Notables:

- Johnny Cueto threw seven shutout innings to beat the A's. By sweeping the A's, the Reds arrested their recent trend of getting pummeled on the West Coast. Joey Votto's three walks made it 32 games in a row that he's reached base.
- Stephen Strasburg picked up his first loss of the year, despite striking out nine while walking none. The Royals scraped together one run on nine hits, and that was enough, as the Nats were shut out by Brian Bannister.
- Ricky Nolasco gave up two more homers, giving him 17 allowed on the season - one less than his number of walks. After allowing four second-inning runs, he held the O's scoreless for the next five innings, and struck out eight in the process.
- Chris Carpenter and Ricky Romero threw eight shutout innings against each other.
- Jose Reyes was phenomenal on Wednesday, going 3-for-4 with a triple, homer and a stolen base. As RotoWire writer Jan Levine suggested on-air with us on Wednesday morning, Reyes is in vintage form - running, hitting for power and ticking off opposing teams.
- Brett Myers has gotten through at least six innings in all 15 of his starts this year. He allowed three runs (one earned) against the Giants over seven innings on Wednesday.
- The Rangers had only three extra-base hits among their 17 that they pounded out against the Pirates. Michael Young had two of those extra-base hits, going 3-for-4 with four RBI, three runs and a homer. Meanwhile, their "bullpen start" with Rich Harden out worked perfectly - Dustin Nippert, Alexi Ogando and Matt Harrison all pitched three innings.
- On the Pirates side of things, Paul Maholm failed to retire a hitter in the second inning, giving up seven runs (five earned, thanks to Neil Walker's error) on seven hits and four walks; he posted an apology tweet after the game. Dana Eveland threw gasoline on the fire after that, giving up another six runs over 2.2 innings in relief.
- Manny Parra threw four wild pitches, including one when issuing an intentional walk. Yet he held the Twins to two runs on 5.2 innings to get his first starter win of the year.
- Rickie Weeks went 3-for-4 with a walk, three RBI and two runs scored.
- Carlos Quentin homered twice, giving him three in the last two days.
- Ubaldo Jimenez had his worst outing of the year, giving up six runs on 10 hits over 5.2 innings. He struck out seven without issuing any walks. He was pitching through an illness.
- Dontrelle Willis walked seven in 2.1 innings - only 27 of his 67 pitches were strikes.
- Joel Pineiro worked into the eighth inning for the fourth time in his last five starts.
- Cliff Lee was dominant yet again, throwing a complete game against the Cubs. He has an astounding 76:4 K:BB in 86.2 innings.

Save Chances:

- Francisco Cordero, converted (19). Cordero threw a clean sheet, striking out one batter while working for the third consecutive day. The Reds are off Thursday, so he's probably good to go if the need arises on Friday.
- Joakim Soria, converted (17). Perfect inning, 2 K's.
- Leo Nunez, converted (16).
- Kerry Wood, sigh ... blown (3). Wood is closer to becoming a Three True Outcomes reliever - and that's probably not a good thing. Jimmy Rollins' first homer since returning from the DL did the deed.
- Ryan Franklin, converted (14). Franklin gave up a hit and a walk, but avoided any damage in part by inducing a 5-4-3 double play.
- Heath Bell, converted (19). He allowed one unearned run while getting the save.
- Matt Lindstrom, converted (16). Two strikeouts in a clean inning.
- Matt Harrison, converted (1). Three-inning save, one run allowed on two hits and no walks while striking out three.
- John Axford, converted (6). Half of his saves have come against the Twins. He allowed a run on a walk and Joe Mauer's double.
- Bobby Jenks, converted (16).
- Jonathan Papelbon, blown (2). This was a pretty high-profile blown save. Papelbon gave up a game-tying homer to Ian Stewart and then a two-run game-winner to Jason Giambi.
- Aaron Heilman, blown (3)|STAR|. Heilman walked three and then allowed the game-tying run to score on a sac fly. Though technically this was his third blown save, it was the first in a traditional save situation - his previous ones came in a set-up capacity, in earlier innings.
- Brian Fuentes, converted (12). This one was by the thinnest of margins - Fuentes gave up a bloop hit with runners on first and second. Juan Rivera had no chance to throw out the lead runner, but instead threw behind Russell Martin, who had rounded second too aggressively, and the tag got on Martin nanoseconds before the lead runner, Reed Johnson, crossed home plate.

Other Closer Outings:

- Alfredo Simon allowed a run on four hits in his inning of work, extending the Marlins' lead from one run to two.
- Kevin Gregg picked up the loss, giving up three singles in a 0-0 game to allow the only run of the game.
- Francisco Rodriguez pitched a clean ninth inning, allowing one hit while striking out one while protecting a five-run lead.
- Manuel Corpas got the win after he pitched a scoreless ninth, trailing by one, with the Rockies rallying in the ninth.
- Mariano Rivera's "perfect game" finally ended - he had retired 24 consecutive batters, including the ninth inning, before allowing two hits to start the 10th. He got out of a bases-loaded, no outs jam to get the win.
- Jonathan Broxton threw a scoreless eighth with the Dodgers trailing by one against the Angels. He hasn't a save opportunity since June 9.

Non-Closer Reliever Outings:

- Robinson Tejeda was the good version of Tejeda, striking out three while allowing one hit over two innings, with no walks allowed.
- Joaquin Benoit gave the Padres a necessary insurance run in the ninth on Chase Headley's homer.
- Luke Gregerson allowed his second homer of the year to blow a lead, but also struck out four and got the win when the Padres rallied against the Rays. Gregerson has a sick 47:4 K:BB on the year.
- Alexi Ogando threw three perfect innings, striking out two to pick up his third win.
- Huston Street made his first outing of the year, throwing 1.1 innings, allowing one hit, striking out one. He came on in the sixth inning.
- The Diamondbacks didn't use Chad Qualls at all in a tight game against the Yankees, turning instead to Sam Demel, Juan Gutierrez, Aaron Heilman and then Carlos Rosa, who picked up the loss.

Lineup-o-logy:

- Rajai Davis got a start in left field with Conor Jackson DH'ing and Gabe Gross in right field for the A's. Jack Cust has sat the last two games, despite the Reds starting right-handers against the A's.
- Shane Victorino has dropped down to seventh in the order with Jimmy Rollins back. Brian Schneider is going to get a lot of playing time behind the plate with Carlos Ruiz on the DL; he hit eighth.
- Getting the nod in RF with the Cardinals facing lefty Ricky Romero, Randy Winn went 3-for-4 and scored the lone run of the game.
- Geoff Blum started at shortstop with Tommy Manzella out for the next six weeks with a broken left index finger.

Injuries:

- Orlando Cabrera (ankle) returned to the lineup but went 0-for-5 with two K's.
- Both Josh Outman and Joey Devine, trying to rehab from arm surgeries, have been shut down this week by the A's.
- Ryan Madson (toe) will begin his rehab assignment on Sunday.
- Ryan Ludwick sat out with a sore calf and was replaced by Randy Winn in right field.
- Angel Pagan left with muscle spasms in his right side and will probably sit out on Thursday.
- Carlos Silva is getting pushed back to Saturday due to a sore hamstring.
- Doug Fister's bullpen session for his shoulder went well - he'll come off the DL to start on Saturday.

Stolen Bases:

- Roger Bernadina (6); Josh Willingham (6); Jose Reyes (19); Johnny Damon (5); John Jaso (3); Carl Crawford (26); B.J. Upton (22,23); Hunter Pence (9); Chris Johnson (1); Corey Hart (4); Curtis Granderson (6); Brett Gardner (24); Chris Young (13); Chone Figgins (15).

Caught Stealing:

- Chris Coghlan (2); Shin-Soo Choo (3); Ryan Howard (1) - this one was credited to Howard, though it was a case of him breaking from third after Shane Victorino got picked off at first; Shane Victorino (2); Ben Zobrist (2); Jason Bourgeios (1); Delmon Young (2); Alexei Ramirez (6); Nick Swisher (1); Mark Teixeira (1).

Home Runs:

- Gaby Sanchez (8); Jorge Cantu (10); Luke Scott (11); Adam Jones (10); Shin-Soo Choo 2 (9,10); Jimmy Rollins (3); Jayson Werth (13); Brian Schneider (1); Jose Reyes (6); Sean Rodriguez (5); Adrian Gonzalez (16); Chase Headley (5); Will Venable (6); Carlos Quentin 2 (10, 11); Darnell McDonald (4); Miguel Olivo (10); Ian Stewart (8); Jason Giambi (3); Curtis Granderson (7); Tyler Colvin (9); Michael Saunders (5).

Debuts:

- Jason Bourgeois started in CF and hit leadoff in place of Michael Bourn, going 1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored.