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If a pitcher decides to pitch the Arizona Diamondbacks' Paul Goldschmidt up in the strike zone, he's doing so at a high risk.

The image above shows the two pitches on which Goldschmidt homered on Friday. The image at the bottom of this story shows the pitches on which Goldschmidt has hit his dozen home runs this season.

Goldschmidt’s recent hot streak has been fueled by the ability to drill pitches thrown to the spots in the upper half of the zone and above.

Consider this stat:

Since May 6, Goldschmidt has taken 51 swings against pitches thrown to that area.

He’s swung-and-missed seven times.

He’s hit six home runs.

For the season, Goldschmidt is hitting .405 with a major league-best 10 home runs when at-bats end in those pitches.

Those 10 homers are only one shy of the total number of upper-half (or above) home runs he had last season … on 625 fewer pitches.

Goldschmidt has shown a propensity to be more selective against those pitches this season. His “chase rate” against what we would call “up, but out of the strike zone” pitches this season is 27 percent.

Last season, he had a chase rate of 37 percent against those pitches.

But even when he goes after a bad pitch, he’s still having success. Goldschmidt doubled on an “up but out of the zone” pitch on Friday, his eighth such hit and fifth for extra bases this season.

The chart on the right shows how stark the difference is in his performance compared with 2012.

Last season, he totaled five extra-base hits against those pitches.

Jon Lester goes for his sixth win of the season on Wednesday when the Boston Red Sox play the Tampa Bay Rays (7 ET on ESPN and WatchESPN).

In 2012, Lester didn’t earn his sixth win until Aug. 12 -- 24 starts into the season.

Lester’s return to form begins with his fastball. Last season when Lester threw his fastball, he allowed 198 total bases against 279 outs, a ratio of 1.4 outs to bases allowed. This season he’s allowed 28 total bases against 85 outs, a 3:1 ratio.

Opponents last season hit over .300 against Lester’s fastball. This season they are hitting .160 against the pitch; left-handed hitters have had almost no success against Lester’s fastball (see graphic).

In 23 career starts against the Rays, Lester is 10-8 with a 4.14 ERA, but on the road he’s 4-1 with a 3.51 ERA and has allowed just one home run in his last five starts at Tropicana Field dating to the start of 2009.

Lester is off to a fast start, but the same cannot be said for Rays' pitcher David Price.

Last year’s Cy Young winner was 20-5 with a 2.56 ERA in 2012. In 2013, he has just one win with a 4.78 ERA, and the Rays are 2-6 in games started by Price.

While Lester is having success with his fastball, Price is not and the biggest difference has been a decrease in velocity. In 2012, Price's average fastball was 95.4 mph, fastest in the American League among pitchers who threw at least 1,500 pitches.

This season, it’s down to 93.3 mph, and opponents are hitting .318 against the pitch compared to .244 last season.

Another reason Price has struggled seems to be entirely out of his control.

He’s allowed a major-league leading 28 groundball hits; more than one-third of his grounders have resulted in hits. From 2009-12, the Rays converted roughly three-quarters of groundballs hit against Price into outs.

Wednesday’s game will be the fourth time that Lester and Price will be opposing starting pitchers, and history says the first team to score three runs will win. That's because a total of 12 runs have been scored when Lester and Price start in the same game.

The St. Louis Cardinals host the New York Mets tonight in a battle of two teams headed in different directions (7 ET, ESPN and WatchESPN).

Red-hot Cards
The Cardinals boast the NL’s best record and have been fueled by excellent starting pitching (MLB-best 2.25 ERA), and clutch hitting (MLB-best .323 BA w/ RISP).

On Monday, Lance Lynn looks to start a new win streak after a hard-luck 2-1 loss his last time out snapped a streak of 10 straight starts without a loss, dating to last season. He was 9-0 over that span with a 2.52 ERA.

Lynn has gotten impressive results when throwing sliders and curveballs this season, recording 38 outs with those pitches versus just 13 total bases allowed, a ratio of nearly 3 to 1.

Last year his ratio of outs to total bases allowed with breaking pitches was about half that: 1.6 to 1. Opponents are batting .186 in at-bats ending with Lynn's breaking stuff, a drop of over 100 points from last year (.288).

The biggest change has come against righties, where you can see how Lynn has improved the location of his pitches:



Mets slowing down
The Mets, on the other hand, have cooled off after a decent start to the season. They are 4-11 over their past 15, scoring just 2.9 runs per game in that span.

Jeremy Hefner starts on the mound tonight for the Mets. They have lost all six of his starts this season (he’s 0-4), providing him just 3.3 runs per game of support in those starts.

The Mets have really struggled without Matt Harvey on the mound this year. They are 6-2 in his starts and 8-18 with other pitchers starting. The Mets rotation aside from Harvey has posted a 5.59 ERA.

Offense has also been a major issue for the Mets of late. The team has the league’s worst combined production from their 1, 4 and 5 spots in the lineup this year -- a .196 BA and .591 OPS, with the majority of those plate appearances coming from John Buck, Ike Davis, Lucas Duda and Ruben Tejada.

Wright on track
David Wright has been an exception to the Mets’ overall offensive woes this season.

From from 2009 to 2011, Wright struck out in nearly a quarter of his plate appearances (23 percent of PA), and his average fell to .284 in those years accordingly, well below his previous career rate of .309.

But last year, Wright reduced his strikeouts to his previously established rates (15 percent of PA), and his batting average rose back up to .305.

Wright has adopted a much more disciplined approach at the plate - he's not swinging at pitches out of the zone as often. By laying off pitches outside the strikezone, Wright has increased his walk rate to a career-high 17 percent of plate appearances and his OBP has never been higher.

Pitching may have been the story of the day over the weekend, but also notable Sunday was that Jose Bautista's bat showed just the kind of power that the Toronto Blue Jays are looking for.

Bautista had his first multi-homer game of the season (his first since last June 19th) in the Blue Jays win over the Boston Red Sox, for their second straight win at Fenway Park.

Though Bautista is hitting only .246 this season, his other two slashline numbers (a .360 on-base percentage and .544 slugging percentage) are impressive. He only has 28 hits this season, but 16 are for extra bases.

Bautista is starting to heat up. He hit only .200 with an .836 OPS and 23 percent strikeout rate in April, but is hitting .333 with a 1.017 OPS and an 11 percent strikeout rate in May.

For the most part, pitchers have come to realize this and are pitching him more carefully. He’s drawn 10 walks this month after drawing 11 in April.

Bautista has been more selective. In his last 53 plate appearances, he’s only swung at 16 percent of pitches out of the strike zone.

In April, that chase rate was closer to one of every four pitches outside the zone.

What has been consistent for Bautista is that he has been hitting the ball hard. Except now his hard-hit balls are going either over the fence, or finding spots where fielders are unable to make plays.

One of the stats our data providers provide us is “hard-hit average” – in other words: how often is the player making solid contact. The judgment is subjective, but is based on careful video review and follow-up discussion to attempt to unify opinions.

Bautista had a .253 hard-hit average in April and a .262 hard-hit average in May.

But Bautista was only 12-for-19 when getting credited with a hard-hit ball in April. In May, he's 10-for-10.

He ranks eighth in the majors for the season with a .256 hard-hit average, one point behind Edwin Encarnacion, whose batting average has also been a bit low (.231) this season.

But keep this in mind as we watch what Bautista (and Encarnacion) do moving forward. The six hitters currently above them in hard-hit average (as noted in the chart on the right) are all hitting .290 or better.
Dan Braunstein and Justin Havens contributed research to this post

Our weekly review of interesting and notable stats you might have missed.

Theme of the Week: Great pitching abounds
After allowing a leadoff single, Shelby Miller retired the next 27 Colorado Rockies batters, throwing a one-hit shutout with 13 strikeouts.

Only one other pitcher in the past 30 years has allowed a leadoff hit and then set down the next 27 batters-- John Lackey for the Angels against the Athletics in 2006.

Jon Lester also recorded a 28-batter shutout on Friday night, allowing only a sixth-inning double to Maicer Izturis.

There haven't been two 28-batter, nine-inning shutouts on the same day since July 3, 1984, when Jim Gott (Toronto Blue Jays) and John Candelaria (Pittsburgh Pirates) both did it. And they both allowed multiple hits, retiring the extra batters on double plays or pickoffs.

Adam Wainwright followed Miller's performance with a two-hit shutout on Saturday. The Cardinals as a team have seven shutouts this season, the most in the majors. Four of those have been complete-game shutouts by individual pitchers. The other 29 teams in the majors had nine shutouts combined through Saturday.

Chris Sale then threw a 28-batter one-hit shutout against the Angels on Sunday Night Baseball. He's the first White Sox pitcher to throw a one-hit shutout vs the Angels since Britt Burns in 1983. Both Sale and Burns were wearing the same style uniforms, as the White Sox were wearing throwback jerseys.

Earlier, Matt Harvey put together one of the most dominating no-decisions ever on Tuesday, allowing just one hit with no walks and 12 strikeouts while pitching the full nine innings against the Chicago White Sox.

It's been well-covered that Harvey was the first pitcher in the modern era (1900) to hit all of those marks (nine scoreless, no walks, 12 strikeouts, and a max of one hit) in a no-decision.

But just allowing zero runs made Harvey the first Mets pitcher to pitch at least nine scoreless innings, and NOT get the win, since Bret Saberhagen in 1994.

And even ignoring the one hit, the last pitcher in the majors to throw nine or more scoreless, with a dozen whiffs, in a no-decision, was ESPN's Mark Mulder (against Anaheim) on September 17, 2002.

Amazing Pitching Statline of the Week
Although he allowed five hits, two walks, and three runs on Friday night, Alex Cobb of the Tampa Bay Rays managed to record 14 outs before getting pulled. He also recorded 13 strikeouts-- 12 swinging-- including the rare four-strikeout inning when Will Venable of the San Diego Padres reached on a wild pitch.

According to Elias, Cobb is the first pitcher in the modern era (1900) to record 13 or more strikeouts in an outing of less than five innings.

As notable as that was, Cobb's name appeared in quite a few other sections of that box score-- he also balked and hit a batter.

No pitcher had gotten 13 strikeouts while also hitting a batter, throwing a wild pitch, and committing a balk, in exactly a quarter-century (Mark Langston 1988 Mariners vs Blue Jays on May 10, 1988).

Comeback of the Week
Trailing 4-3 with two out in the bottom of the 9th on Tuesday, the Reds pulled off another comeback when pinch hitter Devin Mesoraco and leadoff batter Shin-Soo Choo hit back-to-back homers off Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel. The Reds are tied with San Francisco for the most walk-off wins in the majors (five). They ranked third last year with 11.

It was Kimbrel's third blown save already this season, matching the number he had all of last year.

It also meant the Reds were the first team to walk off on back-to-back homers with two out in the 9th, since the Braves' Nick Green and J.D. Drew drove in four runs against the Montreal Expos on June 1, 2004.

The Reds hadn't done it since Dan Driessen legged out an inside-the-parker to tie the game, and Johnny Bench then homered to win it, against the Phillies' Tug McGraw on August 27, 1977.

Team feat of the week: Double your fun
On Tuesday the Blue Jays pounded out six doubles and three homers on the road against the Rays. They hadn't had six doubles in a road game in nearly two years (August 2011 at Baltimore).

That was just the start of the week's outburst, however.

The Twins then had six doubles on Wednesday in their win against the Red Sox, and also scored 11 runs in the first two innings (their most in the opening two frames since putting up 11 vs the Mariners).

Their 15 runs were the team's most runs scored at Fenway Park since a 17-5 win in 1965.

On Friday night, three teams hit the six-double mark in a game, just the second day where that's happened in the past three years. The Cubs had seven doubles among their 10 base hits in Washington, yet scored only three runs and lost the game 7-3, They then posted six more doubles in Saturday's 8-2 win over the Nationals.

Before Saturday the Cubs had never had back-to-back six-double games in the Live-Ball Era.

Four stats you’ll likely hear quite a bit more about on tonight’s "Sunday Night Baseball" matchup between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Chicago White Sox on ESPN.

1-- This game features a pair of starters who successfully transitioned from the bullpen in recent years. Chris Sale and C.J. Wilson are two of the three pitchers since 2005 who won 15 games in a season following only relief appearances (the other was Ryan Dempster).

Sale and Wilson both rank among the top five among AL lefties in strikeouts since the start of last season. Sale is third with 234. Wilson is fifth with 217.

Sale enters 11-3 with a 2.26 ERA in 17 career starts at home and 8-0 with a 3.13 ERA against AL West foes. He wins on the strength of a slider that has netted 129 strikeouts, third-most in the majors in the past two seasons.

2-- The easiest way to sum up the Angels’ woes: Entering Saturday, Josh Hamilton had driven in Albert Pujols just once all season. Hamilton is 3-for-29 with runners in scoring position this season and 3-for-35 versus lefties.

As much as Hamilton has struggled, he’s actually produced more than Albert Pujols did in the Angels’ first 36 games last year. He was hitting .197 with 1 home runs, but broke out in Game No. 37 and hit .312 with 29 homers the rest of the way.

The Angels have the lowest BA in the MLB from the 3 and 4 spots in the order combined (.214).

You can take a look at Hamilton's struggles here and in the interactive heat map above.

3-- Mike Trout got off to a bit of a slow start both on offense and defense. But Trout is hitting .356 (16-for-45) with four home runs and seven multi-hit games in his past 11 games.

On the defensive side, Trout has been charged with costing his team two runs in left field and one run in center (-3 defensive runs saved). Trout ranked second among major league center fielders last season with 23 defensive runs saved.

Trout was the premier home-run robber in the majors last season, pilfering four would-be longballs. He’s yet to steal one from over the fence in 2013.

4-- The White Sox offense has sputtered this season. It ranks in the AL basement across the board in the slashline stats-- batting average (.227), on-base percentage (.278), and slugging percentage (.370).

The White Sox have three batting-title qualifiers currently hitting below .200. They rank last in the AL in runs per game and strike out at a higher rate than any other team.

Even without Chris Carpenter, the St. Louis Cardinals have the best starting pitching in the major leagues.

Adam Wainwright followed Shelby Miller’s one-hit shutout with a near-no-hitter, and a two-hit shutout in another Cardinals win over the Colorado Rockies.

The Elias Sports Bureau tells us that the Cardinals streak of 40 straight Rockies retired tied the major-league record for consecutive hitters retired by a team against another team. The Texas Rangers set that mark in 1996 against the Detroit Tigers

This marked only the second time in the Live Ball Era that Cardinals starting pitchers threw consecutive shutouts in which they allowed two hits or fewer. Bob Gibson and Ray Washburn did it against the Cincinnati Reds in 1967.

That Wainwright had this good a game against the Rockies isn’t that surprising. He is the active ERA leader against them, with a 1.17 mark in 46 1/3 career innings pitched.

Saturday’s start enabled him to jump to the front of that list, ahead of Carpenter (1.41).

The 7 1/3 inning no-hit bid was the longest of Wainwright’s career, surpassing a 5 2/3 inning bid against the Kansas City Royals in 2007.

By the standards of Bill James Game Score, this wasn’t even Wainwright’s best start of the season. His seven scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 13 netted a 91, two points better than his score on Saturday.

What made him so good?
Wainwright had two significant things going well for him in this start. For one, he was able to throw a little bit harder than he has in a good while.

Wainwright averaged 91.7 mph with his fastball, his fastest average speed with that pitch since a start against the Reds in August 2010 (91.9).

For another, much like Miller did on Friday, Wainwright took advantage of the Rockies hitters keeping the bat on their shoulder.

Wainwright threw 21 breaking pitches that Rockies hitters chose not to swing at. He got called strikes on 15 of them (71 percent).

That’s an incredibly high success rate, even for a pitcher best known for getting a hitter to take a curve for strike three to end the 2006 NLCS.

Over his previous 106 regular-season appearances (every one since 2009), Wainwright got called strikes on slightly less than one-third of the breaking pitches that hitters took.

That means in a typical Wainwright start, he’d have only gotten seven called strikes on those pitches, instead of 15.

In all, Wainwright threw 39 of 45 breaking pitches for strikes. Even though he gave up both hits with them, the pitches still netted him 10 outs.

Stacking the Cards
Cardinals starting pitchers now have a 2.11 ERA this season. To this point in the day that’s more than a full point better than the next-best team.

The Detroit Tigers entered the day ranked second in the majors at 3.22.

The numbers are even more staggering at home, where Cardinals starters have allowed two runs in 33 innings in their last four games.

Half of the Cardinals 14 home starts have been scoreless and at least six innings in length.

Had he gotten it
Had Wainwright gotten the no-hitter, he’d have been the first Cardinals pitcher to throw one since Bud Smith in 2001. He’d also have been the fourth to throw one on May 11 (a group that includes Hall-of-Famer Sandy Koufax, who threw one 50 years ago to the day).

Eerily, the Rockies were previously no-hit on a May 11—Marlins starter Al Leiter threw the first-ever one against them in 1996.

Friday marked a historic day in the sport, as the Elias Sports Bureau noted it to be the first in baseball’s modern era (which began in 1900) in which two different pitchers-- Shelby Miller and Jon Lester-- each pitched a one-hit shutout with no walks.

What made each performance so special? Let’s run through the statistical highlights.

Shelby Miller’s dominance
Elias came through with some amazing notes on this one, most notably that Miller is only the second modern-era pitcher (ie: since 1900) age 22 or younger to throw a one-hit shutout with at least 13 strikeouts and no walks.

Also of significance:

Miller became the first Cardinals pitcher in the modern era to throw a shutout with one hit or fewer allowed, no walks, and at least 13 strikeouts. That’s something never done by the likes of Hall of Famers Dizzy Dean or Bob Gibson.

Miller is only the second pitcher in the last 31 seasons to allow the first batter to reach base, then retire every hitter after that for a nine-inning complete-game win, joining John Lackey (2006 Angels against the Oakland Athletics).

Miller finished with a Bill James Game Score (a metric that rates starts on a scale usually of 0 to 100) of 98, the highest for any start this season, topping the 97 by Mets rookie Matt Harvey earlier this week.

Harvey and Miller are the fourth and fifth pitchers to have a nine-inning, one-hit (or fewer), 12-strikeout, no-walk outing in the last two seasons.

There had only been 10 such outings from 1920 to 2011, with none coming in the seven-year period from 2005 to 2011.

What made Miller so good? His key was how he pounded the strike zone.

Miller threw 61 percent of his pitches inside the strike zone. He got called strikes on 51 percent of taken pitches, with eight of his strikeouts being looking. That tied Kris Medlen for the most in any start in the last two seasons.

Jon Lester makes it look easy
Lester’s one-hitter marked his first shutout since 2008 (a year in which he threw two, with one being a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals).

Lester is one of five Red Sox pitchers in the Live Ball Era to throw a one-hit shutout with no walks. The rest of that quintet is Pedro Martinez (2000), Hideo Nomo (2001), Curt Schilling (2007), and Josh Beckett (2011).

Elias’ spotlight stat on this start dealt with the rarity of a Red Sox lefty to throw a one-hit, walk-free shutout. The only other one to do so was Ray Collins against the Chicago White Sox in 1910.

Lester was not as dominant as Miller. He finished with only five strikeouts. The Red Sox infield defense was helpful to this win, with Lester netting a season-high 12 ground-ball outs.

Getting ahead in the count helped too. Lester, like Miller, threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of the 28 hitters he faced.

It turned out not to be their only common bond this evening.

Last season’s Cy Young winners, David Price and R.A. Dickey, are scheduled to start Thursday night when the Tampa Bay Rays host the Toronto Blue Jays.

However, so far in 2013, Price and Dickey certainly have not been the same pitchers that they were in 2012.

Hard Knuckler Non-Existent
The slashline on Dickey’s sub-80 mph knuckleball is close to the same in 2013 (.226/.294/.397) as it was in 2012 (.241/.293/.382).

What Dickey is missing is the hard knuckleball he threw, ones that were thrown at least 80 mph.

Last season, Dickey threw nearly 500 knuckleballs with a velocity of at least 80 mph. Opponents hit .146, struck out 92 times and had an OPS of .407. This season? Dickey has thrown a total of 12 knuckleballs at least 80 mph, and has thrown more than three in only one start.

Hitters Aren’t Chasing
Dickey had great success last season getting hitters to chase pitches outside of the strike zone: opposing hitters chased one-third of the pitches Dickey threw that were out of the strike zone in 2012. This season, Dickey has been able to get hitters to chase that often only once in seven starts. In Dickey's last start the Mariners' chase rate was 16 percent, his lowest in a single game in nearly two years.

Price Isn’t Right
Price has already allowed six home runs with men on base this season. That’s two more than he allowed in 31 starts last season.

One issue with Price this season is that he is leaving more balls over the plate. He’s throwing more pitches in the upper half of the strike zone -- belt-high and above -- and batters are taking advantage.

Hook Is Not Hooking
Price's curveball is finding the strike zone more often and hitters aren’t fooled by it. This season he’s recorded 21 outs and allowed 10 hits with his curve, after netting a 4-to-1 ratio of outs-to-hits with the pitch last season. Opponents last season hit .153 with no home runs against his curveball. In 2013, that average is up to .323 with three home runs.

Longball Problem
In 211 innings last season, Price allowed 16 home runs. In 2013, he’s already allowed eight in less than 45 innings.

His home run-to-fly ball ratio is more than double last year’s rate. Last year roughly one of every 11 fly balls left the park. This year, six of his 38 fly balls have already gone over the fence.

It’s also worth noting that the fly balls Price has allowed this season on average have gone farther (273 feet compared to 257 feet last season), indicating that he’s getting hit harder and has not been unlucky.

Somewhat Historic Start
This will be the third time since 1967, when the Cy Young award was first given to a pitcher in each league, that reigning Cy Young winners will be opposing starting pitchers, this according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The other instances were Aug. 28, 1989 with the New York Mets' Frank Viola (who won the award with the Minnesota Twins in 1988) beat the Los Angeles Dodgers' Orel Hershiser, and on July 15, 1999 when the New York Yankees' Roger Clemens lost to Tom Glavine and the Atlanta Braves.

One year ago today, May 8, Josh Hamilton went 5-for-5 with four home runs and eight RBI against the Baltimore Orioles.

That seems like a long time ago, especially considering Hamilton's early-season struggles with the Los Angeles Angels.

So, the one-year anniversary seems like an opportune time to revisit Hamilton specifically and the struggles of the Angels as a whole.

This time a year ago, Hamilton seemed to be well on his way to his second American League MVP award. However, last June Hamilton went into a tailspin that not only hasn’t stopped, but it’s getting progressively worse.

Baseball Tonight analyst Aaron Boone brought up a good point last week: Hamilton is becoming increasingly more aggressive and it’s having a detrimental effect on his production.

The rate at which he’s chasing pitches out of the strike zone has increased in each of the last four seasons: 35 percent in 2010; 37.5 percent in 2011; and north of 42 percent in both 2012 and 2013.

It would be one thing if Hamilton was effective at hitting pitches out of the zone, but that’s no longer the case (see second chart).

In addition, there’s a huge chasm in Hamilton’s approach and his success with it. No player swings at the first pitch more often than Hamilton (51.4 percent), yet his performance in 0-0 counts (.280) is well below the league average (.357).

The result thus far in 2013? Hamilton has been among the least productive position players this season. His Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is -1.0, tied for the third worst this season among position players.

As for the Angels, they have shown a willingness to spend money on high-profile free agents; however, the increase in payroll has not led to a better product on the field.

With the exception of pitcher Jered Weaver, the Angels’ spending hasn’t been to lock up homegrown players but to acquire high-profile free agents.

In the last two offseasons, the Angels have committed $480 million to free agents, $152 million more than the next closest team, the Detroit Tigers ($328 million). More than $440 million of that went to Hamilton, Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. And all three players have been showing signs of decline.

In 2010, Hamilton, Pujols and Wilson combined for a 20.8 WAR. Last season it was 9.4, and so far in 2013 their combined WAR is -0.8.

(The Boston Red Sox host the Minnesota Twins, Wednesday at 7 ET on ESPN and WatchESPN.)

A pair of rookie starting pitchers take the mound at Fenway Park. Pedro Hernandez and Allen Webster were acquired by the Twins and Red Sox, respectively, in midseason trades.

Hernandez came to Minnesota in the deal that sent Francisco Liriano to the Chicago White Sox, and Webster was part of the blockbuster deal that sent Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Punto to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Hernandez will be making his fifth career start, and he can expect to see a heavy dose of right-handed bats in the Red Sox lineup. Left-handed hitters are 4-for-29 against Hernandez, but right-handed batters are hitting .353, with three home runs, and twice as many walks as strikeouts.

Webster has even less experience than Hernandez. He’s making his second major-league start. In his only other start of 2013 (April 21 against the Kansas City Royals), Webster’s fastball averaged 94.5 mph – the seventh-fastest average in a start this season by a pitcher who threw at least 40 fastballs.

Ortiz 27 And Counting
David Ortiz is riding a 27-game hit streak that dates back to July 2, 2012. Among hit streaks since 1900 of at least 20 games, Ortiz’s streak is the second-longest in terms of days (309), according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Only Nomar Garciaparra's 21-game streak that spanned 322 days from September 2000 to July 2001 was longer.

The only designated hitters who have had longer hit streaks are Paul Molitor (39 games in 1987) and Juan Gonzalez (30 games spanning the 1998-99 seasons). Ortiz is also seven games shy of the longest hit streak in franchise history. Dom DiMaggio hit safely in 34 straight games in 1949.

Ortiz is also just 63 hits shy of Harold Baines’ record for the most hits by a designated hitter. Baines had 1,688 hits as a DH.

Mauer looks to stay hot
As for the Twins, Joe Mauer has hit in six straight games and is 4-for-9 with three doubles in the first two games of this series. Minnesota's No. 3 hitter Josh Willingham, has the highest walk rate in baseball this season at 20.0 percent.

However, the Twins aren’t receiving much production behind Mauer and Willingham.

Minnesota’s No. 4 and 5 hitters -- primarily Justin Morneau, Ryan Doumit and Chris Parmelee -- have hit just .217 with three home runs and a .597 OPS.

Matt Harvey was just about as perfect as possible without being perfect against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday.

Harvey is the only player in the Modern Era (since 1900) to pitch nine innings with at least 12 strikeouts allowing no walks and only one hit with no decision, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The Mets ace went the first 6 ⅔ innings without allowing a base runner. Harvey is the first Mets pitcher with at least 6 ⅔ perfect innings since Rick Reed on June 8, 1998 (also 6 2/3).

Harvey going deep against an AL Central team without allowing a hit shouldn’t be a surprise. He also threw 6 ⅔ innings of no-hit ball against the Minnesota Twins on April 13.

Harvey is off to quite the incredible start to his young career. He’s the only pitcher in the last 100 years with at least 125 strikeouts and 25 or fewer earned runs allowed in his first 17 career starts, according to Elias.

How did Harvey dominate the White Sox?

• Harvey got 20 of his 27 outs, including nine strikeouts, on pitches on the outer third of the plate or further outside. A career-high 63 percent of his pitches were on the outer third. Of the 13 right-handed batters he retired, 11 came on outer-third pitches.

• Harvey retired the first 20 hitters he faced and threw a first-pitch strike to 16 of them. The first 2-0 count Harvey went to came to Adam Dunn, the batter after Alex Rios' infield single broke up the perfect game bid.

• He started ahead 0-1 to 17 of 28 batters and threw first-pitch strikes to 20 of them. Rios' hit came after an 0-1 count, but for the season hitters are 9-for-102 (.088) against Harvey after starting behind 0-1, the lowest average any starting pitcher this season.

• For the first time in his career, Harvey did not allow a "well-hit" ball, as judged by the Inside Edge scouting service.

• The White Sox put nine of Harvey's off-speed pitches in play and hit eight on the ground. A season-high 66 percent of his off-speed pitches were down in the zone or below it.

Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez leads all position players, and is tied with pitcher Clay Buchholz, in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) this season.

The defensive component of this is no surprise. Gomez has rated among the game’s top center fielders in the past, and he currently leads the position in Defensive Runs Saved.

But the offensive component of this is unusual. Gomez ranks among the major-league leaders in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

Where has this early-season production come from?

Gomez has good numbers in a couple of areas.

Success vs Inside Pitches
This season, Gomez already has 13 hits against pitches on the inner-third of the plate or just off the inside corner. Compare that to last season when he had 30 hits (in 121 at-bats) on pitches on the inner third.

Just two seasons ago, Gomez totaled 13 hits and made 50 outs against pitches to that area. In 2013, he's made only 12 outs.

On Breaking Balls
When Gomez puts the bat on the ball against breaking pitches, he's making harder contact -- and has had better results.

Based on video review, Gomez has 12 "hard-hit balls" in 35 at-bats in which he’s made contact against breaking pitches. (From 2010-12, Gomez had only seven "hard-hit balls" against breaking pitches in which he made contact.)

This season, Gomez has 16 hits -- including three home runs -- against curveballs and sliders, and is hitting .381 when a plate appearance ends with one of those pitches.

Of those 16 hits, seven have come with two strikes. He has more two-strike hits than he does missed swings (6). Last season, Gomez had 17 hits against breaking balls … and 44 missed swings.

Hitting to Right Field
Gomez’s careful approach against breaking balls has come with something else: an ability to take the ball the other way.

This season, Gomez already has 14 opposite-field hits and is hitting .467 when he hits the ball the other way. In 2012, he had only 18 such hits and hit .269 when going the other way.

Mark Simon also contributed research to this post.

Two of the top teams in the National League meet on Monday night (7 ET, ESPN and WatchESPN) as the Atlanta Braves visit the Cincinnati Reds.

Reds Dominant at Home
This is the first game of a six-game homestand for the Reds, who lead the majors with a 12-4 record at home. Cincinnati has won six straight home games against the Braves, with the last loss coming in July 2011.

Despite Great American Ball Park’s reputation as a hitters’ park, Cincinnati pitchers have posted a 2.32 ERA in 16 games there. That’s the best home ERA for any staff in the majors this season.

The Reds’ staff has been able to minimize the damage at home by keeping the ball out of play. So far this season, 27.1 percent of opposing plate appearances in Cincinnati have ended with a strikeout. Over the previous three seasons, only 19.4 percent of plate appearances were strikeouts.

Strikeouts on the Increase
It isn’t just in Cincinnati -- strikeouts have been the name of the game in the majors this season. In April, there were an average of 15.29 strikeouts per major-league game.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that was the second-highest average in a full month in MLB history. The record, 15.47 strikeouts per game, was set in September 2012.

In fact, if you look over the entire 138-year history of Major League Baseball, the eight months with the most strikeouts per game are last eight months.

The Braves have struck out 272 times in their first 30 games, the most in the National League. Nearly a quarter of Atlanta’s plate appearances -- 24.1 percent -- end in a strikeout.

Braves Slow After Fast Start
Over the first three weeks of the season, the Braves were the hottest team in baseball. They won 13 of their first 15 games and opened up a four-game lead in the NL East on April 18.

Since then, the Braves have dropped 10 of their last 15 games. Atlanta’s 18-12 record is tied for seventh-best in the majors but is still good for a two-game division lead.

The biggest drop has been in power numbers. After hitting 29 home runs in the first 15 games, Atlanta has hit only 12 in the last 15. The Braves are 17-3 this season when they hit a homer and only 1-9 when they don’t.

Upton HR Pace Slows
Even Justin Upton has slowed down recently. He hit 12 homers in his first 23 games, but hasn’t gone deep in the last seven contests. During that homerless streak, he is 4-for-22 with nine strikeouts.

Opposing pitchers have stopped giving Upton balls to hit. In his first 23 games, 51 percent of the pitches he saw were in the zone. Over the last seven games, only 43 percent have been.

Over the last three seasons, Upton has hit .184 on pitches outside the zone and .318 on pitches in the zone. Ten of Upton’s 12 home runs this season have come on pitches in the zone.

If you like long games and late nights, this was your week. That's why we're devoting our entire column of favorite nuggets from the week to that topic.

Monday marathon: Mets/Marlins
On Monday night the New York Mets and Miami Marlins played a 15-inning affair, with Miami tying the game in the ninth after a leadoff double, and the teams trading runs in the 15th before Nick Green's sacrifice fly gave the Marlins a walk-off.

It was just the third walk-off anything in Marlins history to happen in the 15th inning or later; Bob Natal had a 15th-inning triple in their inaugural season of 1993. andTodd Zeile had a 17th-inning single in 1998,

That game ended at 12:42 am, and managed to reign as the second-longest game of the season for just 2 hours 47 minutes.

Monday marathon: Angels/Athletics
The Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics repeated the story for the west-coast audience, with Oakland tying in the 9th after a leadoff walk and a stolen base. The teams once again traded runs in the 15th, but the Athletics left the winning run at third and the game went on. Finally with two outs in the 19th, Brandon Moss ended things with a two-out walk-off homer.


Moss' homer was the latest walk-off by inning since then-Mariner Mike Cameron hit one off Jeff Fassero of the Boston Red Sox on August 1, 2000.

That was with nobody out in the 19th; if you consider two out in the 19th to be further along in the game, then it becomes the latest since August 31, 1993, when Pedro Muñoz won a 22-inning game for the Minnesota Twins against the Cleveland Indians.

Both teams were on their ninth time through the batting order when the game ended. There were 10 players in the game who recorded eight or more at-bats, the first time that had happened since that same Muñoz walkoff game in 1993.

And there's always one guy left out; this time it was Josh Hamilton who drew an 0-for-8 collar with three strikeouts. Hamilton's only had one other 0-for-6-plus in his career (it was in 2008), and no Angels batter has gone 0-for-8 since Wally Joyner did so in a 16-inning game against the Milwaukee Brewers on July 6, 1990.

Although there were two 15-inning games on June 17 last season, we haven't seen one game go 19+ AND another game go 15 or more, on the same day, since September 11, 1974 (and that day featured a 25-inning game between the Mets and Cardinals).

It was the fourth straight year that a game has gone at least 19 innings; the Pirates famously played in the last two such games which coincided with their season taking a downhill turn after that.

We haven't seen four straight seasons with a 19-inning game since 1979-82. And 1971-74 is the only other such string of seasons in the past 90 years.

The end of that game finally came at 1:41 am PDT, the latest finish (by 19 minutes) to a game ever played in Oakland.

Thursday thrillfest: Astros/Tigers
On Thursday the Houston Astros got caught up in their longest game since August 2010, a 14-inning loss to the Detroit Tigers. Detroit posted a four-spot in the top of the 14th as Dallas Keuchel was unable to get through a fifth inning of relief.

Both teams recorded 18 strikeouts in the game, already the second time that's happened this season... and the Tigers were part of the other game as well (it's their 14-inning affair in Seattle on April 17).

The Tigers also struck out 18 Atlanta Braves on April 26 (that's Anibal Sanchez's 17-strikeout game).

Their three games with 18 or more strikeouts already tie the live-ball-era record for such a thing, last accomplished by the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks (all in Randy Johnson starts).

Detroit's leadoff hitter, Austin Jackson, came to the plate seven times in the game and had three hits and four strikeouts.

That's a mark accomplished just nine other times since 1916, and never before by a leadoff hitter OR a Tiger.

However, it was last done just three days earlier-- by Moss in the 19-inning game.