@Indians 6, Mariners 5: A 2-out, 3-run Jake-jack by Jose Lopez tied it in the 8th, and a walk-fueled rally off Brandon League in the 11th culminated in Carlos Santana’s payoff/walk-off that produced Cleveland’s 4th straight win and a 4-game lead in the AL Central.

• League gave just 10 passes in 61 IP last year and hadn’t walked 3 in a game in over 4 years.
• Walks played a key role in all 3 scoring frames for the Indians, who drew 8 in all and are MLB’s runaway leaders in that category, averaging 4.6 per game; San Diego is 2nd at 3.8.
• Enjoy it while it lasts: The Tribe are 9-1 in one-run games, a big reason they’re in 1st place despite being outscored.

Orioles 5, @Royals 3: Here’s how Buck diagrammed it in the pregame meeting: “Tooz will keep us in the game for 6, the bullpen will take over, Jonesy will go long again, KC will help us out a bit, Hardy will donate his bat to the cause, and in the 9th we’ll connect through Johnson City en route to our final destination, first-place solitude.”

• Something tells me tickets for this series have never been hotter.

@Blue Jays 4, Yankees 1: Toronto leapt over New York and onto the postseason running board, behind rookie Drew Hutchison and an abridged version of their usual long-ball assault, scoring all their runs on a pair of pops. New York went 0-8 with RISP and didn’t score after the 1st.

• That’s 5 HRs in 7 games for Joey Bats, who also ended a 3-week tour of the Interstate system.
• Yanks are 1-4 in 5 games against 1st-year starters, held to a 2.45 Run Average.
• Fair or foul? Adam Lind went .305/35/114 in 2009 and averaged 25 HRs the next 2 years, albeit with a falling OBP. He’s 20th in HRs for 2009-11. Now he’s in AAA. There’s arguably some bad luck in his .186 BA — a .206 BAbip this year against a prior career mark of .295, and he’s actually whiffing less and walking more than his norms (on pace for 60 BB and 102 Ks). It’s also arguable the Jays should have made this move sooner, as Lind produced negative WAR each of the past 2 years. Bottom line, right now Lind is a bad fit with the  Jays, who’ll still hit plenty of HRs without him but need more men on base.

A’s 5, @Rangers 4 (10): DH Kila Ka’aihue was 0-4 with 3 Ks before the 10th, then produced his 2nd extra-inning game-winner in 3 weeks. Mike Adams allowed 3 hits (not all of them what you’d call screamers) for the first time in 129 games spanning almost 2 years. Since 2008, Adams ranks #3 in BA and #2 in WHIP among all pitchers with 200+ IP, and he’s on track to be a free agent this winter.

• Two more hitless goose eggs for Oakland’s Ryan Cook, your new Scoreless Leader (19.2 IP). Opponents are 4 for 61 against him, and 0 for 20 with RISP. In the last of the 9th, his second inning of work, he navigated around a leadoff 2-base error, getting Adrian Beltre to ground out, fanning Nelson Cruz with the winning run on 3rd, then finishing it off with another grounder. Cook was 4th in reliever WPA before this game, which probably vaulted him to 2nd. He hasn’t blown a lead in 9 chances, and tonight truly earned his first big-league win.
• Josh Hamilton didn’t start but went 0-2 off the bench. In his 5-game HR “drought,” he’s gone 6-16 with 4 RBI.
• Since streaking to a 12-2 start, the Rangers have gone 12-13, with no more than 2 straight wins.

Red Sox 5, @Rays 3:

• A lot of cool things have happened this year, but I think this is my favorite: 33-year-old Rich Thompson, veteran of 1,388 games in the minors, with 1,390 hits (.280/.355/no power) and 442 stolen bases (83% success rate, 89-8 in the past 2 years), with 11 seasons at AAA, was traded to the Rays yesterday and tonight got his first start and first hit in the major leagues. A native of Reading, PA (where he played AA ball in His prior career consisted of 6 pinch-running appearances (5 of those in 2004), 1 as a defensive replacement, and 1 AB — in which he grounded into a DP (of all things!). His first hit was a 2-out RBI single, followed by steals of 2nd and 3rd. Congratulations, Rich! I truly hope that it was everything you’ve always dreamed of.

@Giants 7, Cardinals 5: With 3 errors behind him leading to 3 unearned runs, Adam Wainwright (1 K, 10 baserunners in 5.2 IP) couldn’t get through the 6th with the lead, and 4 straight STL relievers allowed at least 1 walk in 1 IP or less. SF used those 9 walks and some just-good-enough pitching by Matt Cain to get back to .500 and give Cain his first consecutive winning starts since last June.

• Carlos Beltran missed his 3rd straight game

Phillies 8, @Cubs 7: The Doc is still dandy, but where would the Phils be without Chooch? He brought a .343 BA/166 OPS+ into Wrigley tonight, then went 4-5 with 3 run-scoring hits off 3 different pitchers, 2 of them with 2 out.

• Since when do 33-year-old catchers hit .363? From age 27-30, Ruiz hit .246/85 OPS+; from 31-33, he’s up to .301/125. For the record, the highest qualifying BA ever by a catcher age 33+ is Gabby Hartnett‘s .354 in 1937. The record for any age is either .367 by Babe Phelps in ’36 or .365 by Joe Mauer in 2009, depending on whether you apply the modern qualifying standard or the one in effect at the time.

@Astros 4, Brewers 0: Just the 2nd scoreless start by J.A. Happ since the end of 2010. Happ threw Houston’s last CG shutout on 2010-08-30.

• In 13 games when they haven’t homered, the Crew has scored 21 runs; even if you take out the 4 shutouts, that’s only 2.3 R/G.

@Mets 9, Reds 4: New York hasn’t had much luck at holding a lead built before the late innings, so they went back to their most proven formulas: 2-out scoring and the comeback win. Trailing 4-0 midway, despite a Dickey dancer that yielded 8 Ks in 6 IP, the Mets scored the game’s last 9 runs.

• Daniel Murphy, a .323 hitter since 2011 but hardly a natural at 2B, has been improving on the double play, but here’s one you can’t practice.
• Mets have trailed in 12 of their 21 wins; other teams average 8 come-from-behind victories. Mets began the day hitting .279 with 2 out (NL average .237) and have now scored 51% of their runs with 2 out; the NL average is 38%. (To my surprise, 1 out is the most common scoring situation, both this year and historically.)
• David Wright (2 doubles, 3 walks) had his first 5-(times on base)-for-5 or better since 2009. He has reached base in all but 2 games
• Aroldis Chapman allowed his first run (unearned) and allowed 3 baserunners for just the 2nd time this year. All 7 of his walks have come in 4 games. On the plus side, he helped minimize the damage from a dropped fly by Drew Stubbs, allowing the tying run on a sac fly but then whiffing 2 with the lead run on 3rd. Logan Ondrusek also got nicked for the first time and in a big way, allowing all 5 Mets runs in the 8th.
• Despite a lineup tilted heavily to the left side, there’s not much difference in the Mets’ slashes vs. lefties and righties. They began the day at .261/265 BA and .706/.722 in OPS, then racked up 12 hits against southpaws.
• Ronny Cedeno snapped the Mets’ home-homerless streak at 7 games, 2nd-longest in 3+ years in the new park.

White Sox 6, @Angels 1: Welcome back to the rotation, Chris Sale (1 R, 7 K in 5.1 IP).

• Paul Konerko is quietly hitting .362.
• Solo shot for Albert, his 2nd straight game with a HR but no other hits.
• Continuing the Halos’ good news/bad news report, Mark Trumbo produced this year’s first regulation 4-hit, no-run, no-RBI game by a cleanup man; Trumbo is 23 for his last 50 and suddenly hitting .370.
• Chicago’s latest flailer in the 2-hole, Gordon Beckham, went 0-5. More on this in an upcoming post.

 Twins 4, @Tigers 3: Losing 2 straight at home to baseball’s worst team is about as low as my boys can fall … right?

• Second game this month in which Detroit scored 3 runs on 3 HRs.
• Even though he killed us, it’s still nice to see Justin Morneau‘s first big game in a month.

And I’m out of time.