Belatedly, and most imperfectly….

@Orioles 5, Red Sox 3: For 5-1/3 innings, all Baltimore could do with Aaron Cook‘s offerings was beat them into the ground. Nobody even got the ball out of the infield fair: 19 batters, 13 groundouts, 3 walks, a strikeout, a foul fly, and a soft liner to short. But J.J. Hardy‘s liner to left opened the floodgates, and Boston’s lead was washed away by a 5-run deluge.

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Mariners’ ace Felix Hernandez collected his and the team’s first-ever perfecto, fanning 12 Rays in a 1-0 victory, as Seattle took the rubber match of a 3-game set with Tampa Bay. The key defensive play came on the first hitter of the game as Eric Thames tracked down a Sam Fuld drive on the warning track in the right-center field gap.

For Hernandez, the game also marked his first no-hitter after a one-hitter in 2007 and four previous two-hitters, most recently against the Yankees two starts ago on August 4th. Hernandez continues his recent hot streak with his 5th straight start allowing 5 hits or less over 7 innings or more, the longest such streak in MLB this season.

It was the third time this season the Mariners have been involved in a no-hit game, the previous times being on the losing end of Philip Humber‘s April 21st perfect game for the White Sox, and a Mariners’ team no-hitter against the Dodgers on June 8th. Seattle is the first team with two no-hit games in the same regular season since the Angels in 1973 (Nolan Ryan twice) and the Cubs in 1972 (Burt Hooton and Milt Pappas). Roy Halladay, of course, had a regular season perfect game and a post-season no-hitter for the Phillies in 2010.

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The Reds won a game last night on a walk-off homer that came in what had been up to that moment a 0-0 game.  That is a rather rare occurrence, and had not previously happened in the majors this season.  The last Cincy hitter to do it before Jay Bruce last night was Adam Dunn, in the 11th inning of a 2006 game against the Brewers.  Before that Reds fans would have to go back to Paul O’Neill in 1990, and then to Hobie Landrith in 1954.  The last 0-0 tie-breaking walk-off homer anywhere in the majors was by Brett Lawrie last September 5 against the Red Sox.  The last one by a National League hitter prior to last night was by Matt Kemp more than two years ago, back on June 1, 2010 against the Diamondbacks.

Shutouts, shutouts everywhere….

@Yankees 3, Rangers 0: Hiroki Kuroda lost his no-no on an infield single in the 7th when the game was scoreless, but he went the route on 2 hits for his first 9-inning shutout since his rookie year, 2008. Nick Swisher got the party started once again, with a 2-run HR in the 7th, and “Me-too” Mark Teixeira followed with his 23rd — the first 2 batters faced by Alexi Ogando.

• Ogando started twice against the Yanks last year and was hammered both times, totaling 11 ER in 8 IP.
• New York had gone 13 months since their last 9-IP CG shutout — July 2011, by CC Sabathia.

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Dodgers 5, @Pirates 4: Shane Victorino‘s first HR for LA put them up 4-2 in the 5th, and an 8th-inning run built on Juan Cruz‘s wildness turned vital  when the Bucs scored twice in their half. Kenley Jansen converted his 24th save (his 10th of the one-run species) as the Dodgers forged a tie in the West.

• Victorino also doubled home a run and sacrificed. He owns 2 of the 5 games this year containing a HR, another XBH and a SH.
• LA is 4-0 against Pittsburgh, by a combined score of 14-8.
• The Pirates have allowed 5+ runs in 7 straight games (2-5 record). They had not yielded 5+ in more than 3 straight before this stretch.

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Some players seem to be able to maintain really high BAbips (batting average on balls in play.) It’s one thing for a guy like Ichiro to do it…he has a .347 career BAbip, which is really high, but not so much higher than his career BA of .322.

Here are active players (minimum 2000 plate appearances) with BAbips at least 20% higher than their batting averages, minimum .296 BAbip, which is league average for 2012 only.

Kind of a neat list, huh? It’s got some fast guys like Fowler and Bourn, who (like Ichiro) probably get a high BAbip because they are able to beat out a higher fraction of infield grounders). It also includes some three true outcome guys like Cust, Reynolds, and Branyan, who don’t necessarily put the ball in play that much, have low batting averages, and hit a higher rate of balls out of the park.

It is, in fact, these TTO guys who have the highest increase of BAbip over  BA. Cust is tops, with a BAbip 39% higher than his BA. The rest of the leaders among the list above are Reynolds (31%), Fowler (29%), Branyan (28%), and Betemit (27%).

@White Sox 7, Athletics 3: H.R. Pierzynski broke a tie in the 6th with his 23rd HR, touching off a 5-run uprising, and Chris Sale fanned 11 over 6.2 IP (2 each in the first 5 frames) for his 14th win.

• 23 HRs is the 3rd-highest ever by a catcher aged 35 and up, tied with Carlton Fisk, who also holds the top two marks (37 and 26). Pierzynski’s .560 SLG would break Gabby Hartnett‘s record of .548 for that same group. Fifteen of his 23 HRs have come at home.
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[I couldn’t finish last night and had tech troubles this morning, so here it is for whatever it’s worth by now.]

@Angels 6, Mariners 5: After dropping 6 of 8 to teams they’re chasing for one reason or another, the Angels needed this one bad, and in the end that’s how they got it. A 2-out, 1-and-2 pitch squirted away from Josh Kinney in the 9th, and pinch-runner Peter Bourjos was just fast enough to beat John Jaso‘s return throw and score the game-winner. Kendrys Morales had set it all up with a leadoff double; he had their only 2 hits in the last 4 innings, as the #2-3-4 men went 0 for 12.

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Is Aroldis Chapman injured, tired, bummed out, in the doghouse, attending childbirth, awaiting trial, on double-secret probation, or otherwise unavailable to pitch? I can’t find anything online to that effect, but consider the last 2 Reds losses:

• Aug. 8 — @Brewers 3, Reds 2 — Brewers reverse Cincy’s 1-run lead with 2 outs in the home 8th, on two separate RBI hits.
• Aug. 9 — @Cubs 5, Reds 3 — Bottom/8th, 1 out, Cubs break a tie on a 2-run HR.

Yet the most dominant pitcher in the world right now did not appear in either game. The man sporting the highest strikeout rate and lowest opponents’ batting average in MLB history has not pitched at all during Cincinnati’s 5-game losing streak.

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Rays 7, @Blue Jays 1: Matt Moore turned in Tampa’s third straight strong start (1 R, 2 H in 6 IP), and the Rays moved to 3-0 with Evan Longoria back in the lineup, even at DH — not only completing the sweep (with a total of 4 runs allowed), but resurfacing in the wide-open wild-card race. Losses by Detroit and Baltimore leave Tampa just a half-game out of a playoff spot and with a bit of momentum: They’ve won 10 of 15, including series wins over WC competitors LAA, OAK and BAL.

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