Dodgers 3, @Rockies 2 — Zack Greinke gave up the tying run in the 8th, on Justin Morneau’s long triple. But he buckled down and held the tie, popping up Tulo, then pumping eye-high 94 past Nolan Arenado. Juan Uribe helped get the run back with his third hit, and Kenley Jansen put Zack’s 11th win in the books.

• Greinke’s the 5th to go eight innings in Coors Field this year. The last to go more than eight was Clayton Kershaw, a 4-hitter last July 2.
• In the span of five seasons, Greinke has gone from flavor-of-the-month to maybe the dullest outstanding pitcher in baseball. And I think he couldn’t be happier. Signing as second banana to Kershaw was perfect for his personality. Or maybe he just followed the money; what do I know? We’ll find out next fall, when he can opt out of the last three years and $77 million he’s due.
• In 46 Dodger starts, Greinke is 26-8, 2.64, but with just one Game Score over 78. He had four games at 83+ in 2009 alone. Fifteen games of 10+ Ks from 2009-12, but just three for LA. He’s swapped he highs for consistency, allowing two earned runs or less in 35 of 46 outings.
• I’m a text guy, as you know. Often, my favorite part of the incidental clips on MLB.com is the deadpan headings on the thumbnail links: “Giants’ broadcast critiques Harbaugh’s pants.” “Rays’ lineup card resembles famous ’80s song.” “Fan makes nice grab, baby chews on the ball.” I would have tagged this one, “Man speaks into microphone, echoes across history.“

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@Athletics 4, Blue Jays 1 — Like the U.S. Supreme Court, MLB doesn’t hear protests once the question is rendered moot. That’s a shame, because we’d all like to know how that situation would be resolved. If an umpire’s signal on one part of a play means that a force is still in effect, how can an overturn of that initial ruling remove the force, after the fact?

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@Tigers 8, Rays 1 — For a hot minute there, it seemed that Joe Maddon had dialed up a winning number, and the red-hot Rays might take Detroit down a notch in their first meeting. Desmond Jennings doubled on Max Scherzer’s first pitch, and Tampa grabbed a lead before the cranks got their franks unwrapped. But then the Bengals got their raps; oh, yes, they did. Three of the first six swatted Erik Bedard’s slants beyond the barricades, and that nickel’s backing got Max on his feet and pitching downhill. Scherzer set down 22 of his last 23 batters, bowing out with eight two-hit innings and his 10th win. Miguel Cabrera missed the long-ball parade, but chipped in two doubles and scored four times — his fifth career 4-run game, but the first with no RBI.

• Welcome back, V-Mart. Ribs feeling better, I see. Take a few cuts to shake off the rust, won’t you?
• Detroit had just seven 1st-inning homers in their first half — four of Miggy’s 14, but none of V-Mart’s 20. The 4th and 5th have been their knockout frames, with 29 of their first 87 HRs. Opposing starters have often gone once through the order with ease (.249/.682), then taken their lumps in the next two rounds (.296/.848 combined).
• Turns out, Ian Kinsler can hit outside Arlington: .310 BA in Detroit this year, with 7 of his 11 HRs. It was a fair question, but he’s answering.
• Smooth sailing for this fan — his Tigers rolled, while his Mets stayed out of sight.

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Cardinals 7, @Giants 2 — The best start to date by Carlos Martinez included a 2-RBI single that keyed the game-breaking 4th against Madison Bumgarner. That finished off SF’s homestand at 2-8, winning only on Lincecum’s gems; they’re 3-14 at home during their 5-17 tailspin.

• Jon Jay (5-2-2-1, batting 8th) is some kind of steady: His OBP is .350 now, and between .344 and .373 in all five seasons. Among 26 CFs with 1,500 PAs since 2010, only Trout, McCutchen and Fowler have been better at getting aboard. Jay hits about the same against righties and lefties, starting or off the bench, and in all five spots in the order where he’s played regularly. His OPS+ is from 101-113 every year, with an overall 108 that’s 11th among those 26 CFs.

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@Orioles 5, Rangers 2 — You might keep Steve Pearce in the corral, but he will hurt you. Four hits, two doubles, two go-ahead knocks, leading Baltimore to a 4-game sweep and a tie for first place. Darren O’Day and Zach Britton got the last eight outs; they’re both tied for 10th in reliever WAR, with a combined 1.33 ERA in 80 IP.

• Recapping Pearce’s season: Made the opening roster, but after seven at-bats in the first 24 games, he declined a minor-league assignment and was released. Re-signed two days later, he got four hits in a May 1 doubleheader, and hasn’t looked back. Joined the every-day lineup on June 17, hitting .390 and slugging .831, with 17 RBI in 15 games, pacing the O’s to a 10-5 mark.

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Diamondbacks 10, @Pirates 2 — In just three pitches in the 6th, Vance Worley lost his no-hitter, his shutout, and a 2-0 lead. Bad counts were a culprit: After a leadoff walk and a bunt by the pitcher, Worley got behind 2-and-0 to Ender Inciarte (base hit) and to David Peralta (bomb). And then …

• Oh, no — Ernesto! Tasked with keeping the Bucs close in the 9th, Frieri was fricasseed instead, for 5 runs on as many hits — his worst tally of a trying season to date. He dodged a bullet in the series opener, serving singles to three of the first four Snakes, but saved by Josh Harrison’s latest highlight. (Can’t miss a chance to praise my favorite player!)

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Yankees 7, @Twins 4 — And you thought the story would be Tanaka vs. Hughes. The Yankee hot corner turned over tonight, from Yangervis Solarte to … Zelous Wheeler? From Childersburg, Alabama, the self-styled oldest city in America? All right, then — meet the other big-leaguer from Childersburg: Walton Cruise (1914-24), 4th in NL batting in 1921, and the lone modern player with that first name or last name. Poor Zelous isn’t even the best-known “Z. Wheeler” this year.

But he’s not crying tonight — not after spending eight years in the minors, and launching in his second at-bat. (How many were reminded of Charlie Hayes there?) Zelous followed with a single and run, both hits coming in big Bomber innings, and handled all his chances afield, including a DP, a nice pickup to start a rundown, and taking a force play from the pitcher.

• I got all geared up to see this play: “K Suzuki lined out to second, S Fuld scored, B Dozier to second.” But rats, it’s just a mis-typed groundout.

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@Angels 5, Astros 2 — Go figure: The Angels are 27-14 at home, 21-22 away — but their road run differential is better. (Actually, there is some natural cause for this, when you think about 9th innings.)

Two-Hits Altuve went for three instead, raising his MLB lead to 14 hits over #2. At this moment, he Altuve has 18% of Houston’s hits this year, in 12% of their at-bats. He’s batting .347, the rest of the Astros .220; Jose alone lifts the team BA by 15 points. Even with just 2 HRs, he has 14% of their total bases; his 26 doubles are 21% of the team’s total.

Top of the 1st, ‘Stros on the corners and one out: Jon Singleton whiffed on three pitches, then George Springer was picked off first base. These two have a bright future batting three-four for the Astros, but the combo’s not working right now. Springer had that homer spree in May, but he’s hitting .210 since June 1, and .191 batting 3rd this year. Putting Singleton at cleanup has magnified his growing pains: .178 overall, a brutal 6-46 hitting 4th, and 5-33 with RISP. Houston is 3-10 with Singleton at cleanup, with all six of his RBI coming in two wins. They’re 6-13 with Springer hitting 3rd; he has 4 RBI and 3 runs in those 13 losses.

Springer does have solid stats for the year, and it’s obviously unfair to single out two first-year players in a lineup where five other regulars have an 85 OPS+ or below. But when you bat 3rd and 4th for a major league team, the spotlight is on you, for better or worse.

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Late Wednesday

Cardinals 2, @Giants 0 — Adam Wainwright has trimmed his season ERA in five straight starts. Not easy, when you start from 2.32.

Since he’s let in no unearned runs this year, Wainwright’s 1.89 ERA is also a 1.89 RA/9. That would tie for 15th best since 1901. Here are the qualified live-ball seasons with RA/9 of 1.90 or lower:

Was this the silliest sac-bunt attempt of the year? Top of the 3rd, no score, Cards on the corners with no outs. Wainwright’s a career .208 hitter with some pop — more total bases per hit than Derek Jeter, for instance — and a better contact rate than, say, Chris Davis and Pedro Alvarez. He tried to sacrifice — not a squeeze, just trying to move up the trail runner — and bunted through strike three. It makes me sick to my stomach. What’s the worst that could happen by swinging away? Even a double play still would have scored a run! Maybe I’m warped from too much Mets, but early in a scoreless game, I would prefer the run-scoring DP, over having third and second with one out.

Naturally, both Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday hit seeing-eye RBI singles, and that was all the scoring. Proving once again that two “professional hitters” trumps one self-appointed analyst.

• Carpenter hasn’t grounded into a DP this year, in 379 PAs. Granted, he has fewer DP chances than most, batting leadoff for an NL team. But no qualifier has gone GIDP-free since Craig Biggio in 1997. By the way, the longest active streak of no-DP starts belongs to Curtis Granderson — 131 starts (141 total games) since his first game of 2013.

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@Nationals 4, Rockies 3 / @Atlanta 3, New York 1 — At least one division is starting to shake out: Each legit NL East contender finished off a home sweep of a 4th-rate place club, and gets to rest on its 5- or 7-win streak before hosting a last-place nine. (Aside to bstar: As of Wednesday, you owe me double for Chris Johnson.)

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@Orioles 6, Rangers 4 — Most relief wins are cheapies, but Brad Brach earned his. He answered Chris Tillman’s S.O.S. in the 6th (“Sacks Over-Soaked!”) to keep Texas from blowing it open, and by the time he went back to the hill, the O’s had pulled even. Brach fanned the two biggest Rangers to start the 7th, then picked off Leonys Martin after a bunt hit. Ryan Flaherty greeted Neal Cotts with a majestic tiebreaker, widening the reverse-platoon gap for both hitter and pitcher, and the firm of O’Day & Britton closed another deal.

• Miles Mikolas is the 11th SP for Texas this year, most in the AL (by  two). Nine have made at least four starts, or four more than their 2011 pennant squad.
• Why is the light-hitting Martin a close 2nd in WAR on the Rangers? Here’s why.