Did the Mets play tonight? I was busy…. Anyway, our divisional hopscotch continues with the big uglies. Oh, and the very best wishes to KC’s new hitting coach.

Red Sox 9, @Phillies 2 (box): Like records, streaks are made to be broken. Jonathan Pettibone‘s career began with 7 starts of 5+ innings and 3 runs or less. A modest threshold, perhaps, but he’s the only Philly rook who can say that since at least 1916, and the club had won 6 of those 7. But the BoSox have roughed up righties this year (.818/.684 OPS split for RHP/LHP), and they wasted no time in their quest for a series split. Four Sox made the four-cornered pilgrimage to the pentagon in the top of the 1st, two on a big 2-out double by Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Franklin Morales won in his season debut on the hill, coming back from last August’s knock-out injury. He lasted 5, hurt only by Delmon Young’s 2-run shot that halved the lead in the home 1st. Philly’s last best chance died on a Kratz 6-4-3 with bags full in the 4th. Pettibone stiffened through 5, but Boston added HRs by Gomes and Papi off the lefty Jeremy Horst, then Saltied it away in the 9th.

• Jacoby Ellsbury had 5 steals — a Red Sox live-ball record, and all-time Fenway record — in 5 tries, all before the game reached blowout status … but he didn’t score in any of those 4 times on base. He did score in the 1st, when he singled and didn’t steal. He had never swiped more than 2 at home.
• Morales has been in and out of the bigs since 2007, mostly with the Rockies — fitting for the only big leaguer to hail from San Juan de los Morros, Venezuela — but he’s still just 26.
• Reader survey: Are the Red Sox championship material?

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@Braves 11, Blue Jays 3 (box): A pitcher’s other best friend is the answering rally. Mike Minor had let go a 3-0 lead in the top of the 6th, with a hit by the pitcher and a rare Andrelton error. But they got those right back, capped by Jordan Schafer’s 2-run single after Minor’s 1-out sacrifice. They tallied 3 more in the 7th off a pitcher whose name is a car, but whose ERA is a jet.

• Eleven hits in 6 Dickey innings, just 2 Ks.
• Ramiro Pena started at 2B in place of Uggla and was perfect in 3 RISP chances, the 4 RBI doubling his career high.
• Evan Gattis in LF had 3 singles and 3 runs, sparking their first 2 scoring frames.
• Forgotten man in a crowded outfield, Reed Johnson hit his first HR for Atlanta in his 75th game since last year’s deadline deal.
• Do they call this the Bobby Cox Series?

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@Orioles 2, Nationals 0 (box): An unexpected duel in this matchup of veteran righties. Freddy Garcia and Dan Haren own 277 wins between them, but both came in with substandard marks this year. Both were sharp tonight, but the O’s nicked Haren with RBI doubles in the 2nd and 8th (the latter Machado’s 25th), while the Chief was threatened just once while completing 8 innings for the first time since 2009.

The first 2 Nats reached in the 2nd and advanced on a groundout, but there they died. Just one reached thereafter, a 2-out single in the 6th, stranded there. Jim (“I’m not dead yet!”) Johnson finished clean for the 2nd straight night. Neither side gave a walk, a first in the Capital Series, led 32-29 by the O’s after bagging 3 of 4 this year.

Baltimore’s righted their ship, 7-3 since a 6-game slide, moving over .500 at home tonight (17-12 away). They remain 2.5 back in the (once again) ultracompetitive AL East, where 4 teams are between 5 and 11 games over .500. Washington was 20-15 on May 10, putting heat on the Braves, but they’ve tumbled back to .500 and a season-high 5.5-game deficit. They’re 11th in NL scoring (3.52 R/G), and 2-9 when Bryce Harper hasn’t started.

• Baltimore’s 1-2-3 hitters (McLouth, Machado, Markakis) went 7/11 with 4 doubles.
• Among Venezuelan big-leaguers, Garcia is the all-time leader in wins (153), starts and innings. He fanned just 9 through his first 5 starts, but nailed 6 tonight.
• Haren’s SO/BB ratio is over 5, but so is his ERA; no qualifier with that kind of ratio has ever finished over 4.45. But Haren’s fly-ball rate is up this year, and he’s suffered 12 taters and 17 doubles in 63 IP.

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Mets 3, @Yankees 1 (box): Four commanding starts — 28.1 IP, 6 runs, 31 Ks and one walk — paved the way for the Mets’ 4-game sweep, their longest win streak ever against the Bombers. Three of the Yankee starters were just as good (3 runs in 20 IP, 2 walks), but their ‘pen leaked 8 runs to 1 for the Mets.

The last time he pitched, Dillon Gee dropped a nickel in the 5th as the Mets lost their 5th in a row, blanked by the Bravos. Tonight might have been his best game in the majors: career-best 12 Ks with no walks, and just 88 pitches in 7.1 IP. Gee was nicked by Cano’s blast in the 3rd, cutting his lead in half. But he put down the last 15 from there, the last 5 by strikeout, with a few bonus calls from the man in blue.

Vidal Nuno was the hard-luck loser, retiring 15 of his last 16. But a 4-pitch walk to Duda opened the 2nd and doubled the value of Marlon Byrd’s homer. The other Mets run came in the 8th, set up again by a leadoff walk and cashed in by a Buck-lucky 2-out roller up the 3B line. In Nuno’s 3 starts, 4 runs in 16 IP.

• Last 5-game skid by the Yanks was two Mays ago, and included a BoSox Bronx sweep. Mets won 5 in a row last May.
• Gee’s was the third 12-Karat start by a Met this year (Marcum, Harvey), matching last year’s total (all Dickey).
• The Shawn Kelley saga continues: 3 whiffs in 5 batters, but he gave that walk in the 8th and was charged with the run. Kelley’s fanned 36 of 87 (41%), but his ERA rose to 5.57. Yankee relievers fanned 7 of 12.
• Scott Rice got the last 2 outs of the 8th, his 31st appearance in 51 Mets games, tops in the majors. The Mets games record was set 3 years in a row by Pedro Feliciano, ending with 92 in 2010; he hasn’t pitched since.
• Yanks are 0-10 scoring 1 run or 2 (5 times each). Astros, Jays and Angels are the others with no such wins.
• Mets are the second team with 3 straight walk-free games this year, and the streak tied the club record done thrice before (twice during Saberhagen‘s 13-walk, 14-win season). They had never before strung 2 such games against the Yanks.
• First searchable streak of 3 games with 9+ Ks and no walks. A streak of 3 at the 8-K level had been done twice before.
• Not too long ago, a big, hard-throwing righty reliever got hit much harder than his stuff should allow during his first 3 years with the Mets. In 108 innings, he allowed 128 hits, compiling an 87 ERA+. The Mets gave up on Heath Bell, throwing him into a fruitless deal with the Padres; he immediately became one of the game’s top relievers. Four years later, same scenario: Bobby Parnell gave up 145 hits in 128 IP over his first 3 years, with an 88 ERA+. They stuck with him. Parnell blossomed a bit last year (2.49 ERA in 69 IP), and this year he’s been one of the best in the game: 1.85 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, no HRs, and 15th in reliever WAR.

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Rays 5, @Marlins 2 (box): Alex Colome‘s debut frame was typical rookie stuff: 2 Ks, 2 walks, and a run resulting. But he whiffed 5 of the next 10, and lasted 5.2 IP with no more walks or runs to earn the win. Ricky Nolasco dictated the first 5 innings, but hurt himself with 5 straight balls in the 6th when he led, 1-0. The first 4 walked Zobrist, the next put him behind Matt Joyce. The pitch after that put him behind in the game.

The Fish closed to 3-2 in Tampa’s sloppy 8th, 3 walks and a Loney error, but left ’em loaded. The Rays struck right back on Zorilla’s 2-run double, and that made the lead safe even for Rodney.

• When ahead in the count this year, Joyce had a 1.403 OPS before tonight, now has 7 of his 9 HRs in such counts (2 even). Nolasco’s allowed 6 of his 8 HRs in hitter’s counts (2 even).
• Colome’s been wending his way through the bushes and still needs to refine his control, but he has a 2.75 ERA and 9.5 SO/9 in 13 starts at AAA.
• 8 teams have better attendance than the sum of the Florida teams.
• Miami is 13-41. Since 1916, the worst starts in that span are 11-43 by the 1932 BoSox (finished 43-111), and 12-42 by the 1987 Padres (65-97) and 1988 O’s (54-107).

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Thursday bonus coverage!

@Pirates 1, Tigers 0 (11; box): Scoreless into the 11th, for the second time in 3 days, both landing in Pittsburgh’s win column. Russell Martin‘s long fly ended what seemed inevitable once the bases were full of Bucs and no outs. Luke Putkonen took the loss in his 2nd inning of work. Vin Mazzaro stranded 2 from Locke’s jam with big outs in the 6th, then stranded his own after being cornered with 1 down in the 7th. He’s left all 9 inherited this year, and is yet another Bucco reliever with a microscopic ERA.

No bad innings for Doug Fister this outing: 12 Ks, 1 walk in 7 scoreless. But no run support, either, matched against Jeff Locke (now 2.25 ERA in 11 starts). They got 4 straight hits in the 5th, the last by Fister (now 4-13 career), but one was out trying to score in that sequence, and the next two grounded out harmlessly. Detroit had 3 hits with RISP, but none got the job done.

Fister’s 80 Game Score was the 6th at that level for Detroit this year, with at least one for all 5 starters. The total matches the Dodgers and Cards; no other team has more than 3. Four of those Tiger gems came in the last 10 games, but the last 2 earned no decision.

• Pirates are 19-8 in May and 20-9 at home. They have the 2nd-best record in baseball, and Detroit won the pennant last year. But the park was about half full as Pittsburgh clinched this series.
• Bucs lefty Tony Watson celebrated his 28th birthday with a hitless 8th, snapping an 11-game hit streak.
• Prince Fielder went 0-2 with RISP, and a single for 5 overall, his 19th straight homerless game and his BA down to .270. He’s on pace for 28 HRs, threatening his 6-year streak of 30+. He just made it last year, with 2 in the last 5 games.
• These were the only 1-0 games this year going at least 10 full innings.
• Tiger pitching nosed ahead of Houston hitting in the 1,500-K Race, 522 to 519. Tigers and Braves are the only teams to use just 5 starters so far.
• Cabrera had 2 doubles, including his 400th. Only 7 ever had more in their first 11 years, with Albert and Helton tied at 455. He’s also 10th in Total Bases in that same span, and 13th in XBH, headed for top-10, health permitting.

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A bit of Wednesday action

Blue Jays 3, @Braves 0: The dictum for emergency pitchers — “Go as hard as you can, for as long as you can” — produced Toronto’s first whitewash since the opening week. In his first start since 2011, erstwhile reliever Esmil Rogers shucked the memory of those chronic disasters — a 6.23 ERA in 22 prior starts — and gave the Jays 10 outs, fresh call-ups Juan Perez and Neil Wagner got 14 more while facing the minimum, and Casey Janssen cleanly converted Toronto’s first save chance in 15 games.

Rogers, a fairly accomplished hitter (11 for 43 career), twice got the bunt down — the first two-sac game since 2004 for an Ontario hurler — and the Melk Man delivered a 2-out knock worth a pair in the 2nd for the game’s final runs. The Jays have hit .230 with 2 outs and RISP (45 for 196), but Cabrera has a quarter of those hits (11 for 28).

• Atlanta’s boom-or-bust M.O. is established by now: they’re 2-15 with no HRs, 10-6 with 1 HR, 19-0 with 2 or more HRs.
• Teams whose SP went less than 4 innings are now 14-95 this year — but those other starts averaged 5.4 runs in 2.5 innings. Rogers was the first Jay since 2000with a scoreless start of between 3 and 4 innings.
• Janssen has had just 11 save tries this year, allowing but 1 run on 3 hits and no walks in 11 IP. Since 2012, he’s converted 33 of 36, with a SO/BB ratio of 36/2.
• Jays won without an extra-base hit, now 4-35 in such games since 2008.
• 5th time in the majors for Perez, a pro since 1998 with almost 500 games pitched on the farm but just 30 IP in the Show; this was longest stint and best result to date. He earned the look with a hot start at Buffalo.
• Toronto’s used 26 pitchers, 5 more than any other club this year, and already more than 22 teams used last year.
• 2nd time this year Toronto got 3 multi-inning scoreless efforts within regulation; no other team has such a game. The Jays’ last such time was in 2002.
• Due to Kris Medlen‘s quick exit, Atlanta also used 2 long men, both quite effective. Together, the teams had 4 relievers each go 2+ scoreless innings, just the 3rd such 9-inning game since 2009.

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@Orioles 9, Nationals 6, or, “A Tale of Two Zimmies”: The Men of Zimmer had offsetting tater trifectas, leaving Chris “Miggy who?” Davis as the evening’s first star, 4-3-4-3 with his world-beating 18th and 19th HRs.

• Seven earned runs off Jordan Zimmermann was half his total through 10 starts.
• Davis is slugging .766 with 19 HRs, 50 RBI in his team’s 53 games, also on pace for 146 strikeouts. The highest SLG with 140+ Ks is .752 by Mark McGwire in his 70-HR year.
• Chris Tillman is living in a time-warp: Since 2012, he’s allowed 26 HRs in 26 starts, 149 innings, yet he’s 13-5, and with a respectable 4.10 RA/9.
• 31-year-old Nate McLouth has 17 steals (1 CS), a 50+ pace. His prior high is 23 SB. Since 1901, 34 men have had a 50-steal season age 30 and up, but just 2 did it with no prior 30-SB seasons: Eric Byrnes (2007) and Wally Moses (1943). Moses never swiped more than 21 in 11 other years as a regular. The ’43 ChiSox were steal-happy: Luke Appling had a career high of 27 (no other year over 17), 29 for Thurman Tucker (13 otherwise). Moses and Appling went a combined 83-22; the rest were 90-65. The 2013 O’s don’t run a lot besides McLouth; the rest of the team has 24 bags (though with an excellent percentage). Baltimore, KC and San Diego all began Wednesday leading with 40 steals, and just 8 or 9 CS.
• It’s a crime crime against onomatology (or something) that The Gerbil isn’t bench-coach for Washington.