretch a double.
• Chris Carter broke out, as in, 6-2-4-3 with 2 HRs. His first 7 games: 3 hits, 5 total bases, 1 run, no RBI, 1 walk, 13 Ks.
• Houston’s latest Clemens vultured the win in his MLB debut, allowing 5 runs and 3 HRs in 4 innings. It’s just the 3rd relief win this century yielding 5+ runs. Also the first debut relief win since at least 1916 with 5+ runs allowed.
• Brandon Maurer was strafed for 6 runs again in his 2nd career start. He’s the first M’s starter knocked out in the 1st inning since 2008, when Carlos Silva got lit for 7 quick hits and was relieved … by R.A. Dickey, who logged 5.1 innings charged with no runs. (Three days later, Dickey notched 5.2 scoreless relief innings. He’s the only pitcher since 1994 with consecutive no-run relief stints of 5+ IP.)
• Lost in the carnage, Mike Morse tied for the MLB lead with his 6th HR. Morse’s earliest HR in past years was team game #20; he finished with 31 that year.
• Jesus Montero: 4 singles in 30 trips, no walks, no runs, 1 RBI, 0-for-5 against base-thieves.
• Raul Ibanez is the 5th Mariner to HR after his 40th birthday. Griffey, Sr. is on that list, but not Junior, who went homerless in his final year.

Athletics 9, @Angels 5: Sixth straight win for Oakland. After the Halos grabbed the lead in the 6th, Kevin Jepsen came into the 7th with 2 out and a man aboard. Burgle, base-on-balls, blast; bingle, bomb, ballgame.

• Jepsen has walked 12% of first batters in his career. Last year’s AL average was under 8%.
• They’re 2-5, the ace is out a month, the speedy SS has a bum heel, and the best news around their megamillions cleanup man is that he was “warmly welcomed” in the home opener. What that clip doesn’t tell you is that once the cheering stopped, he whiffed on 3 pitches with the bags full and no outs, and the next man DP’d. Hamilton with RISP is 1 for 11 with 5 Ks.
• Albert was once a great baserunner. But last year he led the AL with 16 outs on the bases, and now he has plantar fasciitis. So this is an all-around bonehead play — bad read, bad risk, with a man ahead of him, no outs and trailing by 4.

@Tigers 7, Jays 3: This is how Miggy rolls: You think he’s not clicking, then suddenly he has 10 RBI, 8 Runs and 11-for-28 in 7 games.

• Torii Hunter is a “Lou Whitaker All-Star”: Detroit’s new RF had 3 knocks to reach 2,000 career, averaging 149 hits over the past 12 years but with a high of 172. He has about 48 career WAR, and 11 seasons with 3+ WAR, but a high of 5.8. There are 126 modern players with at least 10 years of 3+ WAR. All but 8 of them had at least one 6-WAR season, and 108/126 had at least 2 such years.

Braves 3, @Marlins 2: J-Up couldn’t clear Miami’s green acres in CF, settling for an RBI double. But rookie Evan Gattis found a slightly shorter path and did what cleanup men(?!?) ought, giving Kris Medlen a 2-0 lead before he had to throw a pitch. Medlen handed a 2-run lead to Eric O’Flaherty in the 8th, but the southpaw opened with a 5-pitch walk of Austin Kearns. He got to 3rd on outs, and after the obligatory IBB of Giancarlo, Placido Polanco’s hit trimmed the lead to the bone.

• What’s the look that Gattis flashed to the dugout after his swing — “shucks-I-just-missed-it”, or “shucks-I’m-good”?
• Another bad leadoff walk by Kimbrel, to a man with 12 pro HRs in over 3,000 PAs. Of course, the Fish can’t get out of their own way right now, so the sac bunt try went for a pop-DP, and even a 3-1 count can’t help Adeiny Hechavarria.
• Miami’s scored 9 runs in their 7 losses.

Yankees 14, @Indians 1: Dunno what turned the key, but Cano is locked in. The Bombers fired at will, hitting 5 HRs and 6 doubles. After Carlos Carrasco left in the 4th, Brett Myers took one for the team — 5.1 IP, 11 hits, 7 runs.

• Andy Pettitte has started 258 Yankee wins in the regular season, trailing only Whitey Ford’s 297. Counting Houston and the postseason, Andy’s started 329 wins; CC’s next among actives with 245.

@Royals 7, Twins 4: I feel for Mike Pelfrey. I’d like to believe that a low-K pitcher can still succeed. But this is his stuff: Five straight first-pitch strikes to start the game; all five wound up with hits. He can’t miss bats. Last year’s 2-strike MLB averages were .178 BA, .517 OPS and 40% Ks; Pelf’s career marks are .226, .626 and 29%. His career K rate is 12.8% of batters, 7th-lowest of 165 actives with 500+ IP.

Tuesday, Pelfrey threw 62 pitches in 2 innings, 43 strikes, and got 4 swing-and-misses — three straight from Jeff Francoeur, which almost doesn’t count. He didn’t walk anyone or allow a home run; his ratio of home runs to hits is lower than any active pitcher with 500 innings except Mariano. But a man with no strikeout pitch in today’s game walks the tightrope every inning.

• Greg Holland is officially struggling. With a 3-run lead, he gave a walk with 1 out, another with 2 outs on 4 pitches to slap hitter Darin Mastroianni, loading the bags before whiffing Joe Mauer. He’s faced 20 men and 11 have reached, including 6 walks.
• KC is 5-3, but they’re last in the bigs with 2 HRs, one by Alcides Escobar. They won’t hit .382 with RISP all year.

@Cubs 6, Brewers 3: John Axford‘s still loose, and no inning is safe. The demoted closer got the last out of the 7th in a tie game, but started the 8th with a double and the inning unraveled. After a sac, an IBB (more on those) and another 4-pitch walk, Alfredo Figaro relieved and let in all 3 runs. Axford has been charged with 9 runs while getting 10 outs.

• Cubs actually did this: Tied in the 8th, after a leadoff double, #6 hitter Welington Castro sacrificed — on a 2-0 pitch from Axford — to bring up Luis Valbuena, career .223 hitter (over 1,000 ABs). Ron Roenicke pondered this and decided, let’s walk Valbuena and set up the DP. Because, you know, Axford’s DP rate nearly 70% of league average, and he’s doing so well with men on base lately….
• Speaking of demoted closers, Carlos Marmol got the win with a scoreless 8th, recovering after a 2-out triple.

Pirates 6, @D’backs 5: Back-to-back 0-and-2 hits plated 4 in the Bucs’ 5-run 4th. Neil Walker’s well-placed worm-burner turned the lead around and  snapped his own 17-game rib-eye famine dating to last August.

• Walker had gone 14 straight starts with neither Run nor RBI, the longest such streak of the past 2 years.

@Giants 9, Rockies 6: Poor command by Tim Lincecum dug a 6-2 hole for his team. But Juan Nicasio couldn’t stand prosperity, walking 2 weak hitters to start the 6th. Two relievers (and one Coors-style HR) later, the game was tied, with momentum firmly behind the home nine.

• Sergio Romo has retired 15 of 16 batters, with 8 Ks. Only Mike MacDougal (2003) ever had more than 5 saves in his team’s first 8 games.
• Crawford’s 8 career HRs include three 3’s and two slams.
• The last pitcher to draw 2 walks in a game was … Tim Lincecum.
• Lincecum’s MLB rank in Quality Start percentage, from 2008: #2, #2, #29, #18, #117. (That’s out of about 130 pitchers each year with 20+ starts.) He’s 0-for-2 this year.

@Padres 9, Dodgers 3: Mark Kotsay is not only still in the league (I’m sure I’ll get used to it), he’s now 6 for 10 after a go-ahead pinch-double in the 7th. The Friars laid it to rest with a 5-walk, 5-run, 3-hit 8th.

• Luke Gregerson logged the year’s first 1-pitch win, stranding the go-ahead run, then giving way to Kotsay. Since his 2009 debut, Gregerson has the 6th-best strand rate out of 61 pitchers with 100 or more inherited runners.
• Twice in the 9+ years of Petco Park, a player has had a HR, a triple and a steal. Both times, it was Will Venable.

@Phillies 8, Mets 3: After Dillon Gee’s 4-run 2nd, his 3-HR 3rd was a danse macabre, and the Mets had to pay the Phifer.

• John Buck’s blast off Lee made him the first Mets catcher to homer in 4 of the first 8 games; Piazza ’01 had 4 HRs over 3 games. For any Mets position, only Strawberry ’87 (5 games, 5 HRs) and Kingman ’76 (5 HRs in 4 games) outpaced Buck’s start. Buck raised his NL-best RBI total to 14, in 26 ABs.