@Reds 3, Giants 0: You might have heard a thing or two about this one. Doug has more, and I’ve got some notes at the bottom of this post. On to the other games….

__________

Indians 6, @Royals 5: Three straight walks opened the top of the 7th in a tie game, and the Tribe cashed 2 there with just one hit, then held on to 1st place in the AL Central. Their first 2 runs came on a walk & a HBP with the bags full in the 1st. If they hadn’t ended 4 innings with GDPs, Cleveland might have really done some damage.

• Alex Gordon‘s slam on a 3-0 count tied the game. It’s the first searchable instance of a 3-0 slam when trailing by 4 or more. (But pitch data only goes back to 1988.) Here are the 10 prior searchable 3-0 slams: Evan Gattis (2013-05-22), Hideki Matsui (2010-06-26), Jason Lane (2006-08-29), Damian Miller (2002-04-02), Jermaine Dye (2000-09-01), John Valentin (1999-05-22), Mike Piazza (1998-04-10), Juan Gonzalez (1997-05-10), Manny Ramirez (1996-05-17), and 1993-08-20. Manny was behind by 3 in the 7th; Aldrete trailed by 2 in the 4th; and Valentin was down 1-0 in the 3rd.

__________

Rays 8, @Astros 0: Good news for the Rays: Longo back in the lineup; Loney‘s 13-G hit streak reversing a 5-week BA decline; punk kid still holding his own. Above all that, though, the AL East race looks a lot hotter if David Price pitches like an ace, not the impostor that dragged his team down to a 2-7 mark in his first 9 starts.

• There’s a thing called a Maddux; do we call this a Narveson? Price whiffed 10 and faced one past the minimum in 7 shutout innings, using just 70 pitches. There’s just one other pitch-searchable game with 10+ Ks on 70 pitches or less, and just one more with 7+ Ks and a pitch-to-whiff ratio of 7 or less.
• From 1916-61, there were 11 team batting games of 12+ strikeouts and no walks. There were 55 from 1962-68; single digits every year from 1969-97; an average of 15 from 1998-2012; and 20 so far this year. Houston has already tied the searchable record of 4 such games in a season.

__________

@Mets 9, D-backs 1: New York’s biggest inning since 2011, a 7-run 7th, broke a 1-all tie and snapped a 30-home-game string scoring 5 runs or less, tied for the longest in one year by any NL club since 1916. (The 1969 Angels hold the MLB mark of 37 games.)

• First consecutive Mets home wins since beating the Yanks at the end of May.
• Josh Satin has reached safely at least twice in 6 straight games, the longest Mets streak of the year — 11 for 22, 5 walks, 6 doubles. He’s only started 10 games. In 51 PAs, he’s 16 for 41, 10 walks, 8 Ks, 7 doubles.

__________

@Red Sox 4, Padres 1: Aw, nuts. John Lackey is back to his old form, with his 4th straight game of 7+ IP on 2 runs or less.

__________

Dodgers 8, @Rockies 0: Clayton Kershaw notched the 21st shutout in Coors Field history, the first by a Dodger since 1998. Only 5 other lefties have done it. Only Tom Glavine has 2 (including RHPs). The rest of the division lost and totaled 2 runs. The Dodgers are now tied for 3rd, 2.5 games out.

• I don’t want to see Yasiel Puig on the All-Star team. It’s not just a fun exhibition for fans; it’s a validation for the players. Think of the deserving players who won’t make it this year. Think of those who’ve never made it yet, despite worthy years — like Alex Gordon (two 6-WAR years); or Eric Chavez, Travis Hafner, Austin Jackson and John Danks (three 5-WAR years); or Shin-Soo Choo, Aaron Harang and Chien-Ming Wang (two 5-WAR years). I’m not saying any of them should be chosen from sentiment (though some are having fine years). I’m saying, you don’t break an 80-year unwritten rule to honor a rookie who’ll have at most 40 games in the majors by the time the Midsummer Classic is played.
• Besides — we have plenty of ways to see Puig. (And now he has more HRs than Kemp and Ethier combined.)
• More on the ASG: I’m amused by the notion that Matt Harvey “should” start for the NL, since it’s in New York. Um … Kershaw hasn’t started one yet. Adam Wainwright hasn’t started one. Harvey should pitch in the game, for sure. But there’s no clear statistical case for Harvey to date, so I say: hire the vet!

__________

@Braves 11, Marlins 3: Atlanta’s first homerless game of more than 5 runs since last September; first time more than 8 since April 2011.

__________

Brewers 4, @Nationals 0: Stephen Strasburg is now the worst-supported pitcher in either league.

• Home teams whose starter went exactly 7 scoreless innings are 267-28 since 2010. This year’s Nats are 2-2 in those games.

__________

Tigers 7, @Blue Jays 6: Just one hit for Miggy, but it was a biggie.

__________

@Angels 5, Cardinals 1: Jered Weaver‘s last two efforts shut down two of the top three scoring teams in baseball, each on 1 run in 7 IP. Suddenly sunny in SoCal (sorry, Pads!), the Halos are a manageable(?) 6.5 games out of the 2nd wild card spot.

__________

@White Sox 5, Orioles 2: Adam Dunn‘s season pace: .199 BA, 44 HRs, 109 RBI, 109 hits, 75 runs, 14 doubles. They say a camel is a horse designed by committee; I say the Big Donkey was their first draft. But this is no hump-backed liner.

Dunn’s chasing his own records for both fewest hits and lowest BA in a 40-HR season (110, .204, last year); he’s also in range of the fewest runs (74, Matt Williams, 1994), and if he really sets his mind to it, the fewest doubles (11, Harmon Killebrew). And Big Mac‘s distinction of more ribbies than hits in a 100-RBI is definitely reachable.

• The Adam Jones No Freebies tour continues: 42 straight games without a walk, a franchise (searchable) record, and the longest streak by any starting non-pitcher since 2008 (43, Freddy Sanchez).
• Manny Machado‘s longest streak without a double this year is 8 games. In that stretch, he hit .324, 2 HRs, 8 runs, 6 RBI, and the O’s went 6-2.
• Wednesday, Scott Feldman comes home to the AL, the first sandbag in the leaky levee that is Balto’s rotation. Meanwhile, the Cubs roll Matt Garza out to the showroom floor.

__________

Yankees 7, @Twins 3: Robby seems red-hot, but is he truly streaky? It’s just the second time he’s ever homered in 3 straight games; there have been 659 streaks of 3 or more since he broke in. He has 5 straight multi-hit games; the last time he had at least that many was the last 9 games of the 2012 regular season, so we know how quickly things can change.

• They gave Mo a rocker. It’s not true that he sat in it for the 2 pitches and 1 out that comprised his 635th save.
• Alberto Gonzalez: First 3-RBI game by a Yankee shortstop since D.J. last August 1, a 140-game span.

__________

@Athletics 8, Cubs 7: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” Well, maybe not … but nobody tramples the downtrodden quite like the A’s, who’re now 33-13 against teams under .500.

• And for a picture of the Cubs’ past and present, just watch this boot. I think Dale Sveum feels like that stomped-on face. Easy, Dale; just one more year on Sori’s deal–then you can start watching the clock on Starlin, instead.

____________________

No-Hitter Notes:

Homer Bailey is the 4th-fastest to a second no-hitter, doing it in his 128th game. Johnny Vander Meer got his second in game #32, Steve Busby in #58, and Don Wilson in #71.

At 27 years, 60 days, Bailey is 7th-youngest to a second no-hitter:

• Vander Meer, 23.225
• Wilson, 24.078
• Busby, 24.263
• Ken Holtzman, 25.212
• Dutch Leonard, 26.048
• Ryan, 26.165
• Bailey, 27.060

The smallest gap between no-hitters, by number of games pitched in between (bold = same year):

• 0 — Vander Meer
• 5 — Warren Spahn
• 11 — Ryan (also 13 and 24, different years)
• 13 — Sandy Koufax
• 17 — Allie Reynolds
• 17 — Bailey
• 21 — Virgil Trucks

Footnote: On June 14, 1965, Jim Maloney no-hit the Mets for 10 innings in Crosley Field, with one walk and 17 strikeouts. That would have set a record for Ks in a no-hitter (Ryan did the same 8 years later), except the Reds couldn’t score against Frank Lary and Larry Bearnarth. They got a man to 3rd base with 2 outs in both the 8th and 10th, but first Pete Rose, then Tommy Harper, couldn’t deliver. They also had Vada Pinson nailed at the plate in the 4th, trying to score from 2nd base on a strikeout/passed ball. New York’s Johnny Lewis led off the 11th with a home run, busting both ends of the no-no, and ultimately hanging a loss on Maloney. Lewis had fanned his first 3 trips, but he did hit Maloney pretty well, 7 for 28 with 3 HRs. Thirteen starts later, Maloney bagged his first no-hitter, a 10-inning, 10-walk affair. (By the way, Maloney’s near-miss started with a 2-strike foul bunt by Billy Cowan, leading off the game. And you wonder why Billy’s career petered out.)