Just a few seed shells tossed off as I head to the big right-handers’ rodeo in Flushing….

11 games on the schedule Thursday, 32 HRs. Teams that won the derby went 5-1. There have been 449 HRs hit so far through 450 team-games, about 6% more than the comparable point last year, with an equal rise in the HR% (per PA). Last year’s season HR% was higher than that of 1994, ’95 and ’97.

• Miami has 4 HRs through 16 games. The last team with such a slow power start was the ’96 Royals. The last team with a slower start was the ’85 Pirates, 2 HRs in their first 16 games; they finished with 80 HRs and 104 losses, then hired Jim Leyland to help turn them around.

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@Orioles 10, Rays 6: Baltimore’s overtime idyll reached one year and came full circle when Matt Wieters clocked a game-ending granny in the 10th. Their streak of 17 straight extra-inning wins began last April 16, a 10-4 win in 10 innings capped by Wieters’s other career slam.

• Is the magic back? Scrap-heap DH du jour Steve Pearce came in 0-for-13 this year, then hit a turnaround 2-run blast off David Price in the 7th. The reigning Cy Young has 2 good and 2 bad starts, but remains winless.
• Brandon Gomes threw 4 pitches and gave up 3 runs. Pitch-count data only go back to 1988, but he’s the first with that line to finish a game.
• Jamey Wright threw 7 pitches and gave up 4 runs. Last time that happened was 2007, another big Oriole 9th (but a loss). Time before that was 2000, a game the O’s blew in Boston with Mike Trombley’s legendary line: HR, HR, HBP, HR. (Remember those days, when a reliever could give up 46 HRs in 3 years and still be employed?)
• Tampa hit 4 solo HRs, but went 0-for-6 with RISP; the O’s went 6 for 7.

Braves 6, @Pirates 4: The legend grows of the Creature from Permian Basin. In his first try as a pinch-hitter, Evan Gattis transferred his violent torque to a 2-0 sinker, severely altering the pitch’s intended trajectory. He’s the 3rd Brave ever with 5 HRs in his first 12 career games, joining our old friend Frenchy (2005) and the long-forgotten Jose Oliva (1994).

• Reality check: Oliva hit #5 in his 11th game, and was then batting .406. For the rest of his MLB career he went 30 for 210 (really), with 8 HRs. He went back to AAA at age 26 and slugged 31 HRs, played a year in China, and then died in a car crash at age 27.
• Pedro Alvarez finally gets to see a “1” in the HR column … and carts his BA off the “O”regon Trail and onto the Interstate.
• I’m surprised we went almost 3 calendar years between batter games of “5-K/all-K“. Starling Marte, take a bow! (While we wave bye-bye to your 10-game hit streak.)
• You don’t suppose Freddie Freeman was afraid of getting Pipped? In 10 games since Freddie went out, Chris Johnson is 19 for 41 with 2 HRs — and yesterday, he even hit in Freeman’s old cleanup spot. He leads the majors with a .438 BA.
• In 5 years with the Marlins, Dan Uggla had a .302 BAbip. In 2+ years with Atlanta, it’s .264.

@Mariners 2, Tigers 0: No birthday bash for Miggy, as Hisashi Iwakuma kept Detroit off balance and off the big board for 6 very efficient innings. Justin Verlander matched him that far and fanned the first 2 in the 7th, giving him 4 straight and 11 for the afternoon. But the M’s had kept threatening with 2 outs all game, and now Robert Andino kept the inning alive, fouling a 2-2 pitch before singling to left. And Kyle Seager, seeking out last year’s RBI magic, went with the first pitch (and away from the defense), slicing a liner down the LF line for the only run Seattle needed. He’s 3-for-4 against Verlander, with 3 RBI.

• No win for Iwakuma, but he’s the MLB WHIP leader: 26.2 IP, 12 hits, 2 walks and 5 runs this year, and a 2.44 ERA in 20 career starts.
• Seattle scored 31 runs in their 10-game homestand, with their 4 wins by scores of 3-0, 3-1, 4-3 and 2-0.
• JV would have settled for a No-D, but he’s now had a win or loss in all 16 starts against Seattle.
• The lack of production from V-Mart is starting to wear. He’s 10 for 53 with 1 double overall, 3 for 27 with men on base, and 3 GDPs against 4 RBI.
• Detroit’s top 4 starters have a 2.27 ERA and 92 Ks in 83.1 IP. (And then there’s Porcello….)

@Brewers 7, Giants 2: He might need a designated driver, but not a designated hitter. Yovani Gallardo‘s 2-run shot, one of three such against Matt Cain, opened up a 5-0 lead in the 2nd, and the Brewers never looked back. Gallardo is the active leader in pitcher HRs with 11, seven of those and a .243 BA in his home park. He also righted his ship on the mound, allowing a run in 6 IP (1 walk, 6 Ks) for his first quality start of the year.

• The Boss says “closets are for hangers,” but this one found plenty of daylight.
• Ryan Braun started the derby with career #205. He’ll seize the franchise lead from Prince sometime in August, if he matches his career pace.
• Just when his public stature had finally caught up to his performance, Cain has submitted 2 stink-bombs in his last 3 starts, his ERA soaring to 7.15. His April 7 loss (9 runs in 3.2 IP) snapped a streak of 62 starts with at least 5 IP and 5 runs or less — the longest since Johan was winning Cy Young Awards.

@Rockies 11, Mets 3: It was a game for 6 innings, but a healthy Rox lineup can hit, and there aren’t words enough for New York’s bullpen ills. Giving Colorado 18 runs in 10.1 innings this series — including tonight’s 2-out, 6-run 7th — dropped Mets relievers near the bottom of the NL RA/9 rankings. Dexter Fowler returned to the starting lineup and launched his 7th HR, CarGo continued his recent rampage (11 for his last 17, with 9 runs), and the first-place Rockies stayed perfect at home.

• You’d think that Coors is one place where Jon Niese‘s 6 innings, 3 runs really is a “quality start.” But since 2009, the year the humidor died (or whatever), teams getting that exact line from their starter have gone 15-19 in the thin air, and the starters themselves just 8-17.
• Now to see if Matt Harvey‘s ready to be The Stopper. He’ll start after a Mets loss for the first time this year. He debuted last year right after the Mets had fallen to Strasburg, and got a win — but the Mets lost 5 of his next 6 starts that followed a loss.

@Cubs 6, Rangers 2: Chicago ran on Dominican battery power Thursday, with 4 hits from C Welington Castillo (a first) and another strong start by Carlos Villanueva, who earned his first win of the year despite doubling his ERA all the way to 1.29. The all-day drizzle was nothing like the torrential rain that wiped out Wednesday’s game, but lightning struck in the 3rd when Anthony Rizzo and Alfonso Soriano went back-to-back, enabling Alexi Ogando to seek drier climes.

• Primero cuadrangular for Sori, who needed 31 juegos last year to get over the wall.
• Texas made 2 solo trots against Villanueva, but did not otherwise touch 2nd base, and hit into 3 DPs.

Diamondbacks 6, @Yankees 2 (12): After the Snakes produced no runs in their first 10 tries with RISP, Cody Ross finally broke the ice with a searing single in the 12th, and then Eric Chavez drained the tub on his ex-mates. They won despite some curious choices: In the 9th, Miguel Montero wandered into no-man’s land and spoiled what had been a great chance for insurance runs. Good hitter, good catcher … lousy baserunner: That’s 10 outs trying for home since the start of last year, 3 more than anyone else. The Yanks escaped the inning without a run, then tied it when Francisco Cervelli found a front-row fan who brought his glove.

• In the 11th, after AZ got the first 2 aboard, A.J. Pollock fouled off 2 bunt attempts, then bunted into a fielder’s choice, lead man out. Um … This is a fast guy who hit .318 at Reno last year, bunting with 2 strikes, with a man already in scoring position, to get to the #8 hitter.
• In the 8th, David Hernandez walked Vernon Wells on 4 pitches, filling ’em up with 1 out for Robby Cano, who had done this in his last AB. But Cano and the Youk both went down swinging. Wells, you recall, set a live-ball record with his .248 OBP in 2011, the worst by a qualifying outfielder.
• Two catcher’s interference calls?
• Goed werk, Didi Gregorius! You hit the first home run ever by a player from Amsterdam. There couldn’t have been a more fitting locale, eh?

@Blue Jays 3, White Sox 1: With the sporty imports up on blocks or low on fuel, holdover Rajai Davis ignited the offense with a leadoff knock and two swipes (not deemed clip-worthy) and drove in the last run with a double.

• R.A. Dickey might have to float ’em more slowly for a while. His stiff back and neck should remind us that there’s more to pitching (and to aging) than the arm — and that his patented fast knuckler may put more strain on a 38-year-old body than the “conventional” flutters of Niekro, Hough et al.
• Emilio Bonifacio got the first chance to replace Reyes atop the order, but he’s reached in just 2 of 18 trips from that spot this year, and hasn’t hit well there since 2011.
• And we thought 2011 was a slow start for Adam Dunn.

@Reds 11, Marlins 1: The man with amazing stats vs. minor-leaguers made his debut start, and … well, except for the size of the crowd and the price of a beer, there just wasn’t much difference.