Is the year gaining speed, or am I slowing down? Anyway, here’s what I got from Saturday through Thursday, Aug. 14 — going backwards:

Saturday: @Brewers 4, Dodgers 1 / 
Thursday: Brewers 6, @Cubs 2 — Welcome back, Mike Fiers: In his first starts since last June, Fiers went a career-best 8 IP on 3 hits and one run, then ravaged the Cubs (and his personal high) with 14 Ks in a mere six scoreless frames. Fiers was a late-blooming find in 2012, with 9.5 K/9 in 22 starts, ranking 5th among all with 100+ IP, and 7th in K%. But injury held him to about 50 IP last year, split between majors and minors, and the signing of Matt Garza last winter forced Fiers to prove himself once more at Triple-A, and wait for a chance. He took care of his end, ranking top-two in the PCL with a 2.55 ERA, 11.3 K/9, 1.5 W/9, 7.6 K/W and 0.95 WHIP. The first opening came from Marco Estrada’s gopheritis, but the chance went to hot prospect Jimmy Nelson, whose Nashville numbers were just as impressive, and he’s held his own in six turns. Garza tweaked an oblique two weeks ago, and Fiers got the call.

• First double-digit-K outing by a Brewer since Fiers himself in late 2012, with 348 such games rolled up by 119 different pitchers in between. Guess which team has a longer drought, now almost 25 months.
• A golden sombrero for Javier Baez, now with 17 Ks and no walks in 45 PAs. He logged a steady 4 K/W in the minors.

Thursday: @Royals 7, Athletics 3 — On July 18, 1984, the Royals were 40-51, 8 games behind the Angels and 6th place in the AL West. A 15-5 stretch got them back in the race, which they won with a 44-27 finish. In ’85, on July 21, they were 46-44, 7-1/2 games in back of the Angels; a 17-6 surge got them into contention, and they won with a 45-27 finish. Those are KC’s last playoff appearances, and the biggest deficits overcome in their six division crowns. On July 21 of this year, the Royals lost to Chris Sale, falling to 48-50 and a season-high 8 games behind Detroit. They’ve gone 18-4 since then.

Thursday: @Tigers 5, Pirates 2 — With his club clinging to a wild-card berth, and his bullpen worn down by 27 innings over the last four days, Max Scherzer put his Cy Young stuff on display, fanning 14 in 8 shutout stanzas, with a season-high 121 pitches. He punched out the first four Bucs and eight out of nine, but Francisco Liriano was just as sharp early on, holding Detroit hitless through four. Slumping J.D. Martinez led off the 5th with a blast to the left-field bleachers, then added two-out ribbies in the 6th and 8th — each after an IBB to Victor Martinez and Torii Hunter’s unproductive out — to build a 3-0 lead. Nick Castellanos tacked on two more with another two-out knock in the 8th, making much-needed breathing room. Gaby Sanchez pinch-hit a 2-run shot, bloating Detroit’s 9th-inning ERA up to 6.13 — by far the worst in the last 10 years — but the Pirates could get no closer.

• Since 2005, 18 other clubs had a 9th-inning ERA between 5.00 and 5.84, including three this year. Of those 18, only the 2008 Brewers either made the playoffs or won more than 82 games. (This year’s Astros, D-backs and ChiSox are well under .500.)
• J.D. Martinez had been 7 for 43 in 12 games since the trade deadline, at which point his .325/.968 line had made Austin Jackson seem expendable. Tigers outfielders combined for one HR and 11 RBI in their first 12 games this month.
• An odd line from the A.P. game story: “Scherzer (14-4) took another step toward a second straight American League Cy Young Award….” It seems to me that Scherzer has almost no shot to repeat as CYA winner, with King Felix and Chris Sale about a full run better in ERA. But … compared to last year, he’s slightly improved in RA/9, K/9, HR/9, and IP/G.

Thursday: Dodgers 6, @Bravos 4 — Dee Gordon’s four times aboard led to his first 4-run game, each one cashed by a hit from Adrian Gonzalez or Yasiel Puig. Atlanta rallied against Brian Wilson in the 8th (3 runs, 2 outs, 5.26 ERA), and got the tying run to second base in the 9th with the cleanup spot up. But Justin Upton had left in the 8th with a hammy, and big brother was no match for Kenley Jansen, who rang up B.J.’s MLB-high 150th whiff.

• In two years with Atlanta, B.J. Upton has hit .150 in high-leverage spots, .173 when trailing in the 7th or later.
• Two bunt hits and a pair of thefts left Gordon leading the bigs in both — 15 for 31 bunting (3 sacs), 54-13 in steals.
• I hadn’t noticed that Andrelton Simmons was back in the lineup, until I saw this seed that nailed Puig at home in the 9th. For best results, play from the 1:00 mark: There’s no way in hell that throw’s not gonna bounce — cripes, I though it would hit the mound — but it flew all the way. What an arm!
• And yes, Puig still leads the majors in baserunning outs, with or without caught stealing and pickoffs.

Thursday: @(?)Nationals 4, Mets 1 — Anyplace where you win 11 straight has to be home, no? It’s a Nats/Expos record for visiting one team, one shy of their best home streak in Washington, and two shy of the franchise home record. They haven’t won more than 8 in a row in any other park since 2005. The Nats are 6-0 in New Shea this year, and 21-4 since 2012. Despite dropping two of three in Atlanta last weekend, the Nats have opened a season-high 6-game lead.

• Six games with the Mets in the last 10 days revived Washington’s lefty power: Adam LaRoche went 8-19 with 3 HRs, 4 doubles and 8 runs; he had one HR, 4 doubles and 8 runs in 28 games from July 1-August 4. Bryce Harper went 7-20 with 3 HRs, 7 RBI; he had 2 HRs, 5 RBI in 29 games between his return from the DL and the Mets’ visit.
• Mets HRs since the Break: Duda 7, d’Arnaud 4, Murphy 2, Granderson 1, Recker 1. That’s one outfield homer in 27 games, none from third base. And a 34-15 deficit in HRs, 85-54 in extra-base hits.

Thursday: @Marlins 5, D-backs 4 (10 inn.) — Mike Dunn is 10-5 in just 44.1 innings. No reliever has ever won 10 with less than 61 IP. Dunn leads Miami in wins, #2 in decisions, #9 in IP.

Thursday: Rays 6, @Rangers 3 — Jake Odorizzi notched Tampa’s 8th straight start of 6+ IP and 2 runs or less. Totals for those eight: 7 runs in 52.2 IP, 1.03 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 58 Ks and 8 walks.

• The Rays are six games out of a wild-card berth, with five teams to catch. They have 3 games left with Detroit, none with Seattle, 9 with the Blue Jays and Yankees, and 3 with Cleveland, whom they trail by half a game.

Thursday: @Rockies 7, Reds 3 — It’s Jorge De La Rosa in Coors Field. It can’t be explained:

• De La Rosa’s 43 wins in Coors Field are 8 more than any other.
• His teams are 54-19 in his Coors starts, including one for the Royals. Team records for others with at least 70 Coors starts: Jason Jennings, 45-28; Jeff Francis, 51-40; Aaron Cook, 50-54.
• Out of 18 pitchers with at least 30 starts in Coors, only Ubaldo Jimenez owns a better Coors ERA, and none has a better home/away ratio.
• Out of 72 pitchers with 50+ wins since 2008, only Paul Maholm has a higher percentage of his wins at home.

Thursday: @Cardinals 4, Padres 3 — After a Trevor Rosenthal walk loaded the bases, Shane Robinson and A.J. Pierzynski teamed up to save the MLB saves leader from his 5th blown save — Robinson’s first assist since 2012, and Pierzynski’s first tag-out for the Cards. Another walk refilled the sacks, but Rosenthal punched out of it.

• Rosenthal’s walk rate has doubled from last year (2.4 to 4.8 W/9) –the 3rd-largest rise out of 181 pitchers with 50+ IP each year, whether gauged by percentage or raw difference.

Thursday: @Red Sox 9, Astros 4 — Two doubles for RF Daniel Nava. Measuring Boston’s lack of outfield power (last in MLB slugging and HRs):

• Their .283 SLG from CF would be their worst by far since 1951 (the dawn of positional splits); next-worst was .319. Their LF and RF slugging marks would be their 3rd- and 4th-worst.
• No BoSox outfielder will reach 10 HRs, unless someone gets really hot; the departed Jonny Gomes hit 6 as an OF, no one else more than 2. They’ve had at least one OF reach 12 HRs in every full year since 1944.

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Wednesday: @Giants 7, White Sox 1 — Jake Peavy did his best work since April, but until the home 7th it was worth no more than another tough loss, to extend painful skids for both him and his team. Then a debatable overturn tied it up with one out, and left the door open for six two-out runs against hapless ChiSox relievers. Angel Pagan broke the tie with a bags-full single, for his first runs batted in since June 7; after 8 weeks on the DL, Pagan had 7 hits and a walk in 5 games from the leadoff spot, but hadn’t tasted the dish either way.

• Peavy’s streak of 12 team losses in his starts covered 10 parks and all six divisions.

If this is the right reading of Rule 7.13, then something seems wrong with the plan. As best I can tell, they ruled that Tyler Flowers illegally blocked the plate before he had the ball — even though (a) he did have the ball before Angel Pagan even reached the dirt circle, and (b) that same position is legal when assumed after catching the ball. If that’s how this rule is meant to be enforced, then I’d rather just make every play at the plate an automatic force — or even, as we used to play in short-handed sandlot games with no catcher, “the throw beat you home, you’ve gotta go back to third.”

Wednesday: @Mariners 2, Blue Jays 0 — An 8-1 homestand put Seattle’s post-Break stumble squarely in the rear-view mirror, as they’ve regained a wild-card share and separated from the wannabes. Their pitching just gets better and better, from 2.75 R/G in June-July to 1.92 this month (with a 1.83 RA/9 for the starters). Their 12 straight games yielding 3 runs or less is a franchise record (by three), and the longest MLB streak since last June. Kendrys Morales made his first big contribution since coming aboard a week before the deadline, chopping a chest-high floater for a 1st-inning homer that stood up all day.

Wednesday: @Tigers 8, Pirates 4 — For this relief, much thanks: Four scoreless frames by the most beleaguered bullpen outside of the Windy City. Victor Martinez led the rally that overcame Buck Farmer’s choppy debut and stopped a 4-game skid, during which Detroit looked nothing at all like a playoff contender.

Wednesday: @Angels 4, Phillies 3 — Switching teams from the lowest-scoring to the 2nd-highest hasn’t changed Huston Street’s leverage one bit. Five of his seven saves for the Angels protected a one-run lead, the others two runs. His other three outings preserved a tie or one-run deficit in the 9th.

Since 2012, Street has yielded a .173 BA and a mind-boggling .200 BAbip in 139 IP (524 batters). Comparing that to a single season with at least 500 BF, the lowest recorded BAbip through 2013 was .241 (Jered Weaver, 2012), although Chris Young (.225) and Johnny Cueto (.228) are currently looking to best that mark. For a season of 150+ BF, there have been four with BAbip under .200, all last year (led by Tyler Clippard’s .172), with five more in progress this year.

Wednesday: @Orioles 5, Yankees 3 — Two home runs in the 8th lifted Baltimore to a commanding 7.5-game lead over Toronto, and 8 over the shrinking Yanks. The O’s pulled into first on July 3 on a 4-game win streak, and are 23-11 since.

Dellin Betances fanned four out of seven to carry a 2-1 lead through the 6th and 7th, giving him 106 Ks and a flat 40% K rate at that point. Ten others have reached 40% with 100+ Ks, but all were closers with at least 22 saves and 42 games finished, while Betances has one save and 6 GF. Two more setup men have a chance at the mark this year — Brad Boxberger (81 Ks, 43%, one save) and Andrew Miller (76, 40%, no saves).

But Joe Girardi stretched Betances to a career-high 9th batter, and Jonathan Schoop knocked him out with a solo shot, his 11th. And with two down and two Birds aboard against Shawn Kelley, Adam Jones spanked the first pitch for his 23rd HR and a 5-2 bulge.

• The right-handed Kelley has a big reverse split: RHBs own 24 of his 30 career HRs, the 5th-highest known rate with at least 20 HRs allowed.

Wednesday: @Royals 3, Athletics 0 — Jason Vargas retired 23 straight A’s to complete a 3-hitter on 97 pitches. After going more than a year without a CG shutout, the Royals now have two in five days. Their last against Oakland came from Kevin Appier, in 1996.

Wednesday (nightcap): Arizona 1, @Cleveland 0 (12 inn.) — Arizona’s only other shutout of at least 12 innings is the longest in MLB since their inception. For a longer Cleveland whitewashing, it’s all the way back to 1967, with the Rock tormenting his former team.

• No AL team has won an interleague shutout longer than 11 innings, which Cleveland did in 2005.
• The 16th game since 1914 with two scoreless starts of between 5.0 and 5.2 innings.

Wednesday: @Padres 5, Rockies 3 — The Friars are 16-8 since the Break, 10-2 at home. Four hits raised Jedd Gyorko’s BA to a season-high .199.

• With the sad if not shocking news about Tulo, the NL batting lead devolved upon Justin Morneau’s .324 BA. The last NL crown under .330 went to Terry Pendleton’s .319 in 1991. Six different Rockies have racked up eight of 21 NL titles since they joined the league.

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Tuesday: Athletics 11, @Royals 3 — Streak strikes out.

Tuesday: @Mariners 6, Blue Jays 3 — Three misplays made the margin of victory, as the M’s tied Detroit for the second wild card. Needless aggression by CF Colby Rasmus turned a two-out, no-play single into the tying run in the 3rd. A lazy rundown by rotund backstop Dioner Navarro let the trail runners move up, as he threw behind the trapped Logan Morrison instead of chasing him back to the bag, doubling the value of Dustin Ackley’s two-out hit. The last run scored after Danny Valencia ranged too far from first base (just his 8th game there) and turned a routine 4-3 into a pitcher-covers-first misadventure. Chris Young’s stunningly steady campaign rolled on for his 11th win, matching his total for 2009-13.

• Spacious Safeco has clearly helped the homer-prone Young go 8-3, 2.35 at home, with just 6 of his 19 HRs allowed, and a .185 BA/.560 OPS that rank 3rd and 10th among those with 60+ IP at home.
• But Seattle’s 2.97 team ERA is anything but a Safeco mirage. Their 3.04 road ERA would be the best since the ’92 Expos, and the best by an AL team in the DH era.

Tuesday: @Cubs 3, Brewers 0 — Kyle Hendricks got to the majors on great control and home-run prevention, and except for a mild debut hiccup, he’s kept riding that formula to a 4-1 record and 1.73 ERA through six outings. He’s the first Cub since at least 1914 to go 6+ innings on 2 runs or less in 5 of his first 6 games, and the third with 4 games of 7+ IP with those same criteria.

Tuesday: @Rangers 3, Rays 2 (14 inn.) — Adam Rosales drew a 4-pitch walk that forced in the game-winner, just the second walk-off pass since 2000 for the traditionally free-swinging Rangers. Texas also matched a franchise record by giving no walks in 14 innings, their only such game in the DH era, and unmatched in MLB since 1996.

• Kevin Kiermaier threw out the lead run at home in the 7th, thanks to tail-busting hustle.

Tuesday: White Sox 3, @Giants 2 (10 inn.) — It took the Giants seven innings to get their 4th hit off the sublime Chris Sale, and about seven minutes to notch the same against Chicago’s ridiculous bullpen, wiping out Sale’s 2-0 lead in spite of a game-saving DP started by Gordon Beckham. But that wasn’t enough to keep the hosts from stumbling into a 5th straight loss and out of a wild-card berth. Beckham answered Brandon Crawford’s two-out heroics with some of his own, cashing a run that began with a 4-pitch walk to Jordan Danks (.210 career BA).

• Beckham’s qualifications for batting 2nd are very hard to pin down. Well, except for the habit (let’s hope it’s unconscious) of slotting the second baseman into the #2 hole, regardless of skills. In the last 10 years, 2Bs have a plurality of starts in that spot: 2B 27%, SS 21%, CF 13%, LF and RF 11%, 3B 9%, 1B 4%, C and DH 2%.

Tuesday: @Astros 10, Twins 4 — Chris Carter has holes in his swing, but he also has easy power. Only four have more bombs in the last two years, and only Edwin Encarnacion has as many multi-HR games (9).

• Collin McHugh’s 1.06 WHIP and 9.8 SO/9 rank 8th and 6th among AL’ers with 15+ starts.

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Monday: @Royals 3, Athletics 2 — And the Royals streak into first place … again.

• Kelvin Herrera’s 75th straight homerless outing tied his own club record; in between, he served 9 HRs in 28 innings, starting with a 3-HR barrage last April 16.
• Herrera and Wade Davis have current scoreless streaks of 16 and 18 games, both starting June 27; Davis has yielded one run in his last 41 IP.
• Greg Holland, who worked into and out of trouble Monday for his 12th one-run save, sports the worst ERA (1.74) of that closeout trio, which has combined for a 1.47 RA/9 (24 runs in 147 IP).

Monday: @Mariners 11, Blue Jays 1 — Enough with streaking King Felix, already! How about Brad Miller becoming the first shortstop with a triple, sac fly and sac bunt in the same game? — as well as the first to do that from the #9 spot? Sac fly data only goes back to the ’50s, but so what? And how ’bout those M’s, the first team in five years with exactly one homer, two triples, three doubles, four singles and five walks?

Monday: Orioles 11, Yankees 3 — Bud Norris notched his 5th win of less than 6 innings, one behind teammate Wei-Yin Chen for the MLB lead. The O’s have 18 such wins; Oakland’s next with 11. But with a strong back-end bullpen, why push the starters?

Monday: @Marlins 6, Cardinals 5 — The Fish haven’t folded, holding at 6 games out of 1st and 4.5 back of the overstuffed wild-card race … Of all the things Giancarlo Stanton has done for his team this year, the most positive development is that he’s played every game, starting all but one. And it’s clear from his all-around play that Stanton isn’t content to be just a slugger. Though not built for speed — 6′ 6″, 240 lbs. — his baserunning value is among the league leaders, thanks to career highs of 10 steals (no CS) and 49% XBT. And when a guy who’s already homered twice in the game lays it out on the track for a great catch, you get a hunch that he means to lead this young team by example in every phase.

Monday: Dodgers 6, @Bravos 2 — Kevin Correia’s Dodger debut featured six sturdy frames and his first two-hit game, starting the go-ahead surge in the 6th that scored 3 runs against Julio Teheran on 5 singles. Teheran got six grounders in the inning, plus a pop-up and a looper, but the breaks were against him, not to mention a makeshift middle infield.

• Atlanta won 6 of the first 11 games in which they scored one or two runs, but just once in their last 25, as the pitching has fallen back to the pack.

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Sunday: @Blue Jays 6, Tigers 5 (19 inn.) — Melky Cabrera is the first Blue Jay ever to draw 5 walks or to reach safely 8 times. The latter has been done 7 times in MLB since 1914 (including the only searchable 9-hit game), most recently by Rod Carew in 1972; only he and Cabrera failed to score even once.

Sunday: Dodgers 5, @Brewers 1 — It’s no surprise that cleanup hitter Aramis Ramirez went 0 for 3 against Clayton Kershaw. Last July 21, Jayson Werth homered twice off Kershaw from the 4th spot, the only hits in his 7 IP. In 31 games since then, #4 hitters are 16 for 86 (.186) with 4 RBI, no homers or triples, 3 doubles (.221 SLG), 6 walks and 29 Ks.

Sunday: @Mariners 4, White Sox 2 — Two years ago, Dominic Leone was a 16th-round draft pick just starting his pro career in the Northwest League. After ripping through three more levels last season — but not reaching Triple-A — Leone made the opening roster this year, and now is a key cog in MLB’s deepest bullpen, if not the best. Seattle’s 2.34 relief ERA would be the best full-season AL mark in the DH era. Their five most-used relievers — all righties — have ERAs of 2.74 or lower in 40+ IP, led by Leone’s 2.06. Only the 2012 Orioles had five relievers (or four righties) with 50+ IP and an ERA of 2.80 or lower.

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Saturday: Padres 2, @Pirates 1 — Four hits or less, nothing but singles: The Padres are 3-6 in such games; all others are 4-91.

• Francisco Liriano served two runs on three hits and a HBP in the 1st, then retired 19 in a row … In the 8th, Pittsburgh got the tying and lead runs into scoring position with no outs, but Kevin Quackenbush worked through his own troubles: soft liner to 2B by Ike Davis, Starling Marte’s 100th strikeout, and a can o’ corn by Gregory Polanco.

Saturday: @Athletics 9, Twins 4 — Seven walks and no strikeouts in Trevor May‘s debut, just the second such debut as a starter. Eight have done that in a relief debut, none wilder than Chris Haughey. In the 1943 season finale, which happened to be Haughey’s 18th birthday, Whit Wyatt left after one inning, and the youngster went the rest of the way, walking 10 Reds without a whiff — not counting the three times he fanned against Johnny Vander Meer. It was apparently Haughey’s first game in organized baseball, and it would be his last in the majors. No other modern pitcher walked more than eight in a one-game career.

Saturday: Marlins 4, @Reds 3 — WP: B.Penny, 1-0. I strenously object!

Saturday: @Angels 5, Red Sox 4 (19 inn.) — Each team tied a club record by using 9 pitchers. Boston’s 5 such games are all since 2001. The first such game for the Angels was in 1963 — a mere 13 innings, but skipper Bill Rigney used four arms in the 10th alone, escaping bags full with no outs.

Among the two longer Angels games … July 9, 1971 — The A’s beat the Angels in 20 innings, 1-0, with a total of seven pitchers used. Vida Blue, two weeks before his 22nd birthday, and well on his way to the Cy Young Award with a 17-3 record and 1.51 ERA, worked 11 innings and fanned 17 without a walk. Rollie Fingers took the next 7 stanzas, followed up by two short stints. For the Angels, Rudy May worked 12 frames on just three singles, none after the 5th (although he did walk six to go with his 13 Ks); Eddie Fisher took five, and Mel Queen took the loss in his third inning.

Blue’s next start was the All-Star Game, going 3 innings on his regular rest and yielding homers to Johnny Bench and Henry Aaron. Three days later, Blue one-hit the Tigers, and then (on 4 days’s rest) took another 11-IP no-decision, 11 Ks and no walks, passing the 200 mark in strikeouts and innings on July 21.