After the first month of the 2013 season Royals’ GM Dayton Moore had to be feeling pretty darn good about himself. By the end of April an offseason full of risky moves in the pitching department and prospect department had begun to coalesce into one of the best rotations in baseball, leading Kansas City to a 14-10 record despite a struggling offense.

Unfortunately for those decked out in royal blue, things haven’t gone as smoothly in May. Tuesday’s 4-1 loss at the hands of the rival Cardinals was particularly bitter. Not only did it drop Kansas City’s record in May to a pathetic 7-18 on the month, the loss was also the Royals 10th straight at Kauffman Stadium, matching the franchise record set just one season ago. After spending much of the first month in 1st place in the AL Central, the Royals are now tied for last with the Twins, staring 7.5 games ahead at the Detroit Tigers.

To make matters worse, the offense, which was supposed to be the Royals’ calling card, has been a completely flop. The franchise ranks dead last in the AL in homers, 2nd to last in walks and slugging percentage, and 3rd to last in runs scored. The homers have been particularly hard to come by of late, with Kansas City hitting just 2 in their last 13 games. That’s not exactly the formula for playoff contention and it appears to stem from Kansas City’s quarter century long war on walks.

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Game Notes is scaling back coverage in favor of depth, so we’ll focus on one division per day (both leagues), with occasional noteworthy games tacked on. We begin with the Central Divisions; but feel free to comment on other games.

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Pirates 5, @Brewers 4: The Bucs have allowed 4 earned runs or less in 19 straight games, the longest such streak this year and their longest since 1970. Their May pitching stats look like some Cy Young seasons: 2.44 ERA in 210 IP, 199 Ks, 58 walks, 14 HRs and a 16-7 record. A 2-inning stint by Vin Mazzaro ran his scoreless string to 12.2 IP (plus stranding all 5 inherited). Jason Grilli converted his 20th straight save; he’s 5 saves ahead of any other Pirate after 50 games.

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In Part 1, we saw that whatever correlation had existed between no-hitters and strikeout rates was broken in the last 20 to 30 years. But why?

I can’t study that question in depth, but we can dip a toe in the water by starting with a simpler question: What basic measure would we expect to show the strongest correlation to no-hit rates?

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“The less often the ball is in play, the more likely a no-hitter becomes.”

Tom Verducci wrote that in a June 2012 Sports Illustrated column titled, “Flurry of no-hitters and perfect games reflect changes in baseball.” You’ve probably heard the same claim elsewhere.

It sounds good in theory, and it may hold for individual games. But on a league-wide basis, it’s not supported by results in the current era, once you look beyond a very small sample. The high-strikeout era as a whole has actually seen a decline in no-hitters, compared to prior rates.

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@Tigers 6, Twins 0: Joe Mauer timed a 1-and-1 curve from a tiring Anibal Sanchez and lined it through the middle, a foot above the hurler’s head, spoiling the no-hit bid with 1 out in the 9th on his 121st pitch. Sanchez fanned the last 2 men for 12 Ks, a career-high 130 pitches, and his 4th career 1-hitter. Since his 2006 debut, he leads the majors with 5 regulation CGs of 1 hit or less; Matt Cain has 4 in that time, Verlander and Dickey 3 each. Sanchez allowed 5 hits in his 17-K game last month.

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Baseball Fates, please note (please?): I’m just playing around here! None of these things will actually come to pass; it’s just a way of expressing how hot he’s been so far.

Miguel Cabrera finished Thursday’s game #45 with a .391 BA, .701 slugging, 1.168 OPS, 14 HRs, 55 RBI, 39 Runs, 72 hits, 129 total bases, and an OPS+ well north of 200.

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Following are lists of all-time leading pitchers, by franchise, for a variety of common pitching metrics.

Ever wanted to know which pitcher had the most 200 strikeout seasons playing for Cleveland? You’ll find that out and lots more after the jump.

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August 9, 2012 may very well go down as an extremely important date in the history of the Baltimore Orioles baseball club. It was on that date that the Orioles went from overachievers in a pennant race to a playoff-caliber ball club. It was on that fateful day in August that Baltimore brought Manny Machado to town.

Since giving Machado the call-up from Double-A Bowie the Orioles have run off an impressive 58-39 record in games in which the youngster appears. Machado’s bat has impressed mightily during his short time in the big leagues. He’s hit .292 with 12 homers and 52 RBI, not to mention the 26 doubles he’s pounded. But the addition of Machado’s bat hasn’t been the biggest key to the Orioles resurgence. No, it’s been his defense, as well as the glovework of his teammates.

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@Giants 4, Nationals 2 (10): What’s better than a game-tying triple with 2 outs in the 9th? Panda-monium, of course. Matt Cain worked 7 strong for the 3rd time in 4 May outings (the good ones all at home), and the Giants took the MLB lead in walk-off wins, each of their six delivered by a different driver.

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