Diamondbacks 7, @Cubs 5 — In a performance sadly apt for the occasion, Chicago blew a 5-2 lead in the 9th, contributing two walks and an error to their own demise on the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field. Miguel Montero slipped the 2-out tying hit in front of RF Justin Ruggiano, who then played Aaron Hill’s high fly into a go-ahead triple, adding injury to insult. It was a tough ending for Ruggiano, whose first Wrigley wallop had built the 5-2 bulge.

 

• Jeff Samardzija can’t buy a win: Five straight outings of 7+ IP and 2 ER or less, but the Cubs totaled one run in three of the games, and have twice blown a multi-run lead in the 9th. The last pitcher with 5 such games and no wins in his team’s first 20 was … nobody, at least in the 100+ years of searchable data.
• Samardzija is the 6th Cub since 1914 to start a year with 5 such games. The last was Rick Reuschel, way back in 1973; he got 2 wins out of it.

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Rangers 3, @Athletics 0 — Martin Perez blanked the A’s on 3 hits, same result as his last game, and visiting Texas swept into first with a flourish. Perez fanned just three and was often behind in the count, but still ran his scoreless string to 26 innings, just the second Ranger ever with three straight games of 8+ IP and no runs. Alex Rios cashed in a game-starting walk with a triple, and David Murphy hit the first homer in Sonny Gray’s five starts this year. Texas won the first two in this series with late tallies, dealing Oakland their first back-to-back losses.

• Last in the majors with back-to-back shutouts on 3 hits or less: Roy Oswalt, 2008. (Didn’t we just reference that one?)
• Charlie Hough fluttered his way to three straight shutouts in 1983; since then, only Derek Holland had back-to-back shutouts for Texas.

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Giants 12, @Rockies 10 (11 inn.) — Hector Sanchez is the extra-time stealth bomber. His second home run of the game (and the year) followed a sacks-loading intentional walk and four 2-strike fouls. Coors Field was (at last) a balm to the Giants’ 10-game batting slump, as they slammed six HRs and climbed out of an early 5-1 hole.

• Sanchez from the 10th inning on: 10 for 15, seven go-ahead hits, 2 HRs, 10 RBI. He has 4 walk-off hits since 2012, all in extra innings.
• Charlie Blackmon’s Coors binge continued, with HR, 4 runs and 3 ribs. In 10 home starts, he’s 22 for 45, with all 5 HRs, 17 runs, 14 RBI; 2 runs and 2 ribs on the road.
• Reliever Jean Machi earned his 4th win this year, his second recording just one out.

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Braves 3, @Marlins 1 — Evan Gattis pinch-hit a game-breaking double with two outs in the 8th, settling in his team’s favor a series that saw 11 total runs. Aaron Harang fanned 11, but watched his ERA soar to 0.85 when he let the lead slip on Giancarlo’s 2-out dunk in the 6th. The Braves struck first with a cheapie off Nathan Eovaldi (E-6, wild pitch, base hit by Ryan Doumit). Craig Kimbrel whiffed two in a clean save, and has 18 Ks in 37 batters.

• The teams combined for 28 strikeouts, same as Tuesday.
• Harang’s opened with five starts of one run or less; his prior best streak was three.

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@Red Sox 5, Yankees 1 — The plot stickens. Maybe Michael Pineda put too much faith in the blasé reactions to his first “outing” as a substance abuser. Or maybe he just forgot to wash up after a pregame hike in Myles Standish State Forest. Either way, he’ll have a little time off to ponder his next move. (Two words of advice: Rosin bag.) Otherwise, the story was John Lackey, whiffing 11 with no walks in 8 innings (84 strikes, 27 balls), and teaming with Koji Uehara to fit Mark Teixeira with his first perfect sombrero de oro.

• In case you haven’t been tracking the dual trends in strikeouts and walks: From 2002-11, no year had more than 30 individual efforts of 10+ Ks and no walks. There were 43 in 2012, 45 last year, and 8 so far this year, a pace of 61 for the season. (As I write this, Zack Greinke has 9 Ks and no walks through 5 IP.)
• … or to put it more directly: The 2010 season set a modern record of 2.17 strikeouts per walk. Then came 2.30, 2.48, 2.51 and (so far) 2.49. Before 2006, the only years with at least 2 SO/W were between 1964-68, with a high of 2.09 in ’68.

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@Brewers 5, Padres 2 — Dropped to 8th in the order after a slow start, Jean Segura slugged his first homer this year, and first ever with two aboard, putting the Crew up 4-1 in the 2nd. Kyle Lohse won his 4th straight, with one earned run in 7 IP and (of course) no walks.

• Lohse’s 120 ERA+ since 2011 ranks 12th-best out of 59 pitchers with 80+ starts, right between David Price and Felix Hernandez. For 2009-10, his 72 ERA+ was 2nd-worst of 110 pitchers with 40+ starts.

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Orioles 10, @Blue Jays 8 — Toronto opened a 6-1 lead, but the ball flies in that park, especially when Nelson Cruz swings. He parked a pair, with a slam in the 5th (“would you care for a highball?“) that gave Baltimore a lead and himself 8 jacks in 25 starts in the Rogers Centre. Three straight Jays hits in the 9th filled the bases. But Tommy Hunter pulled through, on a 6-4-3 DP off the bat of Jonathan Diaz, a 29-year-old rookie with five career hits, a .230 BA in the minors, and not too much foot speed.

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@Nationals 5, Angels 4 — LA’s 4-1 lead died in the 9th, on another cave-in by Ernesto Frieri. A leadoff home run was the 5th in his 10 outings, but control was the bigger problem. After Denard Span’s 1-out single, Frieri got ahead of Anthony Rendon, 0-and-2, but lost him on balls. Then he fell behind 3-and-0 on Jayson Werth. Bad idea. Werth’s double on the next pitch tied the game, and brought in Fernando Salas. One pitch was all Adam LaRoche needed for the walk-off knock.

• Werth has put it in play on 3-0 sixteen times, with 11 hits, 3 HRs and this double, 14 RBI.
• Frieri has yielded 25 HRs in 144 IP since 2012, four more than any other with 20+ saves in that time.

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Reds 5, @Pirates 2 — Cincinnati’s shaken off the blown opener to take the next two in this series, heading into Thursay’s luncheon affair. Alfredo Simon, who had walked just four in his first three starts, passed three in a row in the 1st to force in a run. But he buckled down and surrendered just one more run into the 7th, while the Reds took advantage of their seven freebies and some Bucs bobbles. Billy Hamilton had two hits, drove in the tying run with a nice oppo liner, and triggered the lead with his legs.

• “What I do have are a very particular set of skills.” (Aren’t you surprised that Chris Stewart even threw to second, with a man on third? So little to gain, so much to lose.)

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@Cleveland 5, Royals 3 — Salvador Perez and Mike Moustakas went back-to-back in the 2nd off Justin Masterson, but Cleveland scrapped back and tied in the 6th on a 2-out steal of second with two errors on the play. A runner caught stealing in the 7th seemed to quell a threat, but Cleveland still forged ahead on 2-out rips by Nick Swisher and Jason Kipnis. John Axford (“Savin’ Ugly“) closed his 8th save in 9 tries and 10 Cleveland wins.

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@Mets 3, Cardinals 2 — The closest, most improbable play at the plate I’ve seen this year withstood Mike Matheny’s first challenge and kept the Cards from tying on Daniel Descalso’s pinch-double. That still left Matt Holliday with one last shot at a shaky Kyle Farnsworth, the tying run on second. But Curtis Granderson caught up to his wind-blown fly in the RF corner, and the Mets squeaked out a win on a bizarre and blustery night.

• Dominating and dumbfounding were Michael Wacha’s 4 innings: 10 Ks, including the first nine outs; but 5 walks, forcing in two runs for the lead. (Bases-full walks are bad enough, but … Ruben Tejada?)
• Lucas Duda hit New York’s first HR in six games, their first at home since Ike Davis’s walk-off slam on April 5.
• Mets SPs have allowed more than 4 runs just once in 21 games. Their “mulligan ERA” is 3.11 (minus one Bartolo blowup).
• Yes, we even had a wind-aided balk.

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@Mariners 5, Astros 3 — Seattle was running against the wind towards their ninth straight defeat and a home sweeping by lowly Houston, but two swings by Kyle Seager turned the page. The two-time 20-HR man was without a long drive in his last 43 games, until his 2-run shot in 7th broke Jared Cosart’s shutout and got the M’s off the mat. That blast came after five 2-strike fouls; next time up, he smashed the first pitch with two aboard for the game-winner — Seattle’s first walk-off-from-behind bomb since Ichiro mauled Mariano in 2009.

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White Sox 6, @Tigers 4 — Marcus Semien’s first slam krushed Ian Krol with 2 gone in the 7th, souring a solid effort by Drew Smyly (6 IP, 2 runs). Detroit got the tying runs into scoring position with one out remaining, but Alex Avila’s line drive on a 3-0 count landed in Jose Abreu’s glove.

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Twins 6, @Rays 4 (12 inn.) — “Chris Colabello” just rolls off your tongue, and the 30-year-old “Crash Davis” clone has been rolling big numbers since day one this year. His 2-run rip to dead center tied the game, and gave Mom a thrill, with her son’s 24th RBI in 20 games. When he came up in the 12th with two ducks and first base open, you might have expected a walk. But Joe Maddon went right at him. Josh Lueke poured in the strikes, Colabello skipped the fifth one through the middle for two more steaks, and Glen Perkins brought it home smoothly. Minnesota is 10-10.

• 26 RBI through 20 games is the most in Twins history, topping (would you believe?) Brant Alyea, 1970. Mickey Vernon had 24 for the ancestral Senators in 1955. The last Twin with even 20 RBI through 20 games was Ron Coomer, in 2000.

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Late Tuesday

Astros 5, @Mariners 2 — Call-up Collin McHugh made his season debut look much like his long-forgotten career bow, baffling the M’s through 20 outs with 12 Ks, no walks, 3 singles. His 80 Game Score was one point off that 2012 debut, which was one off the Mets break-in best; he hasn’t topped a 57 GS or gone more than 5 innings in his other 8 starts.

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Random Notes

Johnny Cueto’s tossed two CGs on 3 hits or less against Pittsburgh, with no appearances in between. I find just one other instance, a real beauty.

Cueto is 15-4, 2.15 in 23 starts against the Bucs.

Pedro Alvarez and Ike Davis went 0-for-8 combined, but hit the ball each time. Just doesn’t seem possible.

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Through Tuesday, Arizona’s  Chris Owings has 20 hits (3 with a man on second), but no RBI. Lonnie Chisenhall is 15 for 36 with 6 doubles, no RBI.

A.J. Burnett has already matched the hits total he posted each of the last two years. He was a career .110 batter before going 3-for-3 Tuesday — his first 3-hit game, and the first by a pitcher this year outside of Coors Field.

This is the most brazen challenge I’ve seen this year, outside the Hamilton oeuvre.

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“Personality“? Matt Harvey, please hire an image adviser. Yes, times have changed, but many people still consider flipping the bird to be vulgar. What you do in private is no one’s concern. But when you gratuitously publicize a crude gesture, expect your employer to scold you. The act itself would have been a blip on the radar, forgotten within days. But Harvey’s sulking, defensive reaction just compounds the problem, giving it legs to last several news cycles.

In the aftermath, I’m disappointed by some in sports media who think the criticism of Harvey is unwarranted. Craig Calcaterra: “It’s like any number of family pictures floating around my and my parents’ house. I’m guessing a lot of you have pictures like that too. If you can’t joke around with your parents and/or your adult children like that, God, who wants to know you?”

Doesn’t that miss the crux of this matter, the difference between public and private? Granted, I have zero connection with social media; I even block the buttons in my browser. But still, even I understand that tweets don’t happen inside someone’s house or their family circle; they’re blared through a bullhorn on top of a stage in Times Square. Does Craig Calcaterra really think it’s just fine for Matt Harvey to print up 8″ x 10″ color glossies of that photo, and mail one to every 8- to- 12-year-old member of the Matt Harvey Fan Club? That’s what the tweet amounts to.

Whatever was in Harvey’s mind when the picture was taken, or what he intended in posting it, it’s absurdly naive to think that such context travels with the image. For ninety percent of the folks who will see it, it’s just a picture of Matt Harvey flipping the bird — a picture that he chose to send to thousands of kids, among others. Is it uptight, then, to ask a grown man: Is that really the example of public comportment you want to set?

I don’t care if Harvey keeps a Twitter account or not. If this affair represents his best judgment, then he probably should stay out of that sphere. But the petulant tone of his explanation for pulling the plug paints him in a poor light, even more than the act that created the ruckus.