Athletics 6, @Angels 5: A 9th-inning roller-coaster left the Halos queasy and their fans downright nauseous. After the visitors tacked on 2 runs while the best Angel reliever sat idle, Anaheim quickly got those runs back and — with no outs — had the tying run on 3rd, and the winner on 1st in the speedy form of Peter Bourjos.

But in an uncanny replay of their first inning, the Angels were turned aside again. Lefty Jerry Blevins replaced closer Grant Balfour, which turned around Kendrys Morales to his much weaker side, whence he feebly fanned. Then Howie Kendrick got a hittable pitch on 1-and-2, but his hard grounder found only leather, as Josh Donaldson started a 5-4-3 that dropped the Angels 2.5 games out of the playoff chase.

• Wait a minute! Blevins didn’t have a save all year — wasn’t it against the rules to bring him in there?!?
• Speaking of roller-coasters … In the 1st, Torii Hunter singled to put men on the corners with no outs; they didn’t score. In the 2nd, he fanned with a man on 3rd and 1 out. In the 7th, he homered to bring his team within a run. Top of the 9th, he misplayed Coco Crisp‘s drive, costing at least 1 run and maybe 2. In the home 9th, he drove in a run and went 1st-to-3rd on Albert’s laser single to LF. But there he stayed.
• Talk about an eerie replay: Look how last year’s 9/11 game ended for the Angels. That loss also left them 2.5 games out of the postseason race.
• A’s are 38-17 since the Break, best in MLB, and have the AL’s 2nd-best record over all.
• Rookie Dan Straily allowed 2 HRs, making 6 in his 2 starts against Anaheim — but won his 2nd straight outing and has 3 QS in 4 tries.

@Diamondbacks 1, Dodgers 0: Saturday’s Giant-tipping rally was nice and all, but LA has been blanked on 5 hits in both games since then, without ever getting 2 hits in an inning. Tuesday’s tormentor was Ian Kennedy, who has spearheaded 6 wins in 7 starts vs. LA in the last 2 years. The leading victim was Clayton Kershaw, whose first taste of 1-0 defeat was made more bitter by the E6 in the 7th that led to the game’s lone run.

• Brad Ziegler relieved Kennedy in the 8th with the tying run on 1st and induced a 3-6-3 GDP to end the frame. Ziegler’s 17 GDPs rank 8th in the NL, even though he has just 58.2 IP. The only other season of 16+ GIDP in 60 IP or less was … Ziegler’s rookie year, 2008 (20 GDP, 59.2 IP).
• Yo, Adrian — that pitch is a strike all day long. The Big Pickup still hasn’t homered since his first swing in Dodger blue.
• “I gotchyer ‘defensive liability’ right heah,” says Jason Kubel.
• Nice setup and throw by Kemp, but don’t even try to tell me that Dan Iassogna saw the play. Can any of you umps explain his last-second change of position?
• The Snakes have won 16 games by 1-0 in their history, four of them against LA.
• It was the 6th game this year with no earned runs, all since Aug. 21 and 4 since Sept. 5.

@Padres 6, Cardinals 4: St. Louis nicked Edinson Volquez in the 2nd and 3rd, but missed many chances at bigger innings (1-14 with RISP), while the Friars focused their ministrations on a 5-run 4th. Luke Gregerson came on with 1 out in the 8th and the tying run on 1st and recorded 5 outs for the save.

• “Pay it forward?” Last year, St. Louis profited from Atlanta’s 10-20 finish, making up a 10.5-game gap to snag the wild card on the final night. This year’s Cards are doing what they can to help those less fortunate, dropping 10 of 14 to keep free-falling LA and Pittsburgh in the race (1 GB and 2.5 GB), while opening doors long thought barred to Milwaukee and Philly (both 4 GB).
• Maybe they should’ve shut *him* down at 160 IP? After reeling off 5 straight August wins (1.47 ERA), Wainwright has lost 3 in a row, yielding 16 runs in 13.2 IP.
• Everybody talks about STL’s one-run record (17-23), but they’re now 6-14 in games decided by 2 runs.
• Gregerson got the 15th save of exactly 5 outs in MLB this year; that would tie last year’s low for the expansion era.
• Volquez is the first pitcher since 2009 with 100+ walks in a season.

@Red Sox 4, Yankees 3: I dare not say much about this game — I don’t want to risk a Schadenfreudian slip.

• Every Yankee team from 1918-2011 won at least 10 games in which they hit no HRs; this year’s model is 4-22 in such games. (Baltimore is 9-28, but nobody was talking about that yesterday as the O’s slipped back into 1st place.)
• Joe Girardi used pinch-runners on 1st base with 1 out in both the 8th and 9th. The first was erased on a DP, the second on a CS.
• There was a time when you wouldn’t dream of stealing with A-Rod up. But I guess  Eduardo Nunez didn’t expect to be the 2nd guy thrown out in 22 tries against Ryan Lavarnway.