Major Injuries: Shin-Soo Choo, Elvis Andrus, Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau, Roy Oswalt

Pirates 3, Red Sox 1

- Paul Maholm "outdueled" Jon Lester in a battle of lefties, aided by the Pirates' bullpen and a sudden deluge in a key situation in the eighth inning, when David Ortiz pinch-hit with a runner on against Jose Veras. The downpour disappeared as suddenly as it came after Ortiz's at-bat.
- I was as high as anyone on Joel Hanrahan heading into this season, but apparently not high enough. His perfect ninth Friday to get his 21st save lowered his ERA and WHIP to 1.27 and 0.93 respectively. There's all sorts of interesting tidbits about Hanrahan. As recently as 2009 after he got traded to the Pirates, he was walking 5.74 batters per nine innings. Last year he shaved that down considerably to 3.36, but then lowered it again this year to 2.10. Meanwhile, after striking out 12.92 batters per nine last year, he's down to 7.86 this year. All this while raising his fastball velocity by 1.36 mph over last year. What's really amazing is how much more he's throwing that fastball - as per Fangraphs, he's throwing it nearly 84 percent of the time, cutting his slider usage by more than half. The end result is fewer strikeouts but also fewer walks, all while giving up less solid contact.
- Lester's cause was hurt by Mike Cameron butchering a fly ball into a official scorer's double. I remember when Cameron was a plus-defender. Then again, I remember when a ball didn't have to officially clank out of a glove for it to be called an error. But you know how I like beating that dead horse.
- Chase d'Arnaud made his major league debut for the Pirates, starting at third base while batting second. He went 1-for-3 with a triple.
- Will the Pirates be willing to trade any of its relievers like Chris Resop or Jose Veras at the deadline? They're over .500 still, only three games out of first place. There's some parallels to the Padres last year, who ended up not selling at the deadline after finding themselves in a race ahead of schedule. It's pretty tough politically to sell that after all that Pittsburgh has been through with this team.
- HR/SB: None; SV: Hanrahan (21).

Phillies 1, A's 0

- Ben Francisco's fluke single (watch the highlight) scored the only run of the game. Don't feel too bad for losing pitcher Brian Fuentes, though - his leadoff walk issued to Shane Victorino was the proximate cause of the rally.
- Vance Worley and Guillermo Moscoso took no-hitters into the sixth inning in this game. Yes, scoring is down across baseball this year, why do you ask?
- There wasn't a save opportunity Friday, but Ryan Madson has a hand injury and was unavailable to pitch. In a scoreless game, Michael Stutes pitched a perfect ninth with two strikeouts and got the win. Neither he nor Antonio Bastardo had pitched since Tuesday, so they were fresh. Stutes and Bastardo seem like the two most likely candidates to close with Madson out and Jose Contreras and Brad Lidge on the DL.
- Placido Polanco was moved back from fifth to second in the order. He struggled in his brief trial hitting behind Ryan Howard. It's not coincidental that manager Charlie Manuel carped about wanting another right-handed hitter earlier in the week - the Phillies need to have someone to hit behind Howard come playoff time.
- HR/SB/SV: None.

Orioles 5, Reds 4 (12 innings)

- Derrek Lee hit his first homer in seven weeks, a walkoff homer off of Jose Arredondo in the 12th.
- Speaking of Arredondo, he was starting his second inning of work. Meanwhile, closer Francisco Cordero didn't get into the game, waiting for the save chance that never came. But I can see why the Reds didn't turn to him - gotta rest him - oh, wait, he last pitched on Sunday. Watch - the next time he pitches, he'll either blow a save and claim rustiness, or he'll be called upon in a "get work" situation and give up two runs. All because a tie game in extra innings clearly isn't high-leverage enough.
- The new, efficient Edinson Volquez is gone. Long live the crappy, wild version. Volquez couldn't get out of the fifth inning Friday, giving up 12 baserunners in 4.1 innings, on seven hits and five walks. In that context, the four runs he allowed is nearly miraculous.
- Blake Davis had his first two major league hits, including a two-run triple in the second inning. Davis is a 27-year old rookie who had a .719 OPS at Triple-A before getting the call - exactly the profile of a scrappy non-prospect.
- Chris Heisey once again hit leadoff, going 1-for-5 with a walk as the left fielder.
- Further pleading to Dusty - please, please, please do not use Jonny Gomes as the DH or elsewhere against a right-handed starter. The splits don't lie.
- HR: Adam Jones (12), Derrek Lee (5); SB: Nick Markakis; CS: Jay Bruce (4); SV: None.

Rockies 4, Yankees 2

- Ubaldo Jimenez lowered his ERA to 4.50 with seven pretty strong innings, allowing two runs on four hits and four walks while striking out seven. He's not out of the woods yet, but there's enough evidence to believe in the chances for a decent second half. Now he just needs to relearn how to pitch well in Coors Field.
- Jason Giambi homered against his old teammates. Are he and Wily Mo Pena the best NL DH's during this spate of interleague play? He went 3-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored.
- Bartolo Colon was able to throw a 31-pitch bullpen session, but he's over a week from returning.
- HR: Jason Giambi (8), Troy Tulowitzki (14); SB: Chris Nelson (3), Curtis Granderson 2 (12); CS: Eduardo Nunez (4); SV: Huston Street (23).

Diamondbacks 7, Tigers 6

- Wily Mo Pena hit a ball to Ann Arbor to break a 6-6 tie. The homer was his second this week as a DH in interleague play, both tape measure shots. He went 2-for-4 with two strikeouts Friday night. The two homers represent the good, while the two strikeouts help represent why he's never stuck in the big leagues - he already has eight K's in 15 at-bats, with no walks. I made this joke/Cheers reference on-air this week, but I liked it, so I'll repeat it here - "Do Not Say Cochise to This Dog" - "Do Not Hang a Slider to This Hitter." The Tigers David Purcey never was a Cheers fan growing up, or alternately didn't read his scouting reports on Pena. Seriously, see the highlight for yourself.
- Phil Coke and Zach Duke had similar lines in the battle of crappy lefties, both allowing six runs on seven hits while not getting through five innings.
- Chris Young managed to bunt into a double play on a bases-loaded suicide squeeze. That raises the question - what on earth is a 53|PERCENT| flyball hitter doing bunting with the bases loaded and one out? I understand you don't want a strikeout there, but Young's K-rate is actually down this year. This is a good example of smallball gone bad.
- HR: Pena (2), Casper Wells (4); SB: Justin Upton (14); CS: Upton (6); SV: J.J. Putz (21).

Rangers 8, Mets 1

- Matt Harrison cruised against the Mets, holding them to a run over seven innings while striking out four. The key stat here - one walk. When he's going bad, he's walking the ballpark, building up his pitch-count early.
- Mike Pelfrey once again struggled outside of Citi Field, allowing four runs in six innings. His road ERA is 6.65.
- Elvis Andrus sprained his left wrist stealing a base, jamming it while sliding headfirst. Do you think that the Rangers will have sliding drills next spring, given their misfortunes with headfirst slides this year?
- The Mets used Scott Hairston as their DH. Say no more.
- HR: Josh Hamilton (7), Adrian Beltre (13), Michael Young (5); SB: Elvis Andrus (22).

Rays 5, Astros 1

- James Shields threw his third consecutive complete game, striking out nine while allowing just four baserunners. I guess you could say I'm regretting my buy-low, sell-high swap of Shields for Ubaldo Jimenez (there were other parts involved, but they were the principals) in one of my dynasty leagues about five weeks ago.
- Evan Longoria homered and three RBI in his first game without batting gloves since his rookie season.
- J.R. Towles left in the third inning with a chin laceration. Astros starting pitcher Wandy Rodriguez had a tough time adjusting to replacement catcher Carlos Corporan. Four of the five Rays runs came immediately after the injury. Seems like a convenient excuse as anything else.
- Hunter Pence returned to the lineup after sitting out earlier in the week, going 0-for-4 with two K's.
- B.J. Upton might be hitting .220, but he's also well on his way to a 20-40 season, hitting his ninth homer while swiping his 20th base. With batting averages down across baseball, I'll take that tradeoff in roto leagues.
- HR: Evan Longoria (7), B.J. Upton (9); SB: Sean Rodriguez (5), Upton (20).

Cubs 6, Royals 4

- Major League Baseball: "Where slop happens." The Cubs had four runners caught on the basepaths and committed a big throwing error to the tie the game, but the Royals insisted on throwing the game right back. They misplayed a bunt to put the go-ahead run on, letting the run score on a subsequent error. At least the Royals have the excuse of being young and rebuilding.
- Jeff Francoeur homered for the first time since May 22, a span of 112 at-bats. If you've had him all year, kudos - he now has 10 homers and 10 steals.
- Bruce Chen came off the DL, allowing four runs over six innings on eight hits and two walks, striking out four.
- The Cubs used Jeff Baker as their DH, batting him cleanup.
- HR: Francoeur (10); SB: Melky Cabrera (10); CS: Starlin Castro (1), Chris Getz (4); SV: Carlos Marmol (16).

Nationals 9, White Sox 5 (14 innings)

- Self-immolation rarely works (Tunisia aside), so Jim Riggleman's bizarre resignation is unlikely to rally career .420 winning percentage managers to achieve their contract extensions. As has been pointed out in many places, it didn't work so well for Mike Hargrove, either.
- Anyhow, the Nats are going to get Davey Johnson to take over for them - is there any chance that he was their desired target for 2012 all along?
- I don't bet baseball, for various reasons. But I feel some sort of sympathy for anyone who had the under-8 on this game. 0-0 through seven, 3-0 Nats with Drew Storen on the mound in the ninth, only to see Mark Teahen of all people tie it, then see Todd Coffey blow a 4-3 lead in the 10th. The Nats had three legitimate blown saves (i.e., leads blown when the pitcher in question could have actually recorded the save had he held the lead in the inning in which he was in the game) from Storen, Coffey and finally Tyler Clippard. All three pitchers had ERA's of 2.35 or lower entering the game.
- Matt Thornton was done in by a throwing error by Alexei Ramirez on what would have been the third out of the Nats four-run 14th inning. He's not blameless for the blowup, though, giving up a single and a double (and an intentional walk) following the error. This fits a bit of a pattern for Thornton - he has now allowed 11 unearned runs already this season - that's pretty hard for a reliever to do, let alone before the All-Star break.
- All 14 runs in this game came against relief pitchers. Jordan Zimmermann and Edwin Jackson both left after seven innings with clean sheets.
- The White Sox used Juan Pierre and Brent Morel in their top two spots in the order, and they went a combined 1-for-13 with a walk. I don't like Pierre batting leadoff, but at least I get it. What on earth prompted them to bat Morel second, though? Magic 8-ball? Hacking Mass, the home game? Morel started the day with a .257 OBP. Maybe the Sox are trying to save on Paul Konerko's next contract in the distant future by cutting down on his RBI totals.
- Carlos Quentin missed the game to attend to a personal matter.
- HR: Laynce Nix (11), Mike Morse (14), A.J. Pierzynski (3), Mark Teahen (2); SB: Jayson Werth (10), Roger Bernadina (11), Jerry Hairston Jr. (2), Brian Bixler (2); BS: Storen (3), Coffey (2), Clippard (4).

Brewers 4, Twins 3

- Prince Fielder is doing his best to be a bullet point in favor of contract year proponents. His two-run double was his 16th "go-ahead RBI", giving him 65 RBI already this season. This isn't a Joe Carter-esque RBI-orgy either - Fielder is up across the board - BA, OBP, SLG, you name it. He already has walked 51 times this season - at this pace, he's going to walk a lot more over the second half.
- Scott Baker got the hard luck loss when both of the runners he left for Jose Mijares were knocked in on Fielder's double.
- The Twins keep getting bad injury news - Justin Morneau will be out until August after having neck surgery. I thought earlier that the Twins might shut him down early to get this done - as in during August or September. But they're going ahead and taking the plunge now. The weird part about Morneau's career is that a couple of the Twins' big runs have come after long-term injuries to him. I don't think that this happens here, but stranger things have happened.
- Once Jason Kubel, Jim Thome and Denard Span return, this means that Michael Cuddyer still has room to play at first base, meaning that Alexi Casilla has job security at second base and Danny Valencia security at third base.
- Thome will come back from the DL on Saturday, but probably won't start until the Twins get back home, giving him the DH slot.
- Joe Mauer (back) returned to the lineup after sitting out Thursday afternoon, going 0-for-4.
- HR: Danny Valencia (8); SV: John Axford (20) [remember when his job was shaky over the first two weeks of the season?].

Blue Jays 5, Cardinals 4

- Jose Bautista hasn't moved back to third base yet, but his power stroke is already bat. He hit the game-winning homer against Fernando Salas.
- Even though the Jays have said that Bautista's move to third base is full-time, don't think that Rajai Davis and Corey Patterson are completely safe from losing playing time. Eventually Travis Snider will be back up along with Eric Thames, who started in left field. Granted, the Jays will soon have the DH spot to work with, but Edwin Encarnacion will get at least some of those at-bats.
- Speaking of Thames, he hit second in the order Friday and doubled twice in five at-bats.
- Brandon Morrow struck out nine and only walked one, but he also gave up two homers, including a two-run shot by Matt Holliday to cough up a 4-2 lead in the sixth.
- Jake Westbrook's nightmare season continues - he gave up 10 hits and four runs in just 4.1 innings. His WHIP-killing hasn't reached Volquez proportions yet, but at 1.66 he's getting close.
- Salas has allowed a homer in three of his last five outings. We had Cards' MLB.com writer Matthew Leach on the show this week, and he pointed out that the failure of other Cards relievers have led to Salas carrying a heavier-than-optimal workload, and we're starting to see the fruits of that.
- HR: Jose Bautista (23), Matt Holliday (9), Colby Rasmus (6); SB: Corey Patterson (12); SV: Frank Francisco (8).

Padres 11, Braves 2

- The early story was Tim Stauffer, who at one point retired 16 in a row. The late story was a rare home explosion by the Padres' offense, who scored a combined nine runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
- Derek Lowe hasn't won in his last nine starts after a good start to the season.
- After a brief bout with competence, Dan Uggla is back down to hitting .175, with an 0-for-3 with two K's Friday.
- HR: Freddie Freeman (8), Jesus Guzman (1); SB: Will Venable (13).

Mariners 5, Marlins 1

- All you need to know about the Jeffrey Loria regime in Florida is that the Marlins punted their home series with the Mariners in favor of a U2 concert. They're still technically the home team, but playing in the farthest possible place in the major leagues from their home. Well done.
- Felix Hernandez struck out 10 and got to hit at home, responding with a single in his first at-bat.
- The Mariners ended a 20-inning scoreless streak with their three-run rally in the seventh inning.
- For the second game in a row, Adam Kennedy started at third base and batted third in the order. See also, 20-inning scoreless streak.
- HR: Miguel Olivo (12); SB: Gaby Sanchez (1), Hanley Ramirez (14).

Angels 8, Dodgers 3

- The Angels won despite taking baserunning incompetence to a new level, getting thrown at each base by the end of the second inning.
- Dee Gordon and Juan Uribe went a combined 0-for-10 at the top of the Dodgers order. As with the White Sox and Brent Morel, what on God's green earth was Uribe doing hitting second? He had a .281 OBP for the season and a career .299 OBP - whatever the opposite of a table-setter is, that's what Uribe is. Jamey Carroll has his deficiencies, but so long as he's in the lineup, at least he gets on-base and should be batting in front of the Dodgers' token two good hitters in Andre Ethier. Bases are meant to be clogged, not to run free.
- Torii Hunter sat out with bruised ribs suffered in a collision with the outfield wall Wednesday in Florida.
- Dan Haren wasn't great, giving up 10 hits and a walk while striking out three, but that was good enough for once, as the Angels gave him some rare run support.
- HR: Erick Aybar (4), Howie Kendrick (8), Matt Kemp (21); SB: Bobby Abreu (12), Mark Trumbo (7), Tony Gwynn Jr. (6); CS: Maicer Izturis (5), Vernon Wells (2).

Giants 4, Indians 3

- The Indians did not Choo, Choo Choose to have a devastating injury, but they got one anyhow. Shin-Soo Choo broke his thumb when he got hit by a Jonathan Sanchez pitch. He's obviously going to the DL and will be out for a while.
- Sanchez's control was even worse than usual - he didn't make it through five innings, hitting Choo and walking six batters. Each start puts a huge amount of strain on the Giants' bullpen. The Giants have to be entertaining thoughts of dealing Sanchez for a bat, but who is going to trade for Sanchez right now?
- Carlos Santana hit a big two-run double early in the game, continuing a recent hot stretch. Unfortunately, he also committed to big errors at first base. Once Matt LaPorta returns from the DL, the Indians might want to re-think playing Santana out of position at first base, where he was Friday night.
- HR: Andres Torres (3); CS: Torres (3); SV: Brian Wilson (22).