Orioles 3, @Mariners 1 (11): Well, naturally.

• A noted philosopher‘s comment on Don Larsen‘s WS perfecto applies just as well to Baltimore‘s 15-2 record in irregular affairs: “Like Sophia Loren’s marriage to Carlo Ponti, the continuing popularity of Danny Thomas, and the political career of Spiro Agnew, there is no rational explanation for this. It just is.”
• Neither team had a hit with RISP; they only had 7 total chances combined.
• Adam Jones now has 4 go-ahead HRs in extra innings this year; since 2002, only Nelson Cruz can compare (5 in 2010). So I can’t wait for  Tim McCarver’s postseason rave on Jones’s clutchiness. Fact is, despite those 4 HRs (as important as they were), his season and career clutch stats are fairly poor — RISP, late-&-close, high-leverage.
• You know that I appreciate the play-by-play on B-R’s box scores, but I wish the order of lineup changes were reported accurately. With Seattle at bat in the 10th inning, 2 on and 1 out, we get this interjection: “Brian Matusz replaces Pedro Strop pitching / Mike Carp pinch hits for Brendan Ryan (SS) batting 9th“. If that was the true order, it would be fascinating — because while Matusz and Carp are both lefties, Carp actually has much better numbers against southpaws in his short career — .300 BA in 130 ABs vs. LHPs, .242 in 413 ABs vs. RHPs. But alas, other sources show that Carp was announced first, then Tooz came on to face him. Which is interesting in itself —  but then, it’s a waste of time to question a Buck stratagem this year.

@Tigers 6, Athletics 2: It don’t mean a thang beyond the personal stats.

• With Scherzer shelved(?), it now seems likely that  Justin Verlander will win his second straight MLB strikeouts crown (and third over all), as he trails his teammate by 1 and leads #3 King Felix by 16.
• Oakland didn’t score off Verlander, but they made him work — 122 pitches in 6 innings, almost 5 pitches per batter.
• Miguel Cabrera‘s path to the Triple Crown has never been so clear. Mike Trout‘s BA is down to .327 (hitting a mere .280 since August 1), and the other 40-HR men are laid up for the nonce — leader Josh Hamilton getting a sinus MRI(?) and #3 man Edwin Encarnacion missing the last 3 games with a coup de toe. Incidentally, 2 of the 13 modern Triple Crowns featured a tie in HRs: Yaz/’67 tied with Killebrew, and Medwick/’37 tied with Ott.
• I don’t think I’d ever seen three separate bases taken on defensive indifference in one inning. Of course, with Valverde, there’s some overlap of “indifference” and “inability;” stealers are 12-1 off him this year.

@Yanks 4, Jays 2 / @Yanks 2, Jays 1: A twin-billed rebuke to those of us who quibbled that the Bombers couldn’t win without firepower.

• There are college freshmen right now who were still waiting for H.S. graduation the last time Ricky Romero won a game. His win on June 22 put Romero at 8-1; he’s since lost 13 straight decisions, tying Toronto’s all-time mark and setting a new one-season mark. It also ties Jose Lima for the longest one-year streak this century. The last one-year losing streak longer than 13 was in 1980, 16 games by Mike Parrott. Romero might get 3 more starts this year, so stay tuned.
• This great throw by Colby Rasmus (AL’s top CF in TZR) stole a run from the Yanks, but Casey McGehee‘s poor baserunning cost them another that inning. He failed to take 3rd when the throw sailed over the cutoff man; that kept Ichiro from taking 2nd and being able to score on Chris Stewart‘s ground-rule double.
• Think what you like about Brett Lawrie‘s dWAR rating. All I’m saying is, he makes plays like this routinely.
• Ichiro is the 2nd this year with a 4-SB game and the first in 3 years to add 4 hits; only one other Yankee ever had 4H/4SB in a live-ball game.
• Ah, but … 4 hits, 4 steals and no Runs? Just two others since 1918; throw in a double and Ichiro’s line becomes unique as far as the P-I can detect.
• In his 39th career start, Henderson Alvarez finally notched 7 strikeouts.

@Cardinals 5, Astros 0: Houston might have a little more spoiler in ’em next week, when they host the Cards. But on the road … at 16-58, they need only drop their last 7 games to set a new postwar mark for lowest winning percentage at .198.

• It seems that ever since the Pirates began to fade, the MVP “narrative” (quotes=I hate that term used in this context) has writing out McCutchen and writing in Posey and Braun. But just so you know: The current NL WAR leader is … Yadier Molina. (No word yet if our favorite MVP bloviator is blown away.)

Phillies 3, @Mets 2: Is there such a thing as a hanging fastball? It didn’t break and it wasn’t slow, so it wasn’t a curve. The man who produced it just called it a meatball. Whatever it was, it’s gone now, and it ain’t coming back.

• Before joining the Mets, Andres Torres had 2 years as a regular: 2010 was good, 2011 bad. This year was worse. This play is his year in a nutshell. If you watched him for a week, you would never believe that he once hit 16 HRs, 43 doubles and 8 triples in a year; I don’t think he could amass those numbers hitting fungoes by himself in an empty ballpark.