Here’s a rundown on this week’s action in the junior circuit.

Red Sox@Rays – AL East rivals split first two of three

• In game 1, both starters went 5.2 IP without allowing an earned run, and both bullpens allowed only a hit the rest of the way. The difference was an unearned 3rd inning run for the Red Sox, scored on a throwing error by the Rays’ rookie second baseman Ryan Brett.
• A different type of game the next day. Joe Kelly was solid for the Red Sox through 5 as Boston built up a 5-1 lead. But four straight Rays singles, and then a walk, to start the 6th spelled the end of Kelly’s night as Tampa Bay tied up the contest, and then added two more in the 7th for a 7-5 win. Jake Elmore scored twice after entering the game as a pinch-runner, the 7th Ray with that distinction, one of whom (Fernando Perez) did so in consecutive team games in 2008, the only such searchable streak (despite that performance by Perez, the Rays lost both games to Toronto).

Orioles@Blue Jays – Toronto plays long ball to take first two of three

• In the opener, Toronto put up a 6-run second inning and were never headed as Mark Buehrle collected his 3rd win of the young season. Joey Bats and Double-E both homered for the first time this season, with Encarnacion launching a mammoth upper deck blast for his second of the night. Toronto has scored 12, 12 and 13 runs in Buehrle’s three starts
• In game 2, Ubaldo Jimenez extended his hitless innings streak to 11 IP and his scoreless skein to 13.2 IP to begin this season before Justin Smoak connected for a 4th inning two-run HR, matching the shot that the Orioles’ Jimmy Paredes had delivered the inning before. One inning later, Devon Travis added the third two-run homer of the night to give Toronto the 4-2 win.
• Aaron Sanchez got the game 2 win for Toronto, his first as a starter, and only the fifth in the last 5+ seasons by a starter allowing 7+ walks in less than 6 IP. Sanchez is only 22, but an old man compared to Roberto Osuna, who relieved Sanchez, and Miguel Castro, who got 4 outs for his third save of the season. Those appearances by pitchers less than four months removed from their 20th birthdays make this contest just the 8th searchable team game with two relievers that young both pitching more than an inning. Of the previous 7, four were during World War II, two in September 1957 involving bonus babies, and the last 101 years ago involving HOFer Herb Pennock and Rube Bressler (who had a 148 ERA+ in that rookie season, but only 71 after that, prompting his conversion to a position player).
• Devon Travis’s game 2 home run was the fourth of his season and career, as the rookie is now sporting a gaudy .388/.434/.714 slash. His 14 RBI in his first 14 career games are tied for the most by a second baseman since at least 1914.

Yankees@Tigers – Bombers take two in first three of four game set

• Detroit edged New York 2-1 in the opener. CC Sabathia was the tough luck loser, going the distance and allowing the Tigers’ two runs in the 7th on a pair of two-out seeing-eye ground ball singles.
• In game 2, Nathan Eovaldi scattered 8 hits over 7 innings allowing only a run, for a 5-2 Yankee win featuring exactly two each of stolen bases, doubles, home runs and GDPs, the 7th such game for New York since 1914, but the 5th since 2002.
• In game 3, New York jumped all over David Price for 6 first inning runs and two more in the second frame, en route to a 13-4 laugher as six Yankee starters collected an extra-base hit (the other three had 5 singles), eight scored and seven had an RBI. Price’s game score of 4 is his second mark below 5 in 15 starts with the Tigers, making him the only pitcher with two such games in the past 2+ seasons.

Athletics@Angels – Teams swap lop-sided wins as As take two in first three of four game set

• In the opener, both starters lasted only three innings but the two pens were on the mark, allowing only one run in a combined 12 innings of work, as Oakland prevailed 6-3.
• In game 2, the Angels faced a different group of As relievers and jumped all over them for 9 runs in a 14-1 romp. R.J. Alvarez pitched one inning for Oakland and struck out the side … but not before allowing 5 hits, 3 walks and 2 wild pitches, making his outing the shortest searchable relief stint with those markers (no other reliever has done the same in less than two IP).
• In game 3, it was the As turn to feast on the relief corps, breaking open a 1-1 tie with 8 runs in the 7th and 8th innings for a 9-2 win. Every Athletic got a hit in an 18 knock attack, the most for the As in 8 searchable games with four SB, two GDP, a sac bunt and a sac fly.

Indians@White Sox – Sox club Kluber to take two of three

• In the opener, Cleveland took a 3-0 lead to the bottom of the 9th but Cody Allen couldn’t close the deal, striking out Adam LaRoche but then allowing seven straight Sox batters (six with hits) to reach base. My question is: where was Terry Francona? Don’t you think you might want to run somebody else out there after the first three or four of those guys got on? I mean, how much evidence do you need that your guy just doesn’t have it tonight! Allen, incidentally, is the first searchable reliever to pitch less than an inning and finish a game in which he allowed 6 hits, a walk and a wild pitch.
• The Indians took the second game by a 6-2 count with Cody Allen again finishing the game, this time with a 3-up, 3-down inning. Lonnie Chisenhall went 0 for 4 for Cleveland and has started ice cold with a .182/.229/.295 slash in 48 PA. On July 1st last year, he was slashing .345/.399/.555 but has gone .219/.284/.301 in 334 PA since.
• The Sox took the rubber match as Jeff Samardzija and three relievers blanked the Tribe 6-0. Chicago got to Corey Kluber for 13 hits over 6 innings, his career high in hits allowed.

Twins@Royals – KC rolls on, taking two of three

• In the opener, the Royals broke open a 1-1 game with a 3-run 6th inning that started when Mike Moustakas reached base on an error by Twins leftfielder Oswaldo Arcia. KC added three more in the 8th for a 7-1 win, including two on a two-out triple by Paulo Orlando, his 5th three-bagger of the young season. Orlando is rewriting the searchable record book (since 1914) as the fastest from the start of a career to reach these triples milestones:
  • 1 triple – 1 game, Orlando plus 134 others
  • 2 triples – 1 game, 3 players, last by John Sipin in 1969
  • 3 triples – 2 games, Orlando (old record is 4 games by 3 players, last by Mike Gates in 1981-82)
  • 4 triples – 4 games, Orlando (old record is 9 games by Carlos Bernier in 1953)
  • 5 triples – 7 games, Orlando (old record is 15 games by Johnny Rizzo in 1938)
  • 6 triples – stay tuned, current record is 19 games by Jeff Heath in 1936-37

  Eric Hosmer became the fourth Royal first basemen with a 1-1-0-0 line in a complete game, but the first to do so with only two walks.

• In a see-saw affair in game 2, the Royals twice gained and then surrendered the lead before adding a pair in the 8th for a 6-5 win. Orlando again figured prominently with a single up the middle in that 8th inning on which Salvador Perez(!) went first-to-third. Orlando then stole second, went to third on a groundout (that scored Perez) and scored what would be the winning run on a two-out single by Mike Moustakas.
• The Twins salvaged the finale, striking for three first inning runs that would turn out to be all the scoring in the game. Mike Pelfrey went 7 strong innings for the win as Minnesota recorded its second team shutout of the season. Unusual scoring on the Twins first run by Torii Hunter. The game log says Hunter was picked off second base, but was safe because of an errant throw by the pitcher. Does that imply that, absent the error, he would have been out? Apparently not, as his run was earned. So, was he really safe because of the error? Or, would an error have even been charged had he not advanced to third (the game log does not say the advancement was because of the error, though it almost certainly must have been)?

Astros@Mariners – Division-leading Houston takes two of three

• Seattle handed a 5-3 lead to the bullpen, but the Astros battled back to tie in the 6th and go ahead in the 8th for a 7-5 win.
• In game 2, Taijuan Walker had his first solid outing of the season to stake the Mariners to a 3-1 lead, but the Astros scored 5 in the 8th to make a winner of starter Collin McHugh. It’s McHugh’s third win of the season, his 8th consecutive start with a W and 13th consecutive without a loss (the Astro records are 9 straight starts won by Roy Oswalt, and 16 straight starts without a loss by Wade Miller and Mark Portugal). That’s quite a turnaround for a pitcher who had 7 losses and 2 NDs in the first 9 starts of his career.
• Seattle salvaged the finale 3-2 as J.A. Happ pitched into the 8th inning for his first Mariner win. Fernando Rodney collected his fourth save, but not before allowing the the tying and go-ahead runs to reach base.