Belated additions above the line:

@Diamondbacks 8, Astros 2: Houston took a 2-1 lead in the top of the 6th, but momentum may have swung on this failed squeeze — was Justin Maxwell‘s heart really in it? — and a 7-run retort gave Arizona the 3-game sweep by a combined 33-13 margin.

• Brad Mills put on that squeeze with the infield playing in. Does that work? Is it much harder than otherwise? I just don’t have a sense of that situation. One thing I do know: Had it worked, it would have been the first sac bunt of Maxwell’s 193-game career.
• Jason Kubel knocked his 6th HR in 5 games. Besides leading the NL with 71 RBI, he’s hitting .300/.956 — that would be the 2nd-best qualifying OPS ever by a D-back outfielder. A bunch of LFs are having big years, of course; with a 147 OPS+, Kubel is just one of eight qualifying LFs over 140. That would be 2 more than any other year in the 30-team era, and 6 more than there were last year.
• “Remember the Spiders!” Houston’s road woes went from bad to excruciating on 1-11 trip, dropping them to 10-41 as wayfarers. They’re on pace to match the live-ball record of 65 road losses, set by Babe Ruth‘s 1935 Braves (13-65 away, 38-115 over all). The 2010 Pirates lost 64 road games. Incredibly, the ‘Stros remain over .500 at home (24-21), but they’ve lost 19 of their last 21 games in all.

Dodgers 8, @Mets 3 (12): “LITROD” — Luck is the residue of design. Ramon Ramirez almost escaped a jam in his 2nd inning of work. After the first 2 men singled (including a bunt that the all-around floundering Ike Davis butchered), Mark Ellis popped up a sac bunt try. It was an easy out, of course — but if Ramirez had thought ahead, it would have been an easy DP to let it fall safely, then throw to 3rd and 2nd. Instead, he caught the pop, got the 2nd out, but gave up 3 more hits good for 5 runs, and the Mets — who had 19 ABs with RISP but produced just 2 run-scoring hits — dropped under .500 for the first time this year.

• Maybe Kramer was right, after all: I’m no sculpture expert, but this sure as hell looks like a “statue” of limitations.
• Daniel Murphy went 9 for 11 in the series, with 5 extra-base hits. He’s at .451/1.248 in his last 19 games, raising his season marks back to .306/.779 — 3rd and 5th, respectively, among 21 qualified second basemen, and tied for 4th with 46 RBI.
• The only upside of falling firmly out of the race: Here comes Harvey.

@Padres 3, Rockies 2: Huston Street has retired all 13 batters since the Break. The Friars have won 13 of 19 since June 30, going 5-0 vs. Colorado in that stretch.

• Cameron Maybin became the 3rd pinch-runner this year with 2 SB, but the first one who didn’t score. Last year was seen as a breakout for Maybin — 103 OPS+, strong defense and baserunning — although you have to look past the park effects to see the value in a .264 BA/.716 OPS. If he could only improve on his SO and BB rates, thought the pundits…. Well, he has improved both those rates this year, but his results have still plunged to .221/.613. As you’d guess, his BAbip last year was a career-high .331; this year, a career-low .272. Last year he had 40 infield hits, 3rd in the NL; this year he’s 35th with 11. His underlying GB/FB rates haven’t changed, and his speed seems intact — he’s stealing and taking the extra base as much as ever. If he doesn’t let the bad luck get to him, he should be in for improvement; indeed, he’s already batting .313 in July.
• The Rox are 1-11-1 in series since June 4; the win and the split were both against Washington. They’re on pace for 100 losses; the club record is 95, in their debut year and also 2005.

Notes:

Barry Zito (3 R in 7 IP) and Joe Blanton (3 in 8) raised their teams’ count of starts of 7+ IP and 3 runs or less to 44 and 39, respectively — nos. 1-2 in the majors.

Combined stats of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard: 21 for 98, but with 6 HRs.

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@Athletics 5, Yankees 4 (12): It might not be Dallas Braden‘s mound any more, but the A’s defended their turf this weekend in the same bulldog fashion.

On Sunday against Sabathia, they trailed 4-0 before two 5th-inning solo shots, including this year’s first by Kurt Suzuki (who’s averaged 14 the past 3 years). Yoenis Cespedes scored on a FC in the 6th after motoring 1st-to-3rd on a single. Leadoff hits in the 7th and 8th went to waste. But with 1 gone in the 9th, Seth Smith worked a 3-1 count against Rafael Soriano and poled a looping curve over the “400” sign in dead central — the first HR off Soriano this year, and Oakland’s 8th tying or go-ahead HR in the 9th or later (only Baltimore has more). Coco Crisp‘s single in the 12th completed the 4-game/1-run sweep, with Cody Eppley serving both walk-off hits.

• After falling to 26-35 on June 10, Oakland went into Denver and whacked 4 HRs to snap a 3-game skid, and they haven’t stopped whacking or winning since. Sunday’s almost expected comeback/walk-off gave them 25 wins and 51 HRs in their last 34 games, and preserved their share of a tourney ticket.

@Angels 7, Rangers 4: The Halos took the rubber game and were the first team since May 12 to score more than 3 runs off Matt Harrison. They’re 5 behind Texas (with 10 more head-to-heads coming), and 1 game up for the 1st wild-card slot.

• Mike Trout scored again, his club-record-breaking 14th straight game with a run and the unmatched longest streak in MLB in the last 4 years. He was on base in 4 of 5 trips, with a triple, single and 2 walks.
• Albert Pujols homered in the 7th off Alexi Ogando as the Angels pulled away. That’s his 2nd HR in 4 ABs off Ogando, including WS Game 3 last year. Albert’s OPS by month: .570, .800, .977, and about 1.050 in July.
• Josh Hamilton went 0-5 and closed the game by whiffing as the tying run. The AL player-of-the-month for April and May has hit .201 since June 1.
• Where have you gone, Jeff Mathis? The latest Angels non-stick catcher, Bobby Wilson, had 3 hits including his first HR of the year, and raised his BA to .214. Mathis, meanwhile, is slugging .526 as Toronto’s backup, with 5 HRs in 76 ABs.

@Tigers 6, White Sox 4: Continuing our sweep theme, Detroit got back-to-back HRs in the 1st and 2 more taters in the 3rd, including Miggy’s 300th. The most valuable pitcher in this game was Octavio Dotel, who relieved with 1 out in the 7th and the tying run at bat and retired 5 in a row, with 4 taking the breeze.

• Dotel has 48 Ks in 32.1 IP, and more importantly (knock-wood) he’s allowed just 2 HRs. His career HR rate is 9th-highest of the 63 active relievers with 400+ IP.
• Last 21 games for Miguel Cabrera through Saturday: .430/1.281, 20 Runs, 19 RBI, team 16-5. His 2 HRs on Sunday gave him 300 career taters. He’s hit 16 of his 23 HRs at home, including all four of his 2-HR games. Cabrera has hit .335 in his career at Comerica, with 162-game averages of 38 HRs, 42 doubles, 124 RBI.
• Miggy leads the league in Hits and Total Bases, on pace for a career-high 365 TB; no Tiger since 1940 has reached 360 TB. Cabrera has averaged 191 hits over the previous 7 years, but never reached 200; he’s on pace for 211. He’s also played all but 2 innings this year.
• Barring injury, this will be Cabrera’s 9th qualifying season, and (barring major slump) also his 9th with an OPS+ of at least 130. There are 62 active players with at least 7 qualifying years; only 2 others have had a 130 OPS+ in every qualifying year — Albert Pujols (working on his 12th straight, current 133 OPS+ is his worst) and Lance Berkman (10 qualifying years, with a low OPS+ of 130).

@Reds 2, Brewers 1: Cincy swept with their 3rd straight strong start, this one by Johnny Cueto — 9 Ks in 7 IP, to reach 12-5, 2.23. Milwaukee missed scoring chances in the 1st, 4th, 7th, 8th and 9th; they scored 4 runs in the series, and haven’t topped 4 in their last 8 games. Mike Fiers again was a hard-luck loser, falling to 3-4 with a 1.96 ERA, but he hurt himself with a 2-base pickoff error that set up the go-ahead run.

• Aroldis Chapman preserved the win, fanning Ryan Braun to end the game with the tying run on 2nd; the NL HR leader went 0-3 with RISP and the Crew 1 for 9. Chapman is flirting with a 50% K rate — 86 Ks out of 173 batters faced, including 25 of his last 36.
• The Reds have won 11 of 13, but remain just a half-game ahead of Pittsburgh.
• Fiers has allowed 5 runs (4 ER) in his last 6 starts (40.2 IP), but his mates have scored 2 runs or less in 4 of those games.

@Pirates 3, Marlins 0: Another sweep: Jeff Karstens tossed 7 scoreless and won for the 3rd time in 4 starts, with a 1.86 ERA in that stretch. Alex Presley and Andrew McCutchen built an early lead (single+SB, RBI single), and Pedro Alvarez padded it with a 2-run shot in the 7th (his 6th HR in 12 games).

• Joel Hanrahan closed it cleanly. He has blown 4 saves, but all were 1-run leads and just once did he allow the go-ahead run. They’ve won all 38 games that he entered with a lead or tied.
• Five straight wins have netted Pittsburgh just half a game against the blazing Reds. The Bucs have won 16 of 21, and are 8-1-1 in their last 10 series.
• The Fish have dropped 5 in a row, with a total of 7 runs scored. The tone was set early in this one when Jose Reyes led off with a hit but was immediately picked off by Karstens; 3 more men reached in the inning, but none scored. They got just one other man to 2nd base, and a DP ended that threat.
• Reyes is on pace for 78 Runs, his worst total ever in a qualifying season. His BAbip last year was a career-best .353; this year, career-worst .286.

Blue Jays 15, @Red Sox 7: It seemed for a while that Boston might bounce back from Toronto’s 5-run 1st, as Adrian Gonzalez answered with a 3-run rocket. But the Jays were just getting started against Jon Lester, who allowed a career-worst 11 runs, including this Monster 3-run shot on a meatball platter served to J.P. Arencibia. They’d have a new season high in runs before they were done.

• Henderson Alvarez matched the season high with 7 runs allowed in a win.
• Getting another shot to shake the “quadruple-A” label, Travis Snider has hit in all 3 games since his promotion, with his first HR and RBIs today. Snider has hit .333/.976 in about 800 PAs at AAA, but .248/.730 in almost 900 PAs in the bigs.
• The weekend sweep tumbled Boston back into last place for the first time since June 12.
• Junichi Tazawa took the baton from Lester and put up 3 zeroes, dropping his ERA to 1.17 in 10 games. Boston got within 11-7 during his stint, but then…
• The last time Mark Melancon had a game like this (4 runs, 5 hits out of 6 batters), he got shipped to Pawtucket.

@Nationals 9, Braves 2: Splitsville! After dropping the first two of a series that could have cost them the throne, Washington got even with another strong SP effort, this one by Ross Detwiler (1 ER in 7 IP). Ryan Zimmerman led the 18-hit attack, homering in his first 2 ABs against Jair Jurrjens, giving him 3 in a row against the struggling Brave dating to last year.

• Washington leads the NL with 49 starts of 6+ IP and 2 runs or less. All 5 starters have an ERA+ over 105, with 4 over 125.
• If Jurrjens isn’t out of minor-league options, he may be back there soon. He had one nice game right after his previous demotion, but Sunday was his 2nd straight disaster (6 runs in 2.1 IP), for a total of 23 runs in 32 IP since his recall. In all, he has just 19 Ks in 47.1 IP.

@Cardinals 7, Cubs 0: The Cards hit 3 more doubles in the 1st inning Sunday, producing 4 runs; added back-to-back HRs from Carlos Beltran (#21) and the sizzling Matt Holliday; then cruised to the sweep behind 6 shutout stanzas from Lance Lynn. They’re 2 games back of the 2nd wild card.

• Lynn looks to be over his June swoon, allowing just 1 run over his last 3 starts.
• Holliday’s last 30 games: 28 RBI, .440 BA, raising his season average from .267 to .321.
• Cubs lefty Jeff Beliveau made a scoreless debut, just the 2nd member of the 2008 18th round to reach the bigs.

Orioles 4, @Indians 3: Baltimore survived a 9th-inning scare to claim the 3rd straight in this Friday-Monday series. Zach Britton earned his 1st win this year in his 2nd start, with 6 scoreless frames. J.J. Hardy hit a 2-run HR in the 1st and had his first 2-hit game since July 3; he went 6 for 57 with 2 RBI in 14 games in between.

• Just when you thought the O’s might be cooked, they’ve reeled off 5 straight wins, allowing 10 total runs.
• The Tribe has lost 4 straight (6 total runs), falling under .500 and a season-high 4.5 games out in the division.
• I still think it’s a shame Britton missed interleague play this year.

@Phillies 4, Giants 3 (12): John Mayberry hit 2 HRs in regulation, J-Roll got his first game-winning RBI since 2010, Philly took the finale

• Nate Schierholtz has 5 HRs this year — and two 2-HR games. The Giants have lost both. Go figure. This was the first 2-HR game since 2009 by a Giants leadoff man.

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Some Mets litter:

Since 2010, pitcher Jon Niese has 19 hits, and has drawn 18 walks — 2nd to Ian Kennedy in total walks by a pitcher, but with a slightly higher percentage. Meanwhile, he’s working on his 3rd straight start of 7 IP without issuing a walk. But a gopher bit him once again, his 17th HR allowed this year. In 7 games allowing no HRs this year, Niese is 5-0, 1.42. In 9 games allowing 1 HR, he’s 1-2, 3.69. In 3 games with 2+ HRs, he’s 1-2, 10.95.

Another impossible choice for a manager with an awful bullpen: Niese had thrown just 94 pitches through 7 innings, but the first 2 men up in the 8th are both crushing southpaws this year — Mark Ellis was hitting .359 vs. LHP before today (.213 vs. RHP), and Matt Kemp was at .500 for the year and .350 career — and each already had a hit off Niese today. Due up 4th was Juan Rivera, who had a 2-run HR. Terry Collins left Niese in, and he gave up line-drive hits to Ellis and Kemp before departing. Relievers got out of the jam, but I still don’t like the decision.

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P.S. I think I’m going to hang up my spikes for a little while, at least in terms of Game Notes. Not sure if I’ve lost my spark or gotten into a rut, but the audience just isn’t there. I’ll try to come up with other posts while I chew over this problem.