A divisional look at this week’s opening series, with mixed matchups classified by best team or who won the set.

NL WEST 

Giants 7, @Phillies 4 (Mon.) — Career-high 11 hits off Ryan Vogelsong, in 3-plus innings — all singles. I’m surprised to find that two others this year alone have yielded 11+ hits with all singles, including 14 by Brandon Maurer on May 9 — the only such outing of 14+ hits in the expansion era. But back to Vogelsong … Just one other start since 1914 with 11+ hits/all singles in 3 IP or less: The Mets’ own Glendon Rusch, in 2001 (2.1 IP).

• The damage against Cliff Lee would have been worse, if not for Cody Asche.

Giants 9, @Phillies 6 (Tues., 14 inn.) — No more is Jonathan Papelbon this year’s gopher-less saves leader.

• Can a guy who chokes up really hit one this far? Shoot, yeah — I remember some that Rusty Staub hit off the third-deck facing in Tiger Stadium.

Giants 3, @Phillies 1 (Wed.) — Oft overlooked in IBB strategy is who will bat if you don’t retire the target. Scoreless with two out in the 9th and a man on second, Jonathan Papelbon tossed four wide to 8th hitter Brandon Crawford — a consistent .240 batter (.241 vs. RHP), career .216 with RISP, .187 with RISP and two out. The goal was two-fold: Get Madison Bumgarner out of the game, and face a pinch-hitter — likely Hector Sanchez (career .246, .231 vs. RHP). But after getting 1-and-2 on Sanchez, Papelbon lost him — which brought up Hunter Pence.

• Since his 2007 debut, Pence is tied for 9th with 15 go-ahead RBI in the 9th inning or later.
• Second game this year with 8+ scoreless innings by both starters.

@Phillies 2, Giants 1 (Thurs.) — Third time’s the charm for Papelbon, saving Cole Hamels’s second straight 2-1 victory.

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NL EAST

Miami 3, @Atlanta 1 (Mon., 10 inn.) — It wasn’t Casey McGehee punishing the IBB to Giancarlo, this time, but Garrett Jones — after McGehee, too, had walked, to push two into scoring position. Julio Teheran and Tom Koehler dueled to a draw over the first seven, and the former fanned 11 Fish to match his best effort. Craig Kimbrel pulled the rug from under Miami’s 9th-inning threat, fireballing out of bags-full with none out. Shae Simmons dug the 10th-inning hole, and Fredi Gonzalez let him pitch to Jones, trusting the 4-for-39 he’d rung up on lefties so far. But Jones finessed an away fastball right back through the middle for a pair — the game’s lone hit in 18 ribby spots — and Steve Cishek closed the book.

• Atlanta’s top three all wore oh-for-5’s. Jarrod Saltalamacchia homered for Miami’s first run, but whiffed in four other trips, stranding seven.
• My favorite part about this pretzel force by Andrelton: He really wanted to turn it.

Miami 6, @Atlanta 5 (Tues.) — Major concern in Mike Minor’s trendline: 69 hits and 36 ER in his last 42.1 IP. Some bad luck, maybe, with BAbip over .400, but he’s also served up 14 HRs in 86 IP this year.

@Atlanta 6, Miami 1 (Wed.) — Another unique pitching line, this by Ervin Santana: 7.1 innings, 6 hits, 1 run, 3 walks, 10 Ks (or more). There are just two others with 7.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 10+ K — Garrett Richards this month, and CC Sabathia last May. To leave mid-inning when so effective is a very modern thing.

• Freddie Freeman’s first homer in 22 games was a 3-run back-breaker. Can you recall any hitter with such an uppercut when going the other way? Has Freddie always swung that way? His oppo power is up a bit this year.
• Looks like a bobble at first, but this is actually a tremendous play by Jason Heyward. And so is this one: Casey McGehee, you’ve been had.

Miami 3, @Atlanta 2 (Thurs.) — Craig Kimbrel’s two wild pitches put strikeout victim Marcel Ozuna on second with one out in the 9th, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s third hit broke the 2-2 tie on a 2-2 count. Henderson Alvarez went 8 innings to help the Fish take three of four in this set, finding a groove after Chris Johnson’s early 2-run homer to notch his first win (and first QS) in six tries against Atlanta.

• Batters facing Kimbrel with two strikes are 5 for 100 this year, with 68 Ks. This was the third time in 449 career strikeouts that the batter reached on a wild pitch, and the first time it cost him a run.

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Nationals 7, @Rockies 2 (Mon.) — Any Tom, Dick, or Ian Desmond can get five hits in a game, especially in Coors Field. But Danny Espinosa is the first player known to have a triple, double, GIDP, IBB and at least 2 RBI.

Nationals 7, @Rockies 4 (Tues.) — Adam LaRoche shrugged off a 7-for-54 skid with a tie-breaking 3-run homer against freshly-summoned Rex Brothers — his first bomb in July, and first against a southpaw since last May (180+ PAs).

@Rockies 6, Nationals 4 (Wed.) — Eleven strikeouts and no walks by Jorge De La Rosa, the 5th such effort ever in Coors Field. There have been 37 walk-free starts with 10+ Ks this year, eight short of last year’s record. There were 21 such games in 2006, eight in 1993, and one in 1977. Thirty-four such games in the majors from 1914 through 1945; Randy Johnson rang up 36 all by himself.

• De La Rosa is 42-14 in 71 career starts in Coors Field. The rest of his career splits:
  — In Coors: 4.06 ERA … 21.0% SO … .259 BA/.731 OPS;
  — Elsewhere: 5.02 ERA … 17.8% SO … .265 BA/.787 OPS.
• Comparing their Coors ERA to their overall ERA:
  — De La Rosa: 4.06 in Coors/4.64 total;
  — The other 17 pitchers with 30+ Coors starts: 5.67 in Coors/4.66 total (unweighted average).
• Ben Paulsen’s career has begun with three straight games reaching safely twice or more, one shy of Todd Helton’s Rockies record.
• Failing to score from second on a double (as happened to Josh Rutledge in the 5th) isn’t as rare as I had thought. It’s happened 12 times this year out of 384 doubles with a man on second base only.

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NL CENTRAL

@Brewers 5, Reds 2 (Mon.) — Among the 27 hitters with 200+ PAs in the leadoff spot this year, Carlos Gomez ranks 1st with .549 slugging, .929 OPS, and (surprise!) .380 OBP.

• Was there a problem with the lights in Miller Park? Chris Heisey had all kinds of trouble locating the spheroid in left field.
• Undrafted players who take three full years to get past rookie ball typically don’t reach the majors. And if Joey Votto were healthy, Donald Lutz wouldn’t be here.

@Brewers 4, Reds 3 (Tues.) — Well, that’s just fine, Jonathan Lucroy. We still think your other walk-off blast was more impressive.

Sixth game in Crew history scoring 4+ runs all on solo homers. Someone hit a pair in five of them; my favorite is 1982, with 43-year-old Gaylord Perry yielding go-ahead shots in the 9th and the 11th, to Cecil Cooper and Robin Yount, who had gone back-to-back off him in the 1st — could that be the last time a player homered off the same pitcher in the 1st and the 11th? — but Seattle rallied to win, on the second homer of the game (and last of his career) by the immortal Paul Serna. One day later, Buck Rodgers was fired, and the Brewers became Harvey’s Wallbangers.

• Betcha wouldn’t guess who hit the last walk-off homer in a game wherein his team scored all its runs on 4 or more solo shots. (Ironically, that made a winner of the only other pitcher off whom that chap has hit a game-winning blast.)
• Jimmy Nelson tied a Milwaukee record by hitting three batters, including his last two in a row to force home a run. It’s been nine years since anyone plunked four in a game — those being Livan Hernandez and his brother, El Duque, a few weeks apart.
• Second game in searchable history wherein both starters went 6 IP on 4 hits and 3 runs, all earned.
• Brutal baserunning by Zack Cozart: Soft liner right at the second baseman, doubled off.
• There are five players in MLB history with a listed weight of 295 or more, and two of them pitched back-to-back for Cincinnati Tuesday.
• Zach Duke whiffed the side in the 8th, Todd Frazier and Jay Bruce on three pitches each. While two-thirds of Milwaukee’s ace bullpen corps have come back to earth, Duke’s still on the ride of his life: 1.11 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in 41 innings, fanning foes at thrice his prior career rate, and handling both sides with almost equal aplomb (27/4 K/W ratio against both righties and lefties). He’s 9th in WPA among all relievers, 3rd among non-closers.

@Brewers 5, Reds 1 (Wed.) — Kyle Lohse is 15-for-21 in quality starts — 6th in NL total, 10th in percentage among full-timers.

• Jay Bruce gambled and lost.
• Cincy was knocking on the door when the Break came; now six straight losses.
• Pop quiz: Mark Reynolds has 218 home runs. Of the 273 others with as many HRs, who has the highest career ratio of strikeouts to homers?

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Dodgers 5, @Pirates 2 (Mon.) — Even with this solid effort, Hyun-jin Ryu has the largest career ERA difference between foes at .500+ (4.47) and sub-.500 teams (2.26), by percentage, among actives with 20+ starts in that first split.

• The box score illustrates an ongoing problem for the Buccos: Two hits for 3rd hitter McCutchen, while spots #1, 2 and 4 did nada in 12 trips. Their cleanup spot ranks 27th or below in all the slashes, and their #1-2 spots combined are 12th in NL OPS.
• Since 2013, J.P. Howell ranks 4th in OPS, 2nd in SLG among all with 60+ IP. Hasn’t allowed a homer in 43 IP since last September, 6th-longest active streak by innings. (Teammate Brandon League is one with a longer streak, as are Royals Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera, number one with 65 IP. Howell’s 1.04 ERA is best among the top 12 active homerless streaks.)
• WAR by LA’s hitters: Puig 3.4, Gordon 2.4, Hanley 2.2, Justin Turner 2.0, Van Slyke 1.9, Uribe 1.8, Gonzalez 0.9, Rojas 0.7, … Crawford 0.3, Kershaw 0.3 (as hitter), Ellis 0.3, Greinke, Ryu and Beckett 0.2 (as hitters), Haren 0.1 (as hitter), … Ethier -0.4, Kemp -1.4. (Combined 1.6 for Hanley, Gonzalez, Crawford, Ethier and Kemp.)
• No shock that Dee Gordon and Billy Hamilton rank #1-2 in infield hits this year, and also in BA on infield balls among the 150 players with at least 100 such ABs. Dee’s 39-26 edge in such hits is mainly from a 195-137 bulge in such ABs over Hamilton, who has driven the ball much more than expected.

@Pirates 12, Dodgers 7 (Tues.) — Tied in the 6th, two out, bags full: How could Don Mattingly let a righty face Gregory Polanco?

• Base thieves are 24-3 in the career of lefty Tony Watson. But when Dee Gordon got to first as the tying run with one out in the 8th, he stayed put, and Pittsburgh pulled away in the bottom half.
• Chris Perez walked four in a row in the 8th — his first game ever with 4 walks.
• Ike Davis left the building! First time in almost 100 PAs since June 9. Davis averaged one homer per 23 PAs in 2010-12, but less than half as often in the last two years. Still draws a lot of walks, so his OBP is almost the same as his SLG in that span.
• Josh Beckett’s first start since a short DL stint, and these gopher pitches don’t look good. He left after 11 outs; not counting the pitcher, six of 16 Bucs hit safely, five for extra sacks.

@Pirates 6, Dodgers 1 (Wed.) — Francisco Liriano’s first game this year with 7+ IP and two runs or less. He had 11 last season, seven of them scoreless. He walked two in the 1st inning, but none thereafter. My man Josh Harrison started at third for the ailing Pedro Alvarez, and capped the Pirates’ 4-run 1st with a two-out, 2-run double; he’s 15 for 30 this year with RISP and two out, and 13 for 30 hitting the first pitch.

• Russell Martin keeps making Brian Cashman look bad. He’s on track for a second straight year over 4 WAR, and rates 5th in catcher WAR since 2013, all for $15 million. Meanwhile, the 2013 Yanks’ replacement-level backstop corps inspired the whopping deal to Brian McCann. This post-hoc judgment isn’t wholly fair, but it’s a fact that Martin’s 7-year average of 2.9 WAR through 2012 is the same as McCann’s 8-full-year average before this season.
• Dan Haren had a 2.03 ERA in April, but 5.32 in his last 16 starts.
• Dropping two of three in series with the Bucs and Cards, LA fell to 16-25 against teams at .500 or better.

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@Cubs 6, Padres 0 (Tues.) — In his second outing, Kyle Hendricks blanked the Pads on 3 hits over seven innings, and fanned the side in the 7th. Why was he lifted after 83 pitches?

• Anthony Rizzo slammed two more, now the NL sole leader with 25 HRs. Bill Nicholson’s the only Cubs left-hander to win a live-ball homer crown, in 1943-44.

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AL EAST

Orioles 4, @Angels 2 (Mon.) — Matt Shoemaker caged all the Birds but Adam Jones, who jacked two tie-breaking 2-run shots. Shoemaker shucked aside 15 straight O’s after the first bomb, and punched out 10 of 22 in all. But Jones timed a slider in the 6th……..

• Among all relievers since 2009, Darren O’Day ranks 3rd in WAR — and #2 rode off into the sunset last season. O’Day has been consistent in a volatile field: He alone has notched at least 2 WAR five times since 2009. Mariano had four, and Craig Kimbrel’s on track to join Mo; Koji Uehara has three (counting this year), and a few others may yet join him. Here are the top 10 in reliever WAR for 2010: Joakim Soria, Daniel Bard, Hung-Chih Kuo, Brian Wilson, Carlos Marmol, Clay Hensley, Chris Perez, Evan Meek, Mariano, and Billy Wagner.

Orioles 4, @Angels 2 (Tues.) — Miguel Gonzalez needed one more out to notch 8 scoreless innings for the first time. But this is the wrong guy to have standing between you and a milestone.

• After averaging 5.5 IP in his first 13 starts this year, Gonzalez has gone 7+ three straight games (8, 8, 7.2) — his first such streak, and the second by an Oriole this year.

@Angels 3, Orioles 2 (Wed.) — If we’ve seen it once … The intentional walk, then the unintentional walk, and then the really-didn’t-wanna-walk-him walk.

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Rays 7, @Cardinals 2 (Tues.) — Tampa’s 5-run 5th fueled their 6th straight win, and featured both the first bases-loaded walk since 2012 by Adam Wainwright and his first error since the start of that year. Waino had safely handled 123 straight chances.

• Jake Odorizzi squeezed home a run in his first pro time at bat. Joe Maddon had him batting 8th, and Rays were on the corners with one out in the 2nd; Jake took a strike, then placed well enough for James Loney to read & ramble home.
• Wouldn’t you know it, though: Wainwright whiffed Odorizzi to end the 4th with two out and two in scoring position, and .313-batting 9th hitter Kevin Kiermaier on deck.

Rays 3, @Cardinals 0 (Wed.) — Seven straight, 16 of 20, and 25-11 since June 11 (16-3 on the road), now 4.5 games behind the 2nd wild card. Friday brings a premier matchup, David Price vs. Jon Lester.

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Rangers 4, @Yankees 2 (Mon.) — Despite his comedy of errors, it was shaping up as Shane Greene’s third sharp turn, but that crumbled quickly in the 6th. With two out and two on, Greene at 110 pitches after an uncompetitive walk, Joe Girardi let him have the tying run. Greene ate that, Matt Thornton served the leftovers, and the resurgent Miles Mikolas retired his last eight batters into the 8th to earn his first win as a starter.

• A propos of nothing … Fewest total bases per hit among 2014 qualifiers: #162-Ben Revere, 1.20; #163-Derek Jeter, 1.18. The Captain’s prior career average was 1.43 TB/H — a respectable 17th among the 25 modern 300-hit men — and he averaged 1.36 in 2012, his last full season.

@Yankees 2, Rangers 1 (Tues., 14 inn.) — Two riddles solved in one night: What’s a slog in the middle, but a Chase on both ends? And whatever happened to Jeff Francis, unseen since the Yanks acquired him on July 11?

New York’s good news: Chase Whitley opened with six scoreless innings, despite five leadoff knocks and a one-out double. The bad: They couldn’t dent Nick Martinez, whose best result in 11 prior starts was one run in 6 IP. Four Yankee hits in regulation — two singles in the 1st, split by Derek Jeter’s GDP; a two-out single in the 5th; and Jeter’s one-out double in the 9th, that threat dying on another GDP, by Carlos Beltran.

• Headley’s last walk-off hit was a home run in 2012, the year of his RBI title.
• The last Yankee PH to bat four times in a game had more dramatic contributions, but no walk-off.
• Yankee debut winners in the last three years: Masahiro Tanaka and Jeff Francis.
• Here’s the only time the Yanks were shut out in the Bronx in a game of at least 13 innings: Danny Cater homered off Pete Mikkelsen in the 15th, and ChiSox closer Eddie Fisher got the side in order — including PH Whitey Ford — to finish his six-inning stint. (Fisher that year had 10 games of 4+ IP and set a record with 165.1 IP in relief that year, since passed by Mike Marshall, Bill Campbell and Bob Stanley, and placed a strong 4th in the MVP race.)
• One other game in the new Stadium went scoreless to the 8th. And that’s the only other time that two starters went 5+ scoreless in the new park.
• Sure, I’ll take credit for Jeter’s double. That kept him from tying his career-long streak of 16 games without an extra-bagger. Oh, and it broke his tie with one Lou Gehrig for the franchise doubles lead, #535. Bernie’s 3rd, Donnie Baseball 4th, Bambino 5th, The Clipper 6th. Derek needs 22 more XBH to tie DiMag for 4th on that list.

@Yankees 2, Rangers 1 (Wed., 5 inn., “rain”) — Only Yu Darvish knows if he was unnerved by the mystery balk that tied it in the 3rd, but Brett Gardner homered later in the at-bat. And only The Shadow knows if the tarp troubles were entirely natural.

@Yankees 4, Rangers 2 (Thurs.) — Through June, the only Yankees with at least three straight quality starts this year were Masahiro Tanaka (now likely lost for the year) and Michael Pineda, who hasn’t pitched since April. But recent rotation adds David Phelps, Shane Greene and Brandon McCarthy have a 2.18 ERA and 6-1 record in 10 starts this month, while Hiroki Kuroda has averaged 7 IP and 2 ER in four outings.

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Red Sox 14, @Blue Jays 1 (Mon.) — Six of the last 11 times that Toronto yielded at least 14 runs, Boston did the bashing — and five of the last nine in Rogers Centre. Since 2010, the Red Sox are 24-16 up North, scoring 6.1 runs per game.

• 8 runs off Brad Mills in 2-plus innings — first 8-run yield by a reliever in less than 5 IP this year. The last to do it in 2 IP or less was … a sad reminder that sic transit gloria.
• “Oh, oh-oh oh-oh, ohhh / You don’t have to go-oh…” But go (deep) he did, twice — the prophetically hotter-than-Jamaica Big Papi, that is — generating one solid minute’s worth of trots.
• “Brockholt!“
• If there’s one thing I’m looking forward to after this season, it’s what John Lackey will say about the prospect of having to play for the minimum salary next year — due to a deal that he agreed to, and which will have paid him $80 million in return for maybe 5.0 WAR.

@Blue Jays 7, Red Sox 3 (Tues.) — It’s not just that Jake Peavy hasn’t won since April 25; it’s that the Sawx have lost his last nine starts, scoring 20 runs in all. Jake gave them five quality starts in that span, but not here.

@Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 4 (Wed.) — My blogging is about to get more thrilling than Game Seven of a World Series. Hey, it’s working for Big Papi — 4 HRs in three games since his prediction, totaling 8 RBI. His best streak is four straight, in 2001 with Minnesota.

• Logan Darnell, Jason Lane, Matt West, and now Aaron Sanchez: Perfect pitching debuts this year of 2+ innings. Others in Toronto history: Aaron Loup, Steve Davis, Jimmy Key.

@Blue Jays 8, Red Sox 0 (Thurs.) — Marcus Stroman gave up his first hit in the top of the 7th, so attention turned to Juan Francisco’s cycle bid. He tripled, homered and singled in his first three trips, but flied to left in the 7th, his last chance. Only two Blue Jays have hit for the cycle, Kelly Gruber and Jeff Frye, both while playing third base.

• Toronto’s first 3-win streak since early June, when they built a 6-game bulge. They’ll gain on one of their main quarries today, as Baltimore takes on Seattle late; an M’s loss would slip the Jays and Yanks into the second wild card.
• Francisco has just one 4-hit game in his career, and none with 3 extra-base hits.
• Toronto’s only no-hitter was on the road, by Dave Stieb in 1990.
• Stroman’s pitch count was a bit high to let him chase the no-no, anyway. Shane Victorino singled to start the 7th, on the 94th delivery. Ironically, Stroman needed just three more pitches to get through that inning.

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AL CENTRAL

Tigers 4, @Diamondbacks 3 (Mon.) — Joe Nathan held onto a one-run lead and a Justin Verlander win. Somebody pinch me.

• Matt Stites handled Detroit in the 8th and 9th on six straight groundouts to the left side.

@Diamondbacks 5, Tigers 4 (Tues.) — Miguel Montero’s two-run single turned the game around with two out in the 8th — on 0-and-2 from a lefty, with two out — after three walks by Detroit’s atrocious bullpen. The only hope remaining was that Addison Reed would have to face Miguel Cabrera — but with Victor Martinez having been lifted for a pinch-runner, Reed threw Miggy four straight balls, then put Don Kelly to bed.

• The Doug Fister trade wouldn’t look so bad if Ian Krol had been useful, but he’s been awful.

Tigers 11, @Diamondbacks 5 (Wed.) — Miggy’s first home run (that counted) in July gave him 80 RBI, and brought some breathing room to a downfalling pitching staff.

• It’s hard to picture Mark Trumbo making a diving catch, but I think he was right to try in this case — bags full, two out, Tigers already up by three. Playing safe would score two runs, anyway.
• Hot at last: Austin Jackson has thrived since moving back to the leadoff spot on July 1, hitting .362 with 17 runs in 19 games.
• Anibal Sanchez has let in 4 runs or more in consecutive starts for just the second time in 59 Bengal outings. He’s yielded at least 6 hits in six straight starts — doesn’t sound like much, but it ties his career long, and he’d never had more than four such in a row with Detroit.
• Oh, yes, I’m glad the Tigers landed Joakim Soria. But oh, what a tangled web we weave, when we won’t pay market rate to re-sign Joaquin Benoit.

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@White Sox 3, Royals 1 (Mon.) — Precisely what the punchless Royals needed: A date with Chris Sale, the AL’s least-hittable starter, who’d held them to a run or less in four of five meetings since 2013. KC did manage 7 hits in Sale’s seven stanzas, but one scoring chance was snuffed out by a pretty relay peg from Alexei Ramirez, and when two Royals reached with one down in the 6th, Sale pocketed the next pair, en route to a routine 8 Ks.

• Adam Dunn had Chicago’s big hit — his 9th two-run single in four ChiSox seasons.
• KC’s 7th straight game without a homer — third such streak this year, unmatched even once by other AL teams.

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Cleveland 8, @Minnesota 2 (Tues.) — Carlos Santana hit two doubles and his 15th homer.

@Minnesota 3, Cleveland 1 (Wed.) — Danny Santana’s 3-for-3 and 2 runs from the #9 spot helped Minny take the rubber game. Cleveland wanted more than one win from this set, to keep their July surge going; but their 31 road losses are tied for AL’s most.

• Danny Santana has hit .325/.810/125 OPS+ in 42 games since his May promotion, splitting time at CF (23 games) and SS (18). Nine modern players have logged 30+ games at both positions in a season, but none hit over .310 BA (Bob Bailor, 1977), .782 OPS (Jose Hernandez, 1998) or 107 OPS+ (Cesar Tovar, 1968).

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AL WEST

Astros 3, @Athletics 2 (Tues., 12 inn.) — L.J. Hoes homered and made a one-pitch winner out of Darin Downs, who faced down Brandon Moss with two on in the home 11th. Win Probability rates Downs a hair behind this year’s two other two one-pitch wins, for reasons I can’t understand; all three entered a tie game, but only Downs faced a walk-off situation.

• Jose Altuve’s successful theft string was overturned after 28 in a row. In 57 games between times caught, he hit .361/.857, and the Astros went 27-30.
• Brett Oberholtzer held Oakland to 2 runs in 7 innings, without a single strikeout — the third such start in MLB this year, after four last season. There were 22 such games in 1991, and 42 in 1978.
• Just for fun … The last game with no strikeouts by either side was in 1985; the last with no strikeouts or walks was in 1924. On a somber note, here’s a 2-hit, no-whiff shutout in the final game of Don Wilson, who once shared the 9-inning record of 18 strikeouts.

@Athletics 9, Astros 7 (Wed.) — Yoenis Cespedes mashed 5 runs’ worth of homers, then mashed his thumb and gave way to Craig Gentry, who drove in their last run and made two sliding catches in left field. Jim Johnson’s best contribution in weeks was turning a blowout into a save chance for Sean Doolittle.

@Athletics 13, Astros 1 (Thurs.) — Brandon Moss batted twice with bases full and slammed once, his third in nine ABs this year. With their latest eruption, Oakland seized MLB’s sole scoring lead at 5.04 R/G, and topped the 10 runs’ backing in Jeff Samardzija’s 8 losses this year.

• The A’s have scored 10 or more in 15 games, six more than any other AL club.
• No one’s hit four slams in a season since Albert had five in 2009.

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Mets 3, @Mariners 1 (Tues.) — Defense made the difference in results for young starters Jacob deGrom and Erasmo Ramirez, who both worked seven sharp innings. M’s center fielder James Jones took a bad route and a rookie risk, and turned a simple single into a ribby triple for Travis d’Arnaud, which sparked New York’s 2-run 2nd, their only real threat against Ramirez. Called up for a spot start, Ramirez showed a veteran’s changeup, and twice fanned four straight Mets while tying his career best with 10 Ks. deGrom also looked poised beyond his years or resume, dialing up whiffs of Cano and Seager to freeze a man on second in the 1st, then stranded the tying run on third from one out in the 5th, his only frame with more than one man reaching. Lucas Duda abused a 3-1 fastball in the 8th, building a little cushion with his 15th HR, and Jenrry Mejia started a game-ending double play that — in light of recent Mets mound stumbles — reminded one old-timer of the second Dick Van Dyke Show opening, in which the star sidestepped the ottoman.

• After going winless in his first 7 starts, deGrom has won four of his last six, yielding 7 runs over those 40 innings. His 8-start streak without a homer is the longest by a Met within the last six years, and tied with Adam Wainwright for the longest active skein.
• Ramirez’s five best starts (by Game Score) have all been Seattle losses, totaling 5 runs in 35 IP by Erasmo, but 5 runs scored by the M’s.

Mets 3, @Mariners 2 (Wed.) — What started with 20 straight Mariners dispatched in a Bartolo Colon showcase, came down to a customary game of inches for two teams used to low-scoring affairs. Brad Miller missed a 3-run shot by maybe six of those tiny measures, hitting high off the barrier in the deepest notch of right-center. That cut the lead to 3-1, and finished Colon’s work with the tying runs in scoring position and one out in the 8th. Pinch-hitter Willie Bloomquist poked a dying liner towards the middle and seemed at first to beat the throw as another run crossed, but video proved otherwise, and Jeurys Famiglia punched out Endy Chavez to end the inning. Mejia worked into trouble in the 9th, but powered through for his 13th save in 15 tries.

• James Jones has a strong arm, they say. I don’t see it: Bad read, bad setup, bad peg. He has one assist in 63 starts.
• New York’s run in the 1st came from a 4-pitch leadoff walk to Eric Young and Cano’s late tag on a pickoff/caught stealing. If the review standard was preponderance of evidence, Young would be out — but there was not enough to overturn the safe call.
• Young reached three times and scored twice. His limitations are obvious, and have put him in a reserve role lately. But he’s scored in 50% of his times on base, tops among NL regulars. Few would have scored on this hit — nor would Young have done if Ackley made a better throw.