@Twins 6, Rays 4 — Josmil Pinto planted a 3-run bomb on Joel Peralta in the 8th, capping Minnesota’s 4-run rally (all after 2 were out), as well as a general bullpen failure that brought Tampa closer to the pack.

Peralta got his first two men, but then gave up a solo shot to Ryan Doumit, a single by Trevor Plouffe, and a walk to Josh Willingham, setting up the hard-hitting rookie catcher. David Price handed off to Jake McGee a 3-0 lead with 1 out in the 7th, but 3 men on (2 walks), and when McGee’s 1-and-2 fastball came right down the middle to Chris Parmelee, the lead was cut to one. Tampa got one back in their 8th, but left the bases loaded from 1 out. Evan Longoria’s hard grounder towards the line might have grown the lead to 5-0 in the 5th, but Plouffe dived and denied.

• Pinto is 15 for 37 with 2 HRs, 5 doubles, and just 5 strikeouts. He had a .400 OBP in the high minors this year, with 83 Ks against 66 walks.

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Athletics 5, @Rangers 1 — Three home runs powered visiting Oakland to a sweep and a 6.5-game choke-hold on the division. Texas has lost 11 of their last 13, including 7 straight at home and 5 of 6 to the A’s, who’ve gone 11-3 in that same span.

•  Because of Sunday’s results, the upcoming 4-game showdown of Texas at Tampa will open the door for at least one wild-card challenger. And a “play-in-for-the-play-in” has never seemed more in play.

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Indians 7, @White Sox 1 — The scent of blood in the wild-card water may have spurred them on, but the Tribe had already beaten Chris Sale 3-for-3 this year before hanging another six runs on Chicago’s ace. Journeyman Matt Carson drove in the first two with a single and his first Cleveland HR. Asdrubal Cabrera’s 3-run shot in the 6th effectively sealed the 4-game sweep of the hapless ChiSox, who’ve lost 6 in a row (scoring 6 runs) and 15 of 17. Zach McAllister pitched shutout ball into the 7th.

• Sale is 0-4 against the Indians this year, with 22 ER in 23 IP. Against all other teams, his ERA is 2.37.
• Cleveland is 15-2 against the White Sox with 2 remaining, securing their best W% in that series (at least since 1916) and a chance for their most wins.

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Orioles 3, @Blue Jays 1 — Another big extra-base hit by Danny Valencia turned a deficit into a lead and helped the O’s stay poised in the daily-shifting AL wild-card race. Miguel Gonzalez held Toronto to Adam Lind’s solo HR, and the bullpen got 11 outs — the biggest when Tommy Hunter came on to fan Friday’s foil, Moises Sierra, and escape a sacks-full 7th.

• Valencia has 21 XBH from 39 hits this year, and a .691 slugging average against southpaws. I don’t know if 2 outs, 2 on and down by one in the 3rd inning qualifies as “high leverage,” but Valencia came in 10 for 25 in hi-lev spots, slugging .840.
• Jim Johnson has 45 saves — with the worst Win Probability Added (by far) of all the 59 pitcher-seasons at that level, and the worst WPA of this year’s 32 pitchers with 15+ saves.

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@Tigers 3, Royals 2 — Kansas City tied it in the 8th on Drew Smyly’s wild pitch that caromed off Alex Avila, denying Max Scherzer’s 20th win. But Avila’s second homer of the game off Jeremy Guthrie hung a heavy loss on the Royals’ fading playoff hopes. Scherzer struck out 12 in 7 innings, including 5 straight soon after Alex Gordon’s leadoff HR in the 4th, and crossed 200 innings for the first time, but fell short in the strongest of his four bids at win number 20.

Resilience kept Guthrie in for the late innings. Detroit had 11 hits through five, but left 8 men on base in that stretch, going 0-9 with RISP. In the 5th they had three cracks with men on 3rd and 2nd, and grounded out each time, as 13 of Guthrie’s first 15 outs came on grounders. Scherzer answered by stranding two in scoring position to end his day.

• Jarrod Dyson’s 12-pitch AB tied the longest ever against Scherzer, and was the first of those six that ended in a strikeout.

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@Red Sox 9, Yankees 2 — New York scored first (walk, pickoff error, groundout), but they could do nothing else against a clearly out-of-synch Clay Buchholz. The live-rehabbing ace walked 4 in 6 innings, with many pitches shoulder-high and up, but allowed just 2 singles and improved to 11-0 wit a 1.51 ERA. Ivan Nova had the same command issues, with more typical results. Daniel Nava had 4 hits, raising his OBP to .393, and Mike Napoli launched his usual anti-Yank missile.

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@Pirates 3, Cubs 2 — Hits by Marlon Byrd and Justin Morneau brought Andrew McCutchen home to break a tie in the 8th, and the Bucs held onto their share of 1st place. Francisco Liriano started off dominating the Cubs as he’s done all year. He had a no-hitter after 6 innings, but would not get another out. Junior Lake singled to the SS hole, and Welington Castillo crushed a pipeline fastball for a tying 2-run homer. Donnie Murphy made a bid to put the Cubs on top in the 8th, but Marlon Byrd tracked it down and doubled off the apparently disoriented Anthony Rizzo.

• Liriano is 3-0 in 4 starts against Chicago this year, with 11 hits and 4 runs in 29 innings.
• The Rays released Kyle Farnsworth in August with a 5.76 ERA. In 6 games for Pittsburgh, no runs, 3 hits and a walk, a save and a win.

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@Brewers 6, Reds 5 — Cincinnati blew a 5-1 lead, Carlos Gomez stole the hero’s laurels from Jay Bruce, and Sean Halton slugged a game-winning homer off Zach Duke. Milwaukee’s rallies in the 7th and 8th exploited 5 free runners and set off a chain of matchup moves by Dusty Baker, plowing through his more reliable relievers … except for … oh, never mind.

• Gomez also gunned down Brandon Phillips on a “sure” 1st-to-3rd single by Bruce.

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@Nationals 11, Phillies 2 — You don’t suppose…. Naaaahhh.

• One key to Washington’s 11-3 September has been Wilson Ramos, who has 22 RBI this month, and 55 in 68 games this year.
• Jordan Zimmermann is the 2nd National to reach 18 wins, and the 6th in Nats/Expos franchise history. None has done it more than once, and only Gio Gonzalez has won 20.

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Padres 4, @Braves 0 — Burch Smith came in with a 9.17 ERA in 18 innings, but earned his first win with 7 shutout innings, holding Atlanta hitless for the first 5, and finishing with 10 strikeouts.

• Yes, he’s the only MLB player ever with the first name “Burch.” (No “Birch,” either.)
• Check out Smith’s release point — as low as any I remember without throwing sidearm or even classic “three-quarters.” Just a 14th-round draft pick in 2011 (the highest of 3 drafts he entered), Smith has zipped through the minors in two years with great SO/BB data. Seems like his angle of release helps with low strike placement, but without a downward plane, he could serve up some taters. He did allow 5 HRs in his first 18 IP.
• 14 shutouts against the Braves, tying their most in the last quarter-century.

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@Mets 1, Marlins 0 (12 inn.) — This game would have fit into the AL wild-card race, as neither side seemed to really want it. Travis d’Arnaud’s first game-winning hit — the only hit by either team with a man in scoring position — salvaged an inning that started with bags full, then saw two straight forceouts at the plate.

• Dillon Gee’s last 20 starts: 2.62 RA/9, 1.11 WHIP.
• Second-longest shutout win this year; Miami (who lead MLB with 17 shutout losses) dropped one in 13 innings at Milwaukee.
• Daniel Murphy had an adventure in the 9th. His error put the go-ahead run on 2nd with no outs, but Murphy rubbed him out on the next play with a daring throw across the diamond. (Check out the rookie Wilmer Flores blocking the runner off the base.)

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Giants 4, @Dodgers 3 — You have just entered … the Underpants Zone: Two homers, 3 RBI by Hunter Pence, making 6 HRs and 19 RBI in his last 6 games, 9 and 25 in 14 games this month.

• Last Giant with 25 RBI in any month: Ray Durham, 2006.
• It’s the only two-HR game by a Giant this year. (Pablo Sandoval hit 3 HRs on Sept. 4.)

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Random Notes

With Max Scherzer still stuck on 19 wins, Game Notes challenges you to name the five pitchers (since 1893) who twice won exactly 19 without ever winning 20 in a season.

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Chase Headley’s home run Saturday snapped Craig Kimbrel‘s scoreless streak at 28 games and 28 innings. That’s only the 4th-longest this season (by total innings in the streak) and 6th in the last 3 years. But since Craig also owns the longest streak in that span (38 games, 37.2 IP in 2011), he’s probably not bitter over the Headley homer.

Braves with any 40-save seasons: John Smoltz, 3 (high of 55, total 144 from 2002-04; 13 blown saves, 91.7% conversions); Craig Kimbrel, 3 (high of 47 and counting; total 135 from 2011-13; 14 blown, 90.6% conversions).

I’m staring at these stats for Kimbrel the last 2 years: 62.2 innings and 60.2 innings, 7 runs allowed each season. He would be the first pitcher ever with 2 seasons of 50+ IP and an ERA under 1.10, and would join Mariano Rivera in having 2 years with ERA+ at least 300.

And as I gazed at Kimbrel’s career totals, I had a flashback to Pedro, 2000:

• Pedro (2000) — 217 IP, 291 ERA+, .473 OPS
• Kimbrel (career) — 221 IP, 292 ERA+, .452 OPS

Pedro’s 291 ERA+ is the all-time record for qualified pitchers from 60 feet, while the OPS ranks 2nd to Bob Gibson ’68 (.469) among those for whom that figure is known. Kimbrel bests both marks. Of course, it’s much easier to do this as a closer. But right now, Kimbrel has the lowest career ERA of any pitcher with 200+ IP, and for the live-ball era, his margin is 1.34-2.15 over Kenley Jansen, in about the same innings.

With Luis Avilan‘s ERA at 1.48, the 2013 Braves could be the first team in the live-ball era with 2 pitchers at 50+ IP and ERA under 1.50.

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Yu Darvish now has 20 career games of 10+ strikeouts, with a 2.42 RA/9 in those games. The Rangers have gone 11-9, and Yu 10-7. In all other 10-K games the last 2 years, teams are 226-95, and the pitchers are 179-59. No other pitcher has lost more than 3 such games.

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Pittsburgh’s pitching staff leads the majors in:

• GB/FB ratio (1.13, only team over 1; average is 0.82)
• Ground out/Air out ratio (1.53; average 1.10)
• HR/FB (5.7%; average 7.6%)
• Fewest HRs allowed (93; next is 107; NL average 132)
• Extra-base hit percentage (5.7%; next is 6.5%; NL average 7.2%

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Moises Sierra has 12 doubles out of 20 hits. That would be the highest 2B% ever for 20 hits or more. Just one other player topped 50% doubles with 20+ hits, John Kroner of the 1938 Indians; but Kroner didn’t get enough other hits, and never played again.