@Tigers 3, White Sox 2 (12 inn.) — Miguel Cabrera sat out his 4th straight start, but his pinch-hit started the winning rally. Austin Jackson bunted the pinch-runner to 2nd, and Torii Hunter singled him home, then was showered with affection. Detroit has won 8 in a row, their best in 2 seasons, with a quality start each game, totaling 56 IP with a 1.12 ERA and 0.93 WHIP. Chicago’s free-fall reached 10 straight losses, as bad as any one-season streak they’ve had since 1956. (The ChiSox had 10-game skids in 1976 and 1968.)

Drew Smyly came on in the 8th to get Rick Porcello out of a jam, whiffing Adam Dunn (then 3-3 with a HR) to leave the tying run at 3rd. But Paul Konerko cracked Smyly’s 2nd pitch of the 9th into the bullpen, the first run to cross in the southpaw’s last 14 appearances, and the 2nd HR he’s yielded in 62 IP this year.

Porcello allowed Dunn’s monster home run — Jackson gave it a courtesy jog, but there was no doubt about the first HR in 8 games off a Detroit SP — but he scattered 7 other hits and one walk in his 7.2 IP, and was in line to win his 5th straight start. Sox rookie Andre Rienzo made his 2nd start and carried a 1-0 lead to the 7th, bidding for his first win, but he walked the first two before Alex Avila’s tying double (Detroit’s only extra-base hit). Jose Iglesias (0-5) failed to bring in the runner from 3rd, but Ramon Santiago’s flyout did the trick. After Chicago leveled, Jose Veras came on for his first high-leverage work as a Tiger, and got 6 outs from 6 batters. Dylan Axelrod suffered his 2nd walk-off loss of the week.

• Prince Fielder went 0-5 with his 18th GDP, and his BA fell to .260, his lowest since the opening week.
• Just when you thought he was —- for good: Adam Dunn’s last 48 games have a .308 BA, .410 OBP, 13 HRs and 36 RBI.
• Attendance: 103% of capacity.

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Indians 2, @Marlins 0 — Can’t stop that Cleveland Shutout Machine. Scott Kazmir paced their MLB-high 15th whitewash (and 3rd in 9 games) with 6 two-hit innings, for a 1.93 ERA in his last 9 outings. Nathan Eovaldi turned in his 8th quality start in 9 tries (1 run in 7 IP), but he fell to 2-2 with a 3.19 ERA. Yan Gomes, the part-time catcher, got the offense started (such as it was) in the 2nd with the first of his 3 hits, scoring on a single by Lonnie Chisenhall, and the next inning he picked off Jeff Mathis after a leadoff walk. Give Jason Kipnis half credit for that one, and full marks for full extension.

• In 47 games, Gomes is hitting .310 and slugging .529, and has thrown out 12 of 21 base-stealers.
• Kazmir has turned off the home-run spigot: 12 dingers in his first 11 games, but 2 in the last 9.
• Cleveland’s 62-49 record matches that of 2007, their last trip to the playoffs, and is their best since 1999. Since an 8-13 start, they’re 54-36, a .600 clip, with a winning record in each month after April. But their latest 10-1 stretch has gained them just a half-game on Detroit. Their chance to address that, as well as their 3-9 mark against the Tigers, starts Monday with a 4-game home series. After that, the clubs play just one more 3-game series, late August in the Motor City.

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Dodgers 1, @Cubs 0 — Stephen Fife worked around 9 baserunners in 5.1 innings, and three relievers set down the last 11 in order — none bigger than the 2 outs Chris Withrow got in the 6th, after Fife turned over a full house. L.A. got just 2 hits against Carlos Villanueva & Co., but they only needed one: a single by A.J. Ellis following 2 leadoff walks in the 2nd.

• Pick your measure of Dodgers calefaction: 4-game road sweep (14th straight road win); 8-1, 14-2, 20-4, 31-7. They now lead the West by 5.5 games.
• But this could be an uh-oh.
• Attendance: 94%.

Historical sidebar: Chris Capuano and Stephen Fife, meet Rex Barney and Jack Banta: These last two games were the Dodgers’ first back-to-back shutouts in Wrigley Field since Sept. 19-20, 1949, their only other pair in that venue. In the midst of Brooklyn’s late charge for the ’49 pennant, Barney tossed a 1-hitter, his bid for glory broken up in the 8th by Phil Cavaretta; Barney also went 2-for-4 with an RBI in the 4-0 win. Banta, a rookie swing-man, followed up with his only career shutout, and Luis Olmo, who was the 2nd MLB player from Puerto Rico, had the biggest hit of the 5-0 win, a 2-out, 2-run single for a 3-0 lead in the 6th.

Brooklyn had been hot for a month without gaining ground on the Cardinals, who were after their 5th pennant of the decade. The Dodgers traveled from ChiTown to St. Louis and took 2 of 3, but they lost a 1-0 heartbreaker on Joe Garagiola’s game-winning hit off Don Newcombe, and headed home down by a half-game with six to go. The Cards opened their final week with 2 wins over last-place Chicago, building their lead to 1.5 games, but they dropped 4 of their last 5 to the Cubs and the 6th-place Pirates. Needing a final-day road win to clinch outright, Brooklyn blew a 5-run lead to the upstart Phillies (in their first winning year since 1932), as Newcombe and Barney were roughed up. Banta came on in the 6th and was charged with no runs the rest of the way. Lefty Ken Heintzelman held the Dodgers down for 3 innings, but they scored 2 in the top of the 10th, driven in by Duke Snider and Olmo, and Banta retired Richie Ashburn as the tying run to clinch the pennant.

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@Pirates 5, Rockies 1 — Another capacity crowd saw the Bucs go on top early, then ride A.J. Burnett’s first complete game since last year’s 1-hitter, for a series win that bumped Pittsburgh’s best-in-baseball record to 67-44. Burnett meted out 8 singles and had a runner on base in 7 different innings, but he used 9 Ks, 2 GDPs and a CS to keep Colorado at bay and ring up his first win since June 8, which predated a DL stint. Andrew McCutchen reached 3 times and drove in the first run, and Russell Martin broke open a close game in the 5th, lining the first pitch thrown by Manny Corpas right down the line for a 3-run HR.

• “It all happened so fast, officer.” The Rockies have lost 10 of 14, tumbling from 3.5 back to 10.5 games out in the West.
• McCutchen is on track to become the 3rd active player with 100+ games and at least a 120 OPS+ in each of his first 5 years. The others are Albert Pujols and Ryan Braun. By no means am I comparing him to them as a hitter, just in terms of consistency from the start of a career.
• Attendance: 99%.

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Cardinals 15, @Reds 2 — In spite of the final score, and the Cardinals’ 4-run 1st inning (all starting with 2 outs), this was a real game for a good while, so give Lance Lynn some credit for his 8 innings of 4-hit ball and season-high 11 Ks. Cincinnati got 2 back off Lynn in the 2nd, and it stayed 4-2 into the 6th, as Lynn set down 10 straight to that point. And then St. Louis scored 11 unanswered runs.

• The first 7 runs were charged to Mike Leake, who came in with a 2.59 ERA (6th in the NL) and a 1.82 mark in his last 14 games. But the Cards seem to have his number; he’s 2-4 with a 5.87 ERA in 7 starts.
• “There’s your 6 runs; now make it stand up.” After going 18-7 with a 3.78 ERA last year, Lance Lynn is now 13-5 with a … 3.78 ERA this year. Can he help it that they score so many runs on his behalf? He has 24 starts backed by 6+ runs in the last 2 years, tied for 2nd in MLB. Give him this: He does better than most at converting those outbursts to wins. Lynn is 19-0 in those 24 games. Take the combined winning and losing rates of the other 15 pitchers with 20 or more such games, and apply that to Lynn’s 24 starts, it comes out to 17-1.
• Ten of the Cards’ 19 hits went for extra bases, their most in over a year.
• St. Louis has won 2 of 3 in all 4 series vs. the Reds this year.
• I’m happy to note the recent recall of an old favorite, Adron “Large Collider” Chambers. He may not be part of their nucleus yet, but he lends a quantum of protection against any decay by their aging outfield.
• Attendance: 94%.

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@Rays 4, Giants 3 — Tampa Bay scored the last 2 runs in this seesaw game, each cashing a leadoff walk, and 4 relievers retired 13 of the last 14 Giants, as the Rays captured this run-scarce series despite being outscored, 7-6. Alex Torres came on for the last out of the 5th with the tying run on 2nd and worked through the 6th, earning a vulture win; he’s 4-0 with an [ahem] 0.26 ERA (1 run in 34.1 IP). Wil Myers tattooed a chest-high slider into the shockingly full LF stands for his 8th HR, flipping a 1-0 deficit in the 1st, but Brandon Crawford’s 2-run triple put the Jints back on top in the 4th. Sam Fuld stole 2nd with 2 outs in the 5th and scored the tying run on Evan Longoria’s hit, then Fuld drove in the tiebreaker with a 2-out knock in the 6th. Three of the four Rays runs reached on walks, as San Fran doled out seven.

• In 8 years in the minors, Torres was always mainly a starter, compiling a 3.65 ERA and 1.45 WHIP in 700+ innings. We know that relieving is easier than starting, but what he’s doing to big-league hitters is ridiculous. They’re batting .088, 10 for 113, with 2 doubles, no HRs.
• Tampa is 12-3 against the NL with 5 left to go, all this coming week in a short western trip to Phoenix and L.A. Just 9 of their last 51 games are against teams now holding playoff spots (3 BOS, 3 OAK, 3 LAD).
• The last 2 games have seen the Rays’ biggest home crowds since the opening week, with Sunday the first sellout since Opening Day.

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Mariners 3, @Orioles 2 — After picking off Michael Saunders, all Wei-Yin Chen needed to get through the 7th with a 2-1 lead was one more strike against .188 hitter Brendan Ryan. He threw 2 balls instead, walking Ryan, but that only brought up 41-year-old Henry Blanco, batting .172. Strike one; strike two; foul ball; gone. The last 9 O’s went down quietly against the Seattle bullpen, and the M’s took the rubber game.

• Danny Valencia broke an 0-for-23 skid with a double in the 4th, then put Baltimore on top in the 6th with a 2-run rocket off Joe Saunders, his 5th HR and 11 XBH out of 16 safeties. But the O’s missed many chances before that, going 0-11 with RISP (3 of those by Chris Davis), and have now lost 8 of 12.
• Blanco’s 2 prior HRs this year were grand slams.

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Rangers 4, @Athletics 0 — In his first time back at the site of 2012’s fiasco finale, Derek Holland blanked the A’s on 4 hits for 8 innings, fanning a season-high 10 and improving to 5-1, 2.54 in 10 career starts against Oakland. Texas’s top 3 went 0-12, but one reached on a 2-base error by Yoenis Cespedes in the 1st, and Adrian Beltre punished the gaffe with a 2-out single. Nelson Cruz and Mitch Moreland drove in the others with home runs off A.J. Griffin, his 4th straight game allowing 2+ HRs giving him 28 for the year.

• Texas took 2 of 3 in this set, closing to 2.5 games behind. They’re 8-5 vs. Oakland this year, after 8-11 last year.
• 4 straight multi-HR-allowed games ties the high for the last 4 seasons, matched this year by Hisashi Iwakuma, and last year by Derek Holland, Ervin Santana and Joe Blanton.

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Braves 4, @Phillies 1 — Alex Wood’s six 2-hit innings earned his 2nd straight QS win and Atlanta’s 10th straight triumph, six of them saved by Craig Kimbrel. Jason Heyward scored twice at the top of the lineup, Chris Johnson supplied the 1st-inning lead with a 2-out, 2-run hit, and both Upton brothers had 2 hits for the game and a double off Cliff Lee in the 2-run 4th. Lee lost his 3rd start in a row, and has a 5.92 ERA in his last four. He opened his night with a 5-pitch walk to Heyward, the first time this year that he’s walked the first batter; he has one of those each of the last four years, spanning 111 starts.

• The Phillies got 4 hits in losing their 13th of 14, batting .198 with 2.4 R/G in the spiral.

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@Brewers 8, Nationals 5 — A five-run 5th stacked on three infield hits led the Crew out of a 4-1 hole and kept Washington from a weekend sweep. Milwaukee’s 8 runs came on 3 groundouts (including a squeeze), 2 infield singles (tallying 3), a sac fly and a double. The Nats went 2-11 with RISP and hit 3 DP grounders, 2 by Ian Desmond.

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@Padres 6, Yankees 3 — A popular theory here in New York is that Phil Hughes, an 18-game winner in 2010, needs a bigger home park to thrive. After he failed to last the 3rd inning in his first look at the most spacious grounds since Griffith Stadium, an alternate theory arose: He’s just not that good. Hughes squared off with Ian Kennedy, debuting for San Diego, in a battle of one-time jewels of the Yankees system. The ex-Yank came out on top, but without sparking memories of his glory year.

It’s true that Hughes has pitched better away from the Bronx, where the HRs have come half as often. But even his road stats are nothing special: 3.98 ERA, 7.4 SO/9, 2.6 SO/BB, and 35 HRs in 362 IP (all before today). His deeper problem is pitching with men on base: His true BA allowed is 10 points higher with anyone on (.259-.249), and his HR rate is a little bit higher with men on, while for most pitchers it’s a little bit lower. He’s done his best work with a big lead (4.04 ERA when backed by 6+ runs, 5.24 otherwise). He’s an extreme flyball pitcher, so he doesn’t get many DPs.

• Big brother Andrew won’t hear the end of this from Austin Romine: “I got my first jack before you did!” Now Austin’s just 4 back of papa Kevin.
• Attendance: 102%.

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More from Saturday

@Reds 8, Cardinals 3 — The 3rd searchable game wherein both SPs walked exactly 5 men in exactly 5 innings. Both Tony Cingrani and Jake Westbrook also allowed 4 hits, but Cingrani escaped a couple spots of on-3rd-with-1-out-or-less — including the 1st inning with no outs, fanning Allen Craig and David Freese — and he came away with his 5th win in 6 decisions, while the Reds improved to 4-7 in this season series. Jack Hannahan flipped a 1-0 deficit with a 2-out, 2-run single in the 1st, after an IBB to Jay Bruce, and Cincinnati pulled away in the 8th with 2 HRs off rookie Michael Blazek, including Devin Mesoraco’s 2nd of the game.

• 8th is enough: Mesoraco’s 2-HR game was the 4th this year by an NL #8 hitter, and the 2nd in 2 games of this series. Daniel Descalso did it for the Cards on Friday. The other 2 games were also against the Reds, by Wilson Ramos on April 6 and Andrelton Simmons on May 6.

Reds #3-4 hitters: Joey Votto reached 4 times (3 walks) and scored twice. The Reds have 76 runs and 53 RBI from the #3 spot (almost all of it Votto), for a 1.43 R/RBI ratio. All other NL #3 hitters combined have a 1.02 R/RBI ratio. Meanwhile, Reds #4 hitters (almost all Brandon Phillips) have 59 runs and 88 RBI, an 0.67 ratio; the rest of the NL has an 0.86 R/RBI ratio at #4. So the Reds are extreme in both cases — but, taken together, the Reds’ #3-4 spots have 136 runs and 141 RBI, an 0.96 ratio, very near the 0.94 for the rest of the NL. More importantly, the Reds are +32 in (Runs+RBI) for those two spots, compared to the rest of the NL.

The bottom line: While I’m not a big fan of Phillips the cleanup man, the contrast in styles between him and Votto might be synergistic. It’s certain that Phillips would not have so many RBI hitting behind a more typical #3 — but it’s quite possible that Votto would not have so many runs with a more typical #4. Consider: Votto’s current .439 OBP is almost the same as for 2010-12 combined (.434). He had more power in those years, slugging .564 vs. .514 now. Yet he’s currently scoring at a higher rate, 99 runs per 650 PAs, 5 more than for 2010-12. This is the first year that Phillips has been their dominant cleanup man; the past 3 years were divided among Phillips, Jay Bruce and Scott Rolen, and Phillips had the best RBI rate among them. For sure, there’s more to hitting cleanup than RBI; Brandon’s low OBP costs RBI for the hitters behind him. I’m just saying, he might not be such a bad choice for the job as is widely believed in the sabermetric community, given the specific tendencies of those in this lineup.