@Giants 2, Dodgers 1: LA is 13-15, but games like this make it seem like they’re 10 games under. A typical effort by Clayton Kershaw (1 run in 7 IP) went for nought as the bats failed time and time and time again to get the timely hit. They parlayed 18 baserunners (11 hits, 7 walks) into a single run, scored by Kershaw himself after he opened the 5th with a double, their only extra-base hit.

The Giants flashed the leather all night for Barry Zito, cutting down a run at the plate on a slow chopper, and turning DPs in the 3rd, 4th and 5th, twice with 2 aboard. A promising 6th went sour; Hanley Ramirez made the first out at 3rd base (he’s safe if he doesn’t get lamed, but that’s a hell of a throw by Pence), and the inning ended with Kershaw grounding out with the bags full. San Fran tied it up in their half, on Buster Posey’s 2-out double to the farthest reaches.

• Posey got thrown out trying to score the lead run on Pence’s single. But he made up for it later — his first-ever walk-off hit. (Sorry, no clip of the HR yet.)

@Indians 7, Twins 6 (10): The Twins took the lead in the 7th on Chris Parmelee‘s 3-run HR off reliever Cody Allen. But two clutch hits by Drew Stubbs (4 for 5, 3 doubles) and runs scored by Mike Aviles (on base 4 times) brought Cleveland their 5th straight win. Stubbs doubled Aviles to 3rd in the 8th, whence he scored the tying run on a Jason Kipnis groundout. And in the 10th, after Aviles’s leadoff hit, Stubbs drilled a slider off the CF wall for their 2nd walk-off win, getting them back to .500 for the first time since game 4.

• 4 RBI by Kipnis doubled his season total.
• Off the bat, I thought he’d got under this one, but Mark Reynolds knew better. That’s 9 trots and a 1.003 OPS.

Reds 6, @Cubs 5: Aroldis Chapman got roasted, but the Reds hung on. Shin-Soo Choo was all over the Cincy attack, plating a run with a 2-out single, and scoring what seemed like insurance runs after a leadoff walk in the 7th and a 2-out double the next inning.

• The last 2 outings (8 R in 11.2 IP) have been a bit of a reality check for the journeyman Carlos Villanueva, whose ERA after 4 starts was 1.53.
• 6 baserunners is a new high for Chapman, and 4 hits ties a one-time mark. He’d allowed just 1 run to the Cubs in 16.2 prior innings,

Mariners 4, @Blue Jays 0: And the beating goes on for Toronto, the 3rd team to reach 20 losses. Felix Hernandez went 8 innings to win his 3rd straight start, but is the King nursing an injury? He’s thrown 95 pitches or less in all three. On April 22, he went 6 scoreless and left leading 7-0 after 93 pitches; OK, no need to extend him, with that pitch count he’s not going for the shutout. April 27, he left after 8 IP and 95 pitches, leading 3-2; OK, they wanted a fresh Wilhelmsen to close it out. But this? A 4-0 lead, 95 pitches, and done?

• The previous 2 starts by Hernandez vs. Toronto were 2 of the last 3 times he’s allowed 7 ER. His career ERA against the Jays was 5.13 in 9 starts — his only mark over 3.96 out of 21 teams he’d faced twice or more.

Athletics 2, @Yankees 0: Ever seen the first pitch settle a game at Yankee Stadium? As best I can tell, a first-batter home run — nor even a top-of-the-1st HR — has never stood as the game’s only run in any edition of the Big Ballpark. (But my eyes are a little bleary, so maybe I missed one.)

• A question from my friend Doug Schwartz: Why is it only umpires who get into jawing matches with players, not the officials in football, basketball or hockey? Why can they all walk away or turn their back, while some umpires seem to welcome confrontation? (There’s not much to that clip, really, since MLB tries to put its best foot forward; but you’ve probably seen more footage of the CC spat elsewhere.)

@Pirates 3, Nationals 1: In his first game this year, Jordy Mercer hit a go-ahead 2-run HR in the 5th into a sea of black and gold, and Washington’s austerity budget continued with 7 singles, 1 walk against A.J. Burnett and the bullpen aces, the trio combining for 14 Ks. That’s 3 runs or less in 6 straight Nats games, 2 or less in 10 of 13. Ryan Zimmerman dressed up for his return to the lineup, donning not just a collar but a golden sombrero.

• Burnett whiffed 9, extending his NL lead to 57 Ks in 42 IP. No more than 3 runs in any of his 7 starts.
• Andrew McCutchen homered in his 2nd 3-hit game of the year, both in the last 3 contests. He led the NL in his last year and was 2nd to Braun with 17 three-hit games.
• Nats ran themselves out of the 4th, Tyler Moore making the last out at 3rd on a scoring hit, instead of getting another shot with 2 on for the #8 hitter. Moore’s progress is not followed in the clip, but the throw went home and then the catcher nailed him at 3rd — so he must have held up after rounding 2nd, then made a late break. You might not make it, after all….
• Bryce Harper got picked off 1st base in the 6th, then struck out against Mark Melanconto end the 8th with the tying runs aboard. One run off Melancon in 16 IP this year, a solo HR, and still no walks.
• 26,000 in Pittsburgh tonight. Bucs are still next-to-last in NL attendance, but they’ve averaged 21,000 in 13 home dates, not bad for what’s been a chilly first month and a team that began with low expectations.

Tigers 4, @Astros 3: A double in the 9th could have tied the game, but Alex Avila has no doubles among his 14 hits. So he smoked a 3-1 pitch from Jose Veras a very long way, reversing a deficit, and Jose Valverde held on for his 3rd save and Detroit’s 2nd hard-fought win in Houston. Drew Smyly earned the win with 2 sparkling innings, bailing out Doug Fister in the 7th with 2 on and no outs after the starter had surrendered a 2-0 lead in the inning, fueled by a rare error from 2B Omar Infante.

• Smyly’s allowed 3 runs in 20 relief innings, 3rd-most in the majors.
• Infante offset his error with this nice play in the 9th. Not a web-gem, exactly, but you sure don’t see many balls hit in the infield like that.
• Bud Norris was in line for his 4th win, with 7 Ks in 7 innings.
• Veras had not allowed a HR in his last 30 innings. Homers happen, but there’s no excuse for walking Don Kelly to start the 9th.

Mets 7, @Braves 5 (10): A storm wind was blowing out tonight, but it was the Mets and not the longball leaders who got home-run happy. New York knocked 4 HRs to Atlanta’s 1, including the year’s first against Eric O’Flaherty and Craig Kimbrel, tying shots in the 8th and 9th. But in the end, it was a humble 2-out bingle by Ruben Tejada in the 10th, on an 0-2 count from Jordan Walden, that put the Mets ahead for good in this see-saw game, the first of 19 contests in a series that has been one-sided for more than a decade.

As Ron Darling said afterwards, “This is the game in Atlanta that the Mets always lose.” After going up 3-0 on early HRs by Buck and Duda, they couldn’t touch Mike Minor, who set down his last 18 straight with nothing approaching a hit. The Braves chipped away and were tied in the 7th, when Ramiro Pena drew a leadoff walk. Minor had thrown just 90 pitches, but a pinch-hitter came in and laid one down. They cashed that run for the lead, but Marlon Byrd lofted O’Flaherty’s 2nd pitch into the jetstream for another tie.

It wouldn’t last. A 4-pitch home 8th ended with the Braves on top again, thanks to another clutch HR by Evan Gattis. The frame began with a 1-pitch, 1-out appearance by Scott Rice, the 31-year-old rookie who’s held lefties to 4 for 31. But Brandon Lyon’s lamb-like year continued with a first-pitch nothingball to Gattis. Dan Uggla dropped the next one into left, but Lyon escaped with a quick 5-4-3 from B.J. Upton.

To the 9th, and the daunting Kimbrel. Daniel Murphy went down on 3 pitches, and David Wright was badly beaten on two 97-degree heaters in at the knees, taking downtown cuts as Keith Hernandez tutted, “Tardy.” The third course was more hard cheese, but up and over. And out.

But the next 2 took the air, and soon it seemed that Wright’s blast had just delayed the inevitable. Pena started the home 9th against Lyon with a line double down the RF, and moved up on a sacrifice. “This is the game the Mets always lose.” And then Terry Collins made the move most here consider obvious, but few modern skippers will make: he brought in his closer with men on base to preserve a tie. Bobby Parnell got 2 quick strikes on Jordan Schafer, who had walked in his first 4 trips. He lifted a fly to fairly shallow CF, a depth at which you’d rarely send a runner except to win the game; Pena stayed put. Parnell labored through a 8-pitch walk, but got ahead of Justin Upton, who bounced to 3rd, extending his RISP struggle to 3 for 18.

Walden came on for the 10th. The first two Mets worked long at-bats before popping out, and the pinch-hit hero stepped in. Jordany Valdespin usually comes out hacking in the pinch — “they always throw you fastballs,” he said recently — but this time he could have left the lumber home. Walden threw mostly breakers, and Valdespin took a ball, two strikes, then three more balls, and took the stroll. That brought up Parnell’s spot, but the Mets had no extra-base threats left, so the closer stepped in and bluffed a bunt as Valdespin lit out for second — a pretty obvious play, but Walden hadn’t held him close and is easy to run on anyway. Gattis made a strong throw, but had no chance.

So Parnell sat down for Mike Baxter and his career .421 OBP in the pinch. Baxter took a strike for 0-2, but he wound up getting hit by a bouncing curve. Walden got ahead of Tejada, 0-2, but rolled a curve with his 29th pitch, and Ruben chipped it into CF for the lead run. (He’s 12 for 35 when behind in the count.) Daniel Murphy stroked another 0-2 for insurance off southpaw Luis Avilan (career .182 vs. lefties), and Jeurys Familia logged his first career save in short order, freezing Dan Uggla with a series of twisters.

• Kimbrel passed 300 Ks in his 175th game, all in relief. Only 5 relievers ever got to 300 faster: Dick Radatz, Mark Clear, Rob Dibble, Bruce Sutter and Billy Wagner.