Athletics 10, @Angels 9 (11 inn.) — Oakland blew a late 3-run lead even without Jim Johnson’s involvement, but they still came out smiling. Josh Donaldson yanked a tie-breaking double inside third base, and the deposed $10-million closer made that enough for the win. Mike Trout had tied the game in the 9th, then got himself halfway home in the 11th with his first stolen base. Johnson used the open sack to pass the lately-potent Pujols and pursue a personal demon named Raul Ibanez; this time, the pitcher prevailed.

• The game added almost half a run to Oakland’s ERA. It’s still very early, in a very long season.
• Base Five? Only the numbers 0 through 4 were used on the scoreboard, each at least once, most twice or more.

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Cardinals 6, @Brewers 1 — Milwaukee’s hot start ran into another sharp pitcher, prolonging St. Loo’s recent reign in this rivalry. Shelby Miller’s first win gave the Redbirds’ starters a 9-3, 2.91 mark.

• Cards are 25-11 vs. Milwaukee since 2012, 13-5 in Miller Park.

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@Marlins 11, Nationals 2 — Giancarlo lit the fuse, Stephen Strasburg blew up, and Tom Koehler captured their rematch, yielding a leadoff single but no more hits through the 7th, stopping Miami’s 8-game skitter.

• OOM-pah-pah! Steven Souza’s first career hit un-schneided the Nats in the 8th.

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Pirates 8, @Reds 7 — “Suspended?! Shoot, they shoulda arm-rassled for it, like any lumberjack meet!”

In the slugfest’s predictably anticlimactic conclusion, Pittsburgh pulled through on Russell Martin’s ground single, and Melancon/Grilli (plus Watson) nursed that scratch for the Bucs’ sixth one-run win.

The antediluvian stanzas seemed like a ’98 flashback. After the guests went up 1-0 in the 1st, Todd Frazier answered in the home half with a 2-out, 2-run HR. The Pirates’ 2nd began with Neil Walker and Gaby Sanchez going back-to-back. Relative calm until the 4th, when the Reds seized the lead on Ryan Ludwick’s 2-out, 2-run shot. Naturally, the Bucs fired both barrels to start their 5th, Starling Marte and Travis Snider the gunners. Two outs and a man on second in the home half, Joey Votto foiled any pitch-around ideas by slugging the first offer for a 6-5 Cincy lead, and their third 2-out, 2-run jack.

Jay Hoover relieved Four-Homer Bailey to start the 6th, but Walker & Sanchez seemed not to notice the change, reprising their 2nd-inning twofer. Finally, the pattern was shattered by Devin Mesoraco’s 2-out solo blast that tied the score, and set a ballpark record of 10 HRs in one game — just as the rains came.

• I found one Reds-Pirates game with more than ten home runs — a familiar stop on our tour.
• Two Cincy regulars have .400 OBPs, but the team’s still 12th in the NL, thanks to Zack Cozart and Billy Hamilton. Cozart still hasn’t crossed home plate in 41 PAs, double the next-worst scoring drought.

@Reds 7, Pirates 5 — The regular contest also highlighted homers. Cincy pulled ahead for good with a pair of 2-run pokes in the 6th against Gerrit Cole, the latter a laser by Mike Leake. A 3rd-inning double let Leake score the tying run on Votto’s “wait, did I hit it?” hump-backer.

• Leake’s was the third game of 2 XBH by a pitcher since 2012.
• This swing drove an opposite-field homer?!?
• Billy Hamilton got aboard in the pinch, but was wiped off by Martin’s strong-if-not-pinpoint peg — the first caught-stealing this year for the Bucs’ backstop, and second in four tries by Hamilton.
• Starling Marte fanned six times in the two games. Marte has many positives, including his defense. He also has a 5.4 ratio of strikeouts to walks, backed up by minor-league stats that made me think he’d never make it. Catcher Miguel Olivo is the only player to log 3,000 PAs with a SO/BB ratio of 5 or more; nine others had at least 4 SO/BB. Marte’s current 116 career OPS+ would be highest by far of that hacker pool. He does add almost as many HBP as walks, and that plus a .360 BAbip keeps his OBP healthy enough. But only Cobb, Shoeless Joe and the Rajah kept a .360 BAbip for their careers.

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@White Sox 2, Red Sox 1 — Mike Carp couldn’t land a bounced throw from Xander Bogaerts on a routine play with two outs, providing the year’s first game-ending error. Alexei Ramirez started the 1-out rally with his MLB-high 22nd hit, and with 2 gone Chris Capuano donated a 4-pitch walk to LHB Adam Eaton. A full count gave the runners a free start, and Ramirez breezed home on the bobble. Chicago starter Erik Johnson, who zoomed up the prospect charts last year going 12-3, 1.96 at the top farm levels, fanned 9 of his 20 outs and was nicked only by Daniel Nava’s tying home run in the 4th.

• Why bring in a lefty for Eaton? He’s hit better off southpaws so far in his career.
• Ever since I observed Adam Dunn’s “slow”/standard start, he’s reached base 11 times in 4 games. Three walks here pushed him past Rusty Staub to #49 all-time.
• This is dumb, but … No BoSox team under .500 after 14 games has ever made the playoffs.
• The teams went 0-12 with RISP. MLB average so far is .238 with RISP, .249 overall; last year, .255/.253. The RISP strikeout percentage is up 2 points so far, from 19.4% to 21.4%. It’s still April, with some games (like this one) in arctic temps.
• My brother noted that Ramirez hit the first pitch fair in all four trips on Sunday. Our batter search tools won’t address that, alas. But we know that Alexei was 3rd-lowest in pitches per PA in the AL for both 2012-13, 2nd-lowest this year. But so far this year he has 5 walks against 4 Ks; his past ratio is 2.3 SO/BB.

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@Giants 3, Dodgers 2 (12 inn.) — Brandon Belt plugged away at his “How to Hit .300” treatise, tying the game in the 9th against Kenley Jansen, while Brandon League proved once again that the worst thing about paying him $7.5 million is that you’ll eventually be tempted to bring him in the game. San Francisco used everyone but their starting pitchers, and Hector Sanchez delivered his 4th game-ending hit, tied for the Giants’ lead since 2012.

• Blip, or bleep? Jansen’s fanned 15 of 39 batters faced this year, matching the percentage of his past two seasons. But while those seasons produced a .250 BAbip, everything’s falling in this year — 12 of the 20 who hit the ball fair have reached safely. But Jansen’s been a 2nd-half buzz-saw in his young career.
• LA blew a chance at 8th-inning insurance by wasting Yasiel Puig’s one-out triple.
• Appearances aside, Dodgers catcher Tim Federowicz did not pull a hamstring on this bunt-into-DP; he just can’t(?) run any faster.
• Bruce Bochy’s double-switch after the 9th pulled out Buster Posey, but worked out delightfully. Sanchez hit for the pitcher and whiffed; Posey was that frame’s next-to-last batter. Sanchez replaced Posey behind the plate, and Sergio Romo came in to pitch. That postponed the pitcher’s turn at bat by 4 places, a valid aim since Bochy was down to one bench player and had already used 4 relievers. But then Romo pitched just one inning, anyway. Bochy could have saved one more spot in the order (and spared his best hitter) by putting the pitcher in Hunter Pence’s place, moving Posey to 1B, and Belt to the OF. But he did it his way, and
• Classy callers made a dandy tandem for Jackie’s Day.

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Rockies 3, @Padres 2 — A potential big 1st for the Friars went pffftt! on a line-drive DP, and Colorado chipped away until taking the lead on a should-have-been-error. Juan Nicasio walked just one in six innings for his second win in three tries. Nicasio notched 4.5 strikeouts per walk in the minors, getting better as he moved up, but his big-league ratio’s just half that.

• Since reprising his closer act last August, LaTroy Hawkins has cashed 16 of 17 save tries, and issued only 2 walks in 27 IP.
• Five straight one-run games for the Rox.
• Low-scoring games are old hat for the Padres, but in 2012-13 that was just a ballpark effect, as their OPS+ was above NL average. Their bats are truly hurting this year, near the bottom in OPS+, and last in OBP and HRs.

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Royals 4, @Astros 2 — “Where the days are longer / fastball’s stronger than mooo-oonshine….” An ugly sweep in the Twin Cities had KC’s season cryin’, but there was no despair in Yordano Ventura. His strong 7-K outing left the Astros wishin’ on a fallin’ star, as he overcame a boo-boo or two and escaped his own jam to seal off the 7th and earn his first big-league win.

• By the way, Target Field to Minute Maid Park is a straight shot down I-35, about 1,200 miles — maybe 24 hours on a bus, back in the 1960 American Association. Better bring yer ax along.
• You know that I’m scouring the small print for a “Muskrat Love” connection.

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Mets 9, @D-backs nada — I don’t know which is the worse sign for Gibby’s charges: Giving 25 hits in two games to a club that came in at .207, or completely mailing it in after falling behind by the forfeit score in the 4th. Mets starter Jenrry Mejia left after five with a blister, but the Snakes mustered just one infield hit off New York’s suspect bullpen. Arizona’s pen authored 5.2 dominant frames, but Bronson Arroyo had dug the gully too deep. The shaggy veteran let in all 9 runs while matching 10 outs with 10 hits, narrowly notching this year’s worst game score to date.

• My favorite Met hit the DL, so The Nieuw Kid is back!
• A rite of spring: The season’s first Strat-O-Matic mention by Keith Hernandez.

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@Rangers 5, Mariners 0 — Is any team more committed than Texas to the flexibility of pitcher roles? Tuesday winner Robbie Ross (7.2 IP on 90 pitches, no walks) was an effective reliever for 2 years, but he came through the minors starting, and now he’s back in that role. C.J. Wilson spent 4 years in full-time relief, now in his 5th year starting, averaging 15 wins, 210 IP and a 3.37 ERA. They broke in Scott Feldman as a reliever, and Alexi Ogando, Derek Holland and Martin Perez (if briefly). Neftali Feliz got two full years at closer, then switched to starting in 2012. Now, I don’t really know if this is their philosophy. And these moves don’t always work well, and I’m not sure their health rate is better than industry average. But with most teams putting their prospects right into the rotation, I’m just glad there’s some variety going on.

• How dare I mock Kevin Kouzmanoff hitting 5th? He’s 2nd on the team with 5 RBI, in just 6 games.

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Monday

Athletics 3, @Angels 2 — Have we passed the “use by” date on Ernesto Frieri? That’s 14 HRs in 74 IP since the start of 2013, with a 4.01 ERA. Or do you buy his still-stolid 88% save conversion rate? Discuss.

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Mets 7, @D-backs 3 — And while I’m randomly doling out theme songs, here’s one for the Snakes’ Michael Bolsinger, who debuted in this game.

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Late Sunday

@Yankees 3, Red Sox 2 — Carlos Beltran made a memorable debut at first base, flipping a 1-0 deficit with his first Bronx homer when batting right-handed.

• You’re on second base, man on ahead of you, one out in a scoreless game. A fly to medium left-center is going to score the run easily, so what do you do? Why, dash into an out at third to nullify the run, of course.
• Shawn Kelley’s 3-for-3 in save chances. What are the odds David Robertson never gets the job back in this “what-have-you-saved-for-me-lately” environment?

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Finally … I was glad to see several bloggers note Jackie Robinson‘s value as a player, beyond that of a pioneer. At the risk of redundancy, Robinson’s 20th in career WAR from age 28 onward, and 16th for age 28-37. His 132 OPS+ is tied for 4th among all second basemen with 5,000 PAs.

Jackie’s straight-off success, and that of so many who ran through the door that he opened, make the prior injustice so plain and poignant. There was a petition this year to make Opening Day a national holiday. But if any baseball date is to get that honor, I think it should be April 15 — the first day of a truly national game.

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TACKING ON: Pleasant Wednesday afternoons for the home folk — all except Phoenix, of course.

@Reds 4, Pirates 0 — Career-high 12 Ks in Johnny Cueto’s third shutout, a 3-hitter sans walk. Francisco Liriano was good for six innings, but a leadoff walk to Billy Hamilton might as well have been fatal. Hamilton stole on the first pitch (ya think?) and came around on a pair of wild pitches. Cueto quelled a leveling bid in the 4th, fanning two after McCutchen’s one-out double, and gave only an infield hit the rest of the way, whiffing 9 of the last 18 to face him.

• Joey Votto bumped out the lead in the 7th with a 2-run shot cashing Cueto’s base hit.
• Reds took 2 of 3 in the set, and knocked the Bucs under .500 for the first time in almost a year.

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@Yankees 3, Cubs 0 (day) — Masahiro Tanaka fanned 10 over 8 innings, yielding just two bunt singles, and matched Stephen Strasburg as the only searchable pitchers with 8 Ks or more in their first three outings. Chicago never got past second base.

• Michael Kay and Al Leiter both said they’d never seen a run score under the rule 6.08(c) option. I remember my dad explaining this rule to a little-league ump, to no avail.
• Maybe this is why Joe Girardi knew the rule — a 1990 3-run HR by Bobby Bonilla after tipping Joe’s glove.

@Yankees 2, Cubs 0 (night) — I’m looking, I’m looking … Yes, yes, here it is: 1962, June 27: The last time the Cubs were blanked twice in one day. My friends, that Cubs team had Lou Brock and Ken Hubbs, that’s how long ago it was. And just like that, the Bombers stand alone again in first place.

• New York pitched a double–shutout against K.C. in 1987, Charles Hudson and (44-year-old) Tommy John starting. And here’s one from last year that the Yanks split.

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@Brewers 5, Cardinals 1 — Milwaukee struck for 3 in the 5th after Matt Holliday dropped Wily Peralta’s 2-out fly ball, and Peralta worked into the 7th for his second win. Jonathan Lucroy had the game-breaking in that 5th, Carlos Gomez cashed in the Redbirds’ first slip-up with a long double, and Aramis Ramirez chipped in 3 hits. Cards SP Joe Kelly tried to bunt for a hit with 2 outs and none on in the 5th; say it ain’t so, Joe!

• Last year, Jean Segura justified batting 2nd by bolstering his low OBP with some power (12 HRs, 10 triples) and 44 steals. Not so much, so far this season.

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@Orioles 3, Rays 0 — Walks and two infield hits by Adam Jones fueled Baltimore’s two scoring stanzas, and Zach Britton backed up 5 scoreless by Miguel Gonzalez with three of his own, as the O’s pulled to .500 and kicked toothless Tampa below-decks.

• Britton’s fifth stint of 2+ innings this year extended his MLB long-relief lead, all of them scoreless.
• 14 runs in the last 9 games for the Rays (3-6), and 3.0 R/G this year. Go ahead — count them out.

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Mets 5, @D-backs 2 — I’ve seen teams in bad stretches, but these Snakes could stand in for Buttermaker’s bunch. The game felt fait accompli from the moment New York went ahead, on Anthony Recker’s 2-out solo bomb in the 2nd. Arizona’s first 14 went down against Dillon Gee, the streak broken as soon as Keith Hernandez noticed it. Leadoff man Gerardo Parra ran into the last out of the 6th, stretching a single when trailing by three, thinking the pillow unguarded. Closer Addison Reed came in just for some work, and promptly air-mailed a take-your-time tapper. That put Eric Young on 3rd with no outs, and New York’s last two runs came on hits through the pulled-in infield.

• In the 3-game sweep, Arizona turned no DPs (flubbing many chances), and got their leadoff man on three times.
• What’s scarier than a save try for Jose Valverde? Trick question: In three-plus years closing for Detroit, Papa Grande had a 5.05 ERA in non-save situations. Here he served up two quick homers, starting from 5-0, and struggled with his split. But y’know, he threw strikes, and that was job one in this spot.
• Eric Young had 9 steals and 12 runs on the 9-game trip.
• ‘Zona came home from a SF series win thinking the worm had turned — and got skunked in six games, outscored 43-16. More than one-seventh of their home schedule is gone, with one win to show.

Is it just the arbitration clock keeping Rafael Montero in the minors? He’s had the same excellent results at each level. He has 30 starts between AA/AAA. If there’s not a spot in the Mets’ rotation, there’s certainly room in the bullpen. Mets brass had the chutzpah to talk “90 wins,” to it’s time to put the best team on the field. Skips and GMs always say they don’t want a young pitcher to have added pressure of “carrying” a weak team. So why don’t they use him in long relief?

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Braves 1, @Phillies 0 — In this year’s first route-going duel, Julio Teheran teamed with Evan Gattis to better Cliff Lee on his home turf. Gattis caught Teheran’s first career CG and shutout, and set his own career high with 4 hits, including the big one.

• With his sixth career loss when giving just one run, Lee’s tied for third among actives. A.J. Burnett has 8, James Shields 7.
• Cliff Lee, 1-0 loss to Atlanta, 13 Ks and one tragic HR — that sounds familiar!
• 13 Ks, 11 hits allowed … would you believe nineteen and 11?

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Nationals 6, @Marlins 3 — How quickly things change! One moment, Jose Fernandez was holding home court, as usual, enjoying an edge of 3-zip in the 6th. Then his catcher tried for a play at 3rd instead, of the gift out at 1st base. That play fell flat, and two outs later: Return of the Werewolf. Zack Walters pinch-hit the tiebreaker off a Mike Dunn matzoh ball, his second career shot in as many Miami nights.

• The only Nat on base through five was Danny Espinosa, with two outs in the 2nd.
• Derek Dietrich‘s 3-run shot gave the early edge to Miami.

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@Rangers 3, Mariners 2 (walk-off) — And speaking of duels … King Felix outpitched Yu Darvish, 1 run to 2 over 7 innings, and the M’s had his fourth straight win in the bag, with a should-be game-ending grounder to SS Brad Miller. But his inexplicable underhand lob for the force play pulled Cano off the base, filling the sacks. Next pitch went to the backstop, tie game, and then Leonys Martin blooped a single to left field to win it. Kevin Kouzmanoff started it all with an innocent 2-out single off Fernando Rodney.

• 4th walk-off for Texas already this year, double the next-most and half their win total.
• King Felix went 0-4 against Texas last year, 12-20 career. Yu Darvish had his own Mariner muddles in his rookie year, but he came in with 4 straight quality starts against them, and was untarnished in his first two starts this year.
• It’s the 29th time in Hernandez’s career that he went 7+ innings on 1 ER or less, without winning, the most among actives.

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@White Sox 3, Red Sox 2 (9th) — Dustin Pedroia hadn’t taken a walk yet this year, but Miguel Cleto passed him and Xander Bogaerts to start the 9th, making 6 walks of the last 9 Boston batters, and 10 for the game. Lefty Matt Lindstrom coming in for Big Papi, so stay tuned….

Go-ahead 2-run HR by Alexei Ramirez took his season-long hit streak to 15 games.