Game Notes savored every crawfish in the Crescent City. Now, let’s shake off that Abita Purple Haze, and get back to those hardball nines!

@Diamondbacks 4, Reds 0 — A 94-pitch shutout … by Josh Collmenter? A 3-hitter, facing the minimum? Pull the other one! 

• Collmenter had gone 8 IP just once before, back in 2011, and had averaged 5.62 IP in 43 prior starts.
• He’s the first this year to get through 9 innings on 27 batters. One other Diamondback has done it; you might remember.
• Two other Arizona pitchers have logged a 9-inning shutout on 94 pitches or less: Miguel Batista (2003) and Curt Schilling (2001).
• Cincy is 14-16 against teams under .500.

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Royals 8, @Blue Jays 6 (10 inn.) — Toronto’s 10th straight win slipped away when Jose Reyes misfired on an easy grounder, as the tying run came in from second with two outs in the 9th. Omar Infante capped KC’s 10th-inning surge with a 2-run single, lined just clear of 3B Steve Tolleson’s reach, and Reyes took strike three with a man aboard to end his night of woe at 0-for-5. The Jays hit three 2-run shots off James Shields, one by Jose Bautista and two (of course) by Edwin Encarnacion. But no other man reached second base, as Shields picked a pair off first.

• Think Billy Butler hasn’t hit in bad luck this year? He’s hitting .238, although his K rate hasn’t changed, and his line drive rate is a tick above the mark that went with his .298 career BA through last year.

Encarnacion has 16 home runs this month, one short of the May record set by Barry Bonds (2001), with two games still to play. Double-E has five multi-homer games this month, one more than his total for 2012-13, when he tallied 78 HRs. Others with 16+ HRs in a calendar month:

• 20 — Sammy Sosa, June ’98
• 18 — Rudy York, Aug. ’37
• 17 — Sosa, August ’01; Albert Belle, Sept. ’95; Willie Mays, Aug. ’65; York, Aug. ’43; Babe Ruth, Sept. ’27
• 16 — Mark McGwire, May ’98 and July ’99; Belle, July ’98; Mickey Mantle, May ’56; Ralph Kiner, Sept. ’49; Hank Greenberg, Sept. ’46

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@Astros 3, Orioles 1 — Brad Peacock fanned 8 without a walk through 6 IP, and George Springer’s 10th smash hit made the difference in the 7th, cashing Jose Altuve’s 3rd knock of the night. Houston’s 6-win streak ties their best of the last four years.

• Preston Guilmet had been near-perfect this year until Altuve and Springer roughed him up, retiring 20 of his first 21 batters, nine by whiff.
• Baltimore’s last in MLB with 125 walks through 52 games. They’re 3rd in AL batting average (.264), but 12th in OBP, and below the scoring average.
• Springer’s last 21 games: .440 OBP, 21 Runs, 24 RBI, 10 HRs; team record 13-8.
• Jose Altuve leads the AL with 76 hits and 19 stolen bases. Just three modern second basemen have turned that double play: Alfonso Soriano in 2002 (209 H/41 SB), Snuffy Stirnweiss in 1944-45 (205/55 and 195/33), and Charlie Gehringer in 1929 (215/27). Altuve is on a pace of 219 hits and 51 steals; Stirnweiss and Craig Biggio are the only other 2Bs with the 200/50 combo.

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@Boston 4, Atlanta 3 — The Sawx scored 3 times in their last two raps, and walked away from Craig Kimbrel on two free passes and an infield play that started stellar, then went south. Mike Minor handed off a 3-1 lead to David Carpenter for the home 8th, but four straight singles quickly tied it up. Kimbrel doused that fire, inheriting bags full for the first time ever and retiring David Ross to hold the tie. But after Atlanta’s scoring threat ran dry in the 9th, Kimbrel walked 9th hitter Jackie Bradley (.205, no HRs) and then Brock Holt, each taking five straight pitches. Xander Bogaerts earned his second straight 3-hit game with a sharp grounder to Chris Johnson’s left; he gloved it with a dive, but his twisting throw to second eluded Tommy La Stella, whose debut game ended on the misplay.

Mark the date: On May 29, 2014, Fredi Gonzalez deigned to use his best pitcher in the biggest moment of the game. But will the skipper judge the outcome by Kimbrel’s escape from that jam, or by his unaccustomed wildness in the 9th? Kimbrel had not walked two in a game this year. His career walk rate is 8.2% in save tries, 12.0% in other outings.

• The vagaries of small relief samples: Carpenter pitched well last year, but his 1.78 ERA was also built on a career-low .263 BAbip. This year, with virtually the same rates of strikeouts, walks and HRs, Carpenter’s ERA is 3.18, thanks to a .387 BAbip.
• Freddie Freeman slaked a 9-game ribby thirst.

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Rangers 5, @Twins 4 — Shin-Soo Choo’s 2-out, 3-run double spared an early bags-full threat from being squandered, and Leonys Martin scored all three times that he reached base, leading Texas to a second straight 3-of-4 road series win.

• Choo drew a walk in his only prior bases-loaded chance this year. Through Wednesday, 226 players had at least three PAs with sacks full, including eight Rangers.
• Rougned Odor’s sac fly scored the deciding run. He’s yet to walk in 55 PAs this year. But he’s been error-free in 15 games at 2B, hasn’t hit a DP ball, is 6-for-16 with RISP, and delivered both his runners from third with less than two outs.

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Mets 4, @Phillies 1 — Zack Wheeler fanned nine, including five straight after a leadoff single, earning his first win in eight starts. Wheeler’s relief set down all eight batters faced, six by strikeout, as the Mets set a season high with 15 Ks. Philly’s four RISP shots all came in the first two frames, with three whiffs and a non-scoring infield hit.

• New York’s third straight win under new hitting coach Lamar Johnson, each with 4 or 5 runs scored. They’re 15-5 when they hit that range; other NL teams were 120-66 with 4-5 runs through Wednesday.

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Tigers 5, @Athletics 4 — Ian Kinsler doubled twice and scored each time, and Victor Martinez plated a pair with his own two-bagger, helping Detroit escape with a split despite another choppy 9th by Joe Nathan. Winner Rick Porcello issued six of Detroit’s nine walks in just 5.2 IP, two more than his prior high. But he gave up just 2 runs, on Nick Punto’s first home run, with a big assist from Ian Krol for stranding three leftovers in the 6th to hold a one-run lead.

• V-Mart raised his AL-best BA to .344, and Kinsler tied the leaders with his 22nd multi-hit game and 19th double.
• Porcello had walked just nine over nine prior starts this year; the Tigers hadn’t given 9 walks since mid-2012, a 12-inning game.
• Sixth regulation win this year while giving 9+ walks; the last three seasons averaged seven such wins.
• Just the second time this century that Detroit won while doling out 9+ walks in regulation.

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Wednesday

@Athletics 3, Tigers 1 — Josh Donaldson dropped a walk-off bomb on Joe Nathan, spoiling a gem by Anibal Sanchez and rewarding Scott Kazmir’s endurance. Sanchez took a 2-hitter and 1-0 lead into the 9th, thanks to Torii Hunter’s full-count blast in the 4th. But Sanchez left with one out, after Coco Crisp slashed a double down the third-base line. Nathan never got an out: After two quick strikes, John Jaso worked the count even, then lined a catchable hit off the glove of Nick Castellanos, putting men on the corners, and Donaldson clobbered the next pitch deep into the seats, just inside the pole.

• Kazmir went 9 IP for the second time ever, the first since July 2006. His 161 starts of less than 9 IP were the 2nd-longest active streak, trailing Jorge De La Rosa’s 170.
• The last two starting pitchers
• Nathan’s 4th blown save this year surpassed his total for each of the last three years; he’s never blown more than 6 in a season. His career 89.4% conversion rate is #1 among the top 50 in career saves.
• Detroit has never won by 1-0 in the Coliseum. Their last three shutout wins there were started by Justin Verlander — in the 2013 and 2012 ALDS, and the last of his 24 wins in 2011.
• House of Horrors: Since 1999, 12 of 44 Detroit losses in the Coliseum have been walk-offs (including postseason), nearly twice their rate of walk-off losses elsewhere.

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@Giants 5, Cubs 0 — Tim Lincecum & Friends held the Cubs hitless into the 7th, pacing a second straight shutout that settled this series of Best vs. Worst MLB records in the fashion foreseen. Pablo Sandoval broke the scoreless tie with a 6th-inning single, extending his rise to .406 with 18 RBI in his last 17 games. Jean Machi stranded the tying runs in the 7th and ran his scoreless string to 20 IP, the longest active streak. Lincecum often trailed in the count, throwing 52 strikes and 44 balls, and he was pinch-hit for in the home 5th despite two outs and none on.

• Despite Lincecum’s 4.18 ERA and 5.5 IP/game, the Giants are 8-3 in his starts.
• All ten prior Giants teams that started 34-19 or better finished with 90+ wins (or the 162-game equivalent). But only three went to the World Series, and only the 1922 club won it all.

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@Blue Jays 3, Rays 2 — When the chips are down, make a pitcher field a bunt. The game had stayed tied since the top of the 2nd, when Wil Myers’s 5th HR snapped a career-worst 20-game drought. In the home 9th, Dioner Navarro singled on the first pitch thrown by Juan Carlos Oviedo. Anthony Gose bunted the next one, looking for a sacrifice. But he placed it just right, up the first-base line. Oviedo had no angle and little hope for an out, but he chucked it into right field, far enough for pinch-runner Kevin Pillar to slide home and seal the 9th straight win for first-place Toronto. Gose did not seem to be inside the 45-foot lane, but the throw didn’t hit him, and he didn’t clearly interfere with the effort of 2B Sean Rodriguez to corral the wild peg.

Jays starter Liam Hendriks went a strong six innings on 3 hits, no walks. Selected off waivers three times last winter, Hendriks started at AAA and went 5-0, 1.48, with 36 Ks and 3 walks, then won his Toronto debut last Friday. His career minor-league stats show a 2.88 ERA and almost 5 K/W, but he went 2-13, 6.06 in three trials with the Twins.

• First walk-off bunt in MLB since last September. First ever against the Rays, and the first for Toronto since April 19, 1978, when Goose Gossage threw away two plays in a row.
• Oviedo (f.k.a. Leo Nunez) hadn’t been charged with a run in 12.2 IP this month.
• Edwin Encarnacion’s 2-run single gave him 44 RBI in 42 games since a ribby-free 12-game start.
• Good night for Gose, a speed-and-defense CF with a .413 OBP in limited play.
• Toronto won at home without an extra-base hit for the first time since last June, second time since April ’09.

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Astros 9, @Royals 3 — George Springer’s sixth homer in six games built a 2-0 lead after just four pitches, sparking the ‘Stros to a fifth straight win and a 6-4 road trip. Nine runs tied Houston’s season high, set on Saturday and matched on Monday. Chris Carter cranked two, including his first 3-run shot since last August. Houston had been hitting .208/.556 with two or more men aboard; MLB average is .249/.696.

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Marlins 8, @Nationals 5 (10 inn.) — Casey McGehee’s 4th hit followed a bags-filling IBB to Giancarlo Stanton, touching off a 4-run frame that redeemed Miami’s blown 4-0 lead. The Fish won consecutive road games (and scored 8+ on the road) for just the second time this year.

• Nice play by Giancarlo, bad read by Ian Desmond.
• This one is all Stanton.

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@Phillies 6, Rockies 3 — With Philly’s last gasp prolonged by an error, left-handers Chase Utley and Ryan Howard delivered the tying and winning knocks off Boone Logan, with Howard tagging his first walk-off homer since 2010.

• Some LOOGy we bought: Lefties are 9 for 25 with 3 HRs off Logan this year, the first of his 3-year, $16.5-million deal with the Rockies. Just why a team would fork over such dough for such a mediocre reliever is anyone’s guess; Logan’s career line was 4.39 ERA, 100 ERA+ at the time of the deal, and 3.51/120 in his last three years.

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@Brewers 8, Orioles 3 — The day after his game-winning pinch-double, Yovani Gallardo pitched around 5 walks and two Nelson Cruz solo socks to hold a 4-3 edge into the 7th, and Khris Davis khlocked a late 3-run shot to khrack open a khlose khontest. Wonderful Will Smith bolstered his claim to the crown of Random Relief Pick-Up of the Year by fanning four of five batters, including Chris Davis with the lead runs aboard.

• Smith has stranded 17 of 20 inherited runners, and held LHBs to 4 singles in 33 ABs, with 18 Ks. He’s tied for the NL lead with 12 holds, and ranks 5th in WPA.
• Khris Davis started slowly this year, but has 5 HRs in his last 9 games, and 20 HRs in 348 career PAs.
• Seven of the 19 HRs by Nelson Cruz have come on the first pitch; he’s 13 for 27 on the first pitch this year. The most known first-pitch HRs in a year is 21, by Vinny Castilla, 1996. At 21 of 40, Castilla also had the highest share of total HRs hit on the first pitch of anyone with 30+ HRs in a season. (Complete pitch counts only go back to 1988.)

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Rangers 1, @Twins 0 — Leonys Martin set up the lone run with a bunt hit and steal, and rookie Luis Sardinas delivered him with a 2-out bingle for his 2nd career RBI. Texas tied Tampa and Atlanta with their third 1-0 win this year.

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@Boston 4, Atlanta 0 — John Lackey and three relievers combined on a 9-hit shutout for the Sawx’ third straight win. Atlanta went 0-6 with RISP and fell to 11-15 in May, averaging 3.2 R/G.

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@Mariners 3, Angels 1 — Catcher Mike Zunino drove in all of Seattle’s runs, and Felix Hernandez settled for his 4th straight win after falling one out short of his first shutout since bagging five in 2012. Zunino’s 2-out hit gave Hernandez a 2-0 lead in the 2nd, and he bumped it to 3-0 with his 7th home run leading off the home 8th. Felix needed one more out to complete a 2-hitter, but hits by Mike Trout and Albert Pujols scored a run and brought in Fernando Rodney.

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@Diamondbacks 12, Padres 6 — The Snakes led 10-zip after 14 batters, and they managed to hang on.

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@Mets 5, Pirates 0 — Bartolo Colon’s fastball assortment threw the Bucs out of rhythm, and the Mets scored in four frames for their only home series win this month, on the eve of an 11-game/11-day road trip. Colon yielded three hits and one IBB through the 7th; his 85 strikes tied for third-most this season, with 35 of those (and seven of his season-high nine Ks) proven by umpirical evidence. When Colon’s tank ran dry in the 8th, Jeurys Familia came on to face Ike Davis as the tying run, and he cleared the jam with one pitch, a neat 4-6-3 double play. Pittsburgh’s 4th shutout loss, all on the road, dropped them to 7-16 away from PNC Park.

• New York’s first run came on a walk, wild pitch, groundout, and another wild pitch with Colon batting. This travesty set up the second tally; Pittsburgh even bungled the appeal play.

David Wright and Lucas Duda homered, raising their home/away HR splits to 22/21 and 23/13 since the Citi Field fences were moved in 2012. This illustrates a great misunderstanding about the Mets’ offensive performance: Their home woes are not based on a lack of home runs.

Through Tuesday, the Mets were 81-110 at home since 2012, with a 645-793 run differential, scoring 3.4 runs per game. On the road, they’re 90-94, with a run differential of 823-812, scoring 4.5 R/G. So there’s a real problem. But their home/away HR split was 144/159, with more at-bats on the road. On the road, they’ve hit 10% more HRs, but scored 32% more runs per game. In that same span, nine teams hit a lower percentage of their total HRs at home than the Mets’ 47.5%, including the Cardinals (1st in home W% since 2012), the A’s (3rd), the Nationals (6th), the Pirates (8th) and the Giants (11th).

The big difference in the Mets’ home/away splits is in batting average: .229 at home since 2012, .255 on the road. In particular:

• RISP: .220 BA/.644 OPS at home, .265/.750 away.
• Two outs and RISP: .210/.632 at home, .258/.742 away.
• Two or three men on: .222/.636 at home, .285/.791 away.

In each of these splits, the Mets’ home BA is below their overall home BA, while their road BA in each split is above their overall road BA. This could represent pressing.

The reconfigured Citi Field still has a chilling effect on balls in the air. On flyballs since 2012, the Mets have hit .239/.846 at home, .251/.904 away. But the data suggest that the Mets are reacting to a perceived shortage of home power by trying harder to drive the ball far in the air. If true, that effort has been counterproductive. Since 2012, they’ve had significantly more strikeouts and more flyballs & popups at home:

• Strikeouts as pct. of PAs — 22.4% home, 20.6% away
• Flyballs & popups, as pct. of non-SO — 30.4% home, 27.9% away

So, the home-power outage has been overstated, yet the park truly is unfriendly to fly balls. What to do? Quit trying to hit home runs. Because Mets line drives have been just as rewarding in Citi Field (.671 BA/1.546 OPS) as elsewhere (.674/1.558).

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Tuesday

Lance Lynn’s first-ever complete game was also the first regular-season shutout of the Yankees by an NL pitcher since 1997, the first year of interleague play, when Mike Grace, Greg Maddux and Dave Mlicki all turned the trick.

Jenrry Mejia got 6 outs for his 4th save. Not since 2005 was there a save of 2+ IP by a Met who logged at least 4 saves in that year. The last such save by an actual Mets “closer” was in 2003, Armando Benitez.