Chris Sale made a victorious return from the disabled list on Thursday evening and in the process he tore thorough a decent Yankee lineup as though it were tissue paper. Sale retired 18 of the 19 hitters he faced, while striking out 10 in just 6 innings of work. The lanky lefty tore through the first 17 hitters he faced before allowing a hit, which actually came as a relief to skipper Robin Ventura, because the manager was prepared to make the unpopular, but intelligent, decision to remove his ace during a perfect game. In short, Sale looked like he hadn’t skipped a beat. This was the dominance White Sox fans have come to recognize in their ace over the past couple of seasons, but the reality is this isn’t the same Chris Sale. This 2014 version has turned into something more.

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Game Notes is taking a few days off, for his godson’s wedding in New Orleans. See you again in a week or so.

Oakland scored 3 runs with just one hit, turning two Erik Bedard walks and two infield errors into a pair in the 2nd. As noted by contributor Daniel Longmire, it’s the first one-hit win in the franchise’s searchable history (since 1914); also the first in MLB since last July, another Bedard loss.

• The A’s are 8-10 when scoring 3 runs or less — the most such wins in MLB, and the fewest such losses.
• Grant Balfour kept it close in the 9th despite walking the first two A’s, giving him 16 walks in 17.1 IP.
• There are four active players named Fernando. All are relief pitchers, and two earned holds for the A’s in this game.

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The first list are pitchers who began their careers between 1893 and 1919. The second list are pitchers who played their entire careers between 1920 and 2000.

For both lists, only these pitchers had a particular career accomplishment. What is it?

Hint: while rare in the above periods, this feat has recently become more common, accomplished by 15 retired pitchers active since 2001.

I evidently stumped our readers with this one. The solution is that, among starting pitchers with 1000+ IP careers played entirely between 1893 and 2000, only the quiz players had a career FIP either below their SO/BB ratio, or no more than 20% higher than their SO/BB ratio. More after the jump:

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Reds 4, @Nationals 3 (15 inn.) — With both sides running out of bodies, Todd Frazier’s 2-run shot broke a tie in the 15th, and the struggling Logan Ondrusek survived some loud outs in his second inning of work to preserve the win. The Reds weathered Washington’s winning bids in the 12th and 14th with great defensive plays, by Brandon Phillips and Billy Hamilton, each ending the frame with a man on third.

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How is WAR contributed by major league pitchers? At what age do pitchers become most valuable to a team? I’ll be looking at those question in response to a suggestion by mosc, a regular and thoughtful contributor to our discussions here at HHS.

More after the jump.

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Tigers 6, @Red Sox 2 — Not quite a Boston Massacre, but Detroit outscored the champs 13-3 in this weekend sweep, out-hit them 32-16, with an extra-base hits margin of 14-2. The Sox have three XBH-free home games this year, two in this series.

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@Royals 1, Orioles 0 — Danny Duffy was perfect into the 7th, dueling Bud Norris with strong defensive backing, and Greg Holland worked through his own problems in the 9th, getting the last two outs on strikes with the tying run on third.

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More Julio — yay!

Blue Jays 2, @Rangers 0 — Drew Hutchison finished off a 3-hit shutout in his 20th career game, besting Yu Darvish to be the second Texas visitor this year to do what none could in the prior two.

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Johnny Cueto is thus far having a pitching season for the ages. While his level of dominance is surprising, Cueto’s past performance coming into this, his age 28 season, did project to a superior performance and possibly a career best year.

After the jump, more on Johnny Cueto and prime pitching seasons.

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@Reds 5, Padres 0 (day) — Is this roll of Johnny Cueto’s really happening? His second 3-hit shutout this year gave him nine straight starts allowing 5 hits or less in 7 innings or more — ten straight if you count last season. Neither streak has a searchable match.

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