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Josh Hamilton homered for the ninth time in his past six games Saturday, sending C.J. Wilson’s 80 mph curveball into the right-field seats in the sixth inning of the Texas Rangers' 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.

One key to Hamilton’s power surge has been his ability hit breaking balls out of the yard. After Saturday, Hamilton now has seven home runs on breaking balls this season, already his most in any season since joining the Rangers in 2008.

Hamilton is hitting .420 against breaking balls in 2012, a dramatic increase over his .260 average against such pitches a year ago. And his slugging percentage against curveballs and sliders is .860, dwarfing his 2011 mark of .468.

Hamilton’s sudden ability to smash breaking balls has helped him get off to one of the best starts to a season in major league history.

His 18 homers have tied Cy Williams of the 1923 Phillies for the most all-time through 34 team games. And with nine home runs in his past six games, Hamilton is just one shy of the MLB record for homers in a six-game span set by Frank Howard with 10 in 1968, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Hamilton’s 18 home runs this season are five more than the entire San Diego Padres team and one fewer than the Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins.

Hamilton will look to continue his record run Sunday night against Jered Weaver and the Angels on ESPN. Hamilton has 34 career at-bats against Weaver, his second most against any pitcher, but just one home run.

Elsewhere in the majors Saturday:

• 2011 home run champ Jose Bautista hit his 10th career home run at Target Field in just his 10th game at the park. Only four players, all Twins, have more HR at Target Field since it opened in 2010. According to Elias, Bautista is the first player to hit 10 HR in his first 10 games in a ballpark since Shawn Green at Miller Park from 2001 to 2004.

• Roy Halladay took the loss after allowing seven hits and two runs in seven innings as the Philadelphia Phillies lost to the Padres. The Phillies have now lost each of Halladay’s past five starts. That ties the longest losing streak for a team in Roy Halladay starts, matching the Toronto Blue Jays' five-game losing streak in Halladay starts in 1999.

• The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 4-1 for their second straight home win following a six-game losing streak at Fenway Park. It’s the first time the Red Sox have won back-to-back home games since April 13-15.

On Saturday, Cameron Maybin agreed to a five-year, $25 million contract with the San Diego Padres. The deal will keep the 24-year-old in San Diego through at least his first free agent year.

It's been a long journey for the former first-round pick, who was drafted ahead of the likes of fellow outfielders Andrew McCutchen, Jay Bruce and Jacoby Ellsbury and was involved in trades for both a star (Miguel Cabrera) as well as two middle relievers (Edward Mujica and Ryan Webb). But now on his third team and fresh off his fifth season of Major League action, Maybin has found a home.

Maybin had the best season of his young career in 2011, posting a .265/.323 /.393 triple slash line and swiping a team-leading 40 bases. He also led the Padres in runs scored (82), total bases (203), and triples (8). He tied for the team lead in hits (136) and was tied for second in home runs (9). His 4.7 Wins Above Replacement ranked sixth among all center fielders last season and tied for sixth among Padres outfielders in the Wild Card era.

Despite the success, Maybin’s offensive numbers suffered from hitting in the cavernous Petco Park, which consistently ranks in the bottom-third of the Majors in home runs hit and runs scored according to ESPN’s Park Factors. He batted .231 at home last year compared to .294 on the road, and there was an even bigger discrepancy in his slugging percentage (.324 to .457).

But while his home park punishes his surface-level offensive numbers, it is that same home park that represents one of the reasons Maybin is so valuable to the Padres - centerfield defense. Few parks are as spacious in the outfield as Petco, and Maybin's ability to track down batted balls represented a significant portion of his value in 2011.

Baseball Info Solutions has worked to upgrade its defensive analysis, a re-tooling that will be unveiled in The Fielding Bible III. Suffice it to say, the adjusted defensive metrics suggest Maybin was one of the premier defensive players at his position in 2011 - he ranked tied for third in Defensive Runs Saved.

While Maybin's defensive value is evident and his offense progressed, the latter still has significant room for growth. Most notably, Maybin's issues with changeups provide a clear area for potential improvement.

Maybin chased almost 39 percent of soft pitches (changeups, sliders, curveballs) low and away out of the strike zone and had only two hits on 239 such pitches in 2011. That .038 BA ranked 131st out of 145 qualified hitters. Specific to the changeup, Maybin ranked among the bottom of the league in batting average, OPS and strikeout rate against that pitch over the last three seasons combined.

He did, however, improve against the changeup from 2010 to 2011 - he raised his batting average (.091 to .197) and his OPS (.182 to .505), while reducing his strikeout rate (46 percent to 27 percent). Maybin - and the Padres - hope the trend continues in 2012.

The Reds paid a significant price to add a young starting pitcher to their rotation with the acquisition of Mat Latos from the San Diego Padres.

What are they getting for a package that included top prospects Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal?

Reds GM Walt Jocketty described Latos as an elite pitcher, one capable of being a No. 1 starter.

Why would he say that? Let’s take a closer look:

Latos went 9-14 last season, but his ERA was a very respectable 3.47. The 14 defeats tied the second-most losses by a pitcher whose ERA was 3.50 or lower last season (free agent Hiroki Kuroda led the majors with 16), and was the most losses by a Padres pitcher among players who had an ERA of 3.50 or lower since Bob Shirley, who went 8-16 with a 3.38 ERA in 1979.

Latos’ strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed were indicative of a pitcher who may have pitched better than his numbers indicated. Latos had a 3.16 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching), a stat scaled similar to ERA, based on those three factors.

That was tied for 11th-best among the 75 National League pitchers who pitched at least 100 innings last season.

Latos put up very similar numbers home and away in 2011. His FIP was 3.06 at home and 3.26 on the road, and he actually allowed more home runs per nine innings in spacious PETCO Park than he did in road appearances. His career FIP split is 3.25 at home, 3.30 on the road and his 1.15 WHIP is the same in both areas as well.

Latos was a much improved pitcher in the second half of the season, a time in which he changed his approach slightly.

Latos increased the use of his slider and reduced the use of his curveball, particularly against right-handed hitters, coaxing hitters to chase pitches on the outside part of the plate and out of the strike zone.

Just over half of his outs with the slider against right-handers were located away prior to the All-Star Break. Nearly 80 percent of them were afterwards.

Latos increased his outs-to-hits ratio with that pitch to right-handed hitters from 6-to-1 prior to the break to better than 10-to-1 after it.

That led to an 83-point batting average drop overall for right-handed hitters against him and an overall drop in ERA from 4.04 to 2.87 from before the break to afterwards.

By season’s end, Latos’ .123 batting average allowed on the pitch and his miss percentage of 49 percent against all hitters both ranked second-best among the 90 starting pitchers that threw at least 300 sliders, thus making him a desired target of teams this offseason.

The 2011 regular season finished, arguably, in one of the most exciting fashions in baseball history. Now that the postseason has been set, let’s take a look back at which players won batting and pitching titles this season.

AL Crowns
• For the second consecutive year, Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays claimed the home run title. His 43 on the season were two ahead of the New York Yankees' Curtis Granderson. He's the first to claim the crown in two straight years since Alex Rodriguez did it in 2002-03.

• Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers - who also led the league in doubles with 47 - was the AL (and MLB) batting champion at .344. He is the second Tigers player to win the batting title in the last 50 seasons (Magglio Ordonez in 2007).

• Although Granderson and Robinson Cano started the day one-two in the AL RBI race, it was Mark Teixeira who came up big for the Yankees on Wednesday. His five-RBI game gave him 111 on the season and propelled him into fourth place. The last time three teammates finished within the top four of their league's RBI race was the 1966 Baltimore Orioles. That year, Frank Robinson (122) won the AL RBI race, while teammates Boog Powell (109) and Brooks Robinson (100) finished second and tied for fourth, respectively.

NL Crowns
• Jose Reyes singled in his first at-bat Wednesday and was promptly subbed out for a pinch runner. That left the New York Mets' leadoff hitter with a batting average of .337, potentially caught only by Ryan Braun who started the day at .335. Ultimately he finished the game 0-for-4 for a season average of .332, giving Reyes - and the Mets franchise - their first-ever NL batting champion. Reyes won the NL batting title in only 126 games played this season. That's the fewest amount of games played for a batting champion since Manny Ramirez hit .349 in 120 games played in 2002.

• Prince Fielder and Matt Kemp were tied for the NL home run lead entering Wednesday, but with just three innings left in the season, Kemp launched his 39th of the season out of Chase Field and claimed the title outright. Fielder finished with 38 and was followed by Albert Pujols' 37. The last season the National League leader did not finish with at least 40 HR was in 1992 when Fred McGriff had 35. Kemp also finished as the National League RBI leader with 126, six above Fielder.

• Starlin Castro led the National League in hits this year with 207. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 21-year-old Castro is the youngest player ever to lead the NL in that category, breaking the mark set in 1918 by another Chicago Cubs player, Charlie Hollocher, who was 22 years, 83 days old on the final day of that war-shortened season.

Other Point of Interest
• Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw both won the pitching Triple Crown in their respective leagues (Wins, ERA and Strikeouts). While the pitching Triple Crown has been won several times in MLB history (most recently by Jake Peavy with the San Diego Padres in 2007), this is the first time there’s been dual pitching Triple Crowns since 1924.

The American League Wild Card race goes to the final day with the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays tied at 90-71. The Red Sox will turn to Jon Lester against the Baltimore Orioles (7 ET on ESPN) while David Price will pitch for the Rays at home against the New York Yankees (7 ET on ESPN3). If both teams are still tied after Wednesday, a one-game tiebreaker would be Thursday at Tampa Bay.

Since 1995, 13 different teams have clinched a playoff spot on the final day of the postseason, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, not including regular season playoff games. The biggest September deficit ever overcome by a team that made the postseason was 8½ games by the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals, who went on to win the World Series. The Rays were nine games out of a playoff spot on Sept. 2.

The Red Sox actually entered September leading the AL East by 1½ games. They have since gone 7-19 (.269 win pct), and with one more loss, Boston will match the 1952 team (7-20) for the most losses in September in team history. According to Elias, the worst Sept/Oct winning percentage by a team that made the postseason was .375 by the 1998 San Diego Padres.

Story to Watch
Jon Lester is 14-0 with a 2.33 ERA in 17 career starts against the Orioles, including a win in his only start against them this season. Lester has made one career start on three days' rest – April 23, 2008 against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He allowed four runs, nine hits, two home runs and struck out one batter in five innings and did not factor in the decision.

Lester has struggled over his last three starts, going 0-3 with a 10.54 ERA. One problem has been his lack of success with his fastball and cutter, indicated by his opponent’s .448 BA against his fastball and .400 average against his cutter.

Key Stat
Red Sox starting pitching has struggled throughout September. Boston starters are 4-13 with a 7.28 ERA this month. They have made four quality starts (three ER or fewer in six or more IP) this month, but only one in their last 11 games, and it was by John Lackey on Sunday (six IP, three ER).

For Tampa Bay, David Price takes the mound against the Yankees. Price is 0-2 in five September starts, though he has a 3.03 ERA. He has allowed two ER or fewer in eight of his last nine starts. In his last seven home starts, Price is 0-5 with a 3.55 ERA. The Rays have scored a total of five runs in those five losses.

Against New York, Price has a 4.26 ERA in four starts this year. However, he has allowed just three ER in 15⅓ IP (1.76 ERA) in his last two starts against the Yankees.

Story to Watch
It will be interesting to see how much Price uses his changeup against the Yankees. During a four-start stretch in August, beginning with a win over the Yankees on Aug. 12, Price dominated, and much of the credit for that was given to increased usage of the changeup.

He got a season-high six outs with the pitch against the Yankees that day, then got seven outs with it in his next start, a win over the Red Sox.

In those starts, Price threw 18 percent changeups (one of every six pitches). The feeling was that the changeup would help make Price’s fastball even harder to hit, and it did. In his start against the Toronto Blue Jays on Aug. 28, Price threw changeups a season-high 21 percent of the time, but used the fastball as his out pitch, using it to net 10 strikeouts.

In that four-start stretch, Price beat the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays, and lost to the Detroit Tigers, finishing 3-1 with an 0.87 ERA.

However, in September, Price has gotten away from the changeup. He’s only thrown it 9 percent of the time, and in his most recent start against the Blue Jays (one in which Price was done in partly by his own bad fielding), he only threw two changeups. This month, Price is 0-2 with a 3.03 ERA.

Key Stat
Derek Jeter is 11-for-36 (.306) in his career against Price, including getting his 3,000th career hit on July 9.

Los Angeles Dodgers centerfielder Matt Kemp has thrust himself into the Triple Crown race by his recent hot hitting, batting .600 (15-for-25) with four doubles, three HR and eight RBI over his last six games. Kemp is trying to become the first Triple Crown winner since Carl Yastrzemski (.326 BA, 44 HR, 121 RBI) won it as a member of the Boston Red Sox in 1967. If he does win it, Kemp would be the first Triple Crown winner from a National League team since Joe Medwick of the 1937 St. Louis Cardinals.

To win the Triple Crown, a player must lead his league in batting average, home runs, and RBI. Kemp leads the NL in RBI (118) and is closing in on the lead in batting average (.326, four points behind Ryan Braun) and home runs (36, one behind Albert Pujols).

How rare is it for a player to be this close, this late in the season, to the Triple Crown? Since Yastrzemski won it in 1967, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, Kemp is the only player to date to be within five points of the league leader in batting average (or leading), within one HR of the league leader (or leading), and within one RBI of the league leader (or leading), in the last 15 days of the season, let alone the last week of the season.

In addition to the Triple Crown, with four more home runs, Kemp will become the fifth 40-40 player (home runs and stolen bases) in MLB history. The other four are Jose Canseco (1988 Oakland Athletics), Barry Bonds (1996 San Francisco Giants), Alex Rodriguez (1998 Seattle Mariners) and Alfonso Soriano (2006 Washington Nationals).

One reason Kemp is in the race for the Triple Crown has been his ability to handle pitches up in the zone, especially since the beginning of August. Pitchers were able to limit Kemp’s effectiveness early in the season by attacking up in the zone. However, since the beginning of August, Kemp has improved his eye on pitches up in the zone, walking more and striking out less. He’s getting better pitches to hit too, as he’s been chasing less (but swinging more), and has added 120 points to his average while doubling his home run percentage.

What are the chances for Kemp to become the 12th Triple Crown winner since 1920 (the previous 11 Triple Crown winners were by nine players, Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby won it twice)? The Dodgers end the season with three games at the San Diego Padres and three at the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Since 2009, of the six potential starting pitchers Kemp will face to end the season (Wade LeBlanc, Aaron Harang, Cory Luebke, Daniel Hudson, Wade Miley and Joe Saunders), he’s had the most success against Saunders - .364 BA (8-for-22), three home runs, one double, three walks and two strikeouts.

Although he’s had success against Saunders, since 2009 Kemp is one-for-seven (a single) against Saunders in pitches up in the zone. However, you need to remember that Kemp has clearly made an adjustment late in the season against those types of pitches.

The MLB trade deadline came and went Sunday and on the final day of July, several teams made notable moves.

After their attempt to get Oakland A's pitcher Rich Harden fell through Saturday, the Boston Red Sox acquired Erik Bedard from the Seattle Mariners in a three-team trade involving the Los Angeles Dodgers. Boston also received minor league pitcher Josh Fields from Seattle in exchange for outfielders Trayvon Robinson and Chih-Hsien Chiang. This after the Dodgers traded Robinson to the Red Sox for three minor leaguers.

Bedard returns to the AL East where he pitched for Baltimore from 2002 to 2007. He was just 15-14 with a 3.31 ERA with Seattle and missed the entire 2010 season after undergoing shoulder surgery.

Now he'll be pitching at Fenway Park where he has struggled in the past posting a 6.99 career ERA there. That's the second-worst ERA of any stadium that Bedard has thrown at least 20 innings.

The St. Louis Cardinals also picked up veteran shortstop Rafael Furcal from the Dodgers on Sunday. Like Bedard, Furcal has also been hampered by injuries playing in just 283 out of a possible 486 games from 2008 to 2010. He played in 37 of 106 games this season with the Dodgers. Furcal went 0-1 as a pinch hitter in his Cardinals' debut Sunday.

Also it wasn't Heath Bell, but another Padres reliever Mike Adams who switched teams on Sunday. Adams went to the Texas Rangers in exchange for minor-league pitchers Robbie Erlin and Joe Wieland. Adams was just 11-9 with a 2.11 ERA in his career, but 3-1 with a 1.13 ERA this season. He struck out 49 batters while walking just nine.

Meanwhile, Michael Bourn who leads the league with 39 stolen bases was traded from the Houston Astros to the Atlanta Braves for Jordan Schafer and three minor leaguers. Bourn's speed helps the Braves who rank 27th in the league in steals with just 42. The two-time Gold Glove winner hit .303 this season with Houston.

Despite these deals, trading on the final day of the deadline was light compared to the last two years. Also, this was the first season since 1998, Brian Cashman's first year as General Manager, that the Yankees did not make any trades in July.

Among the notable players expected to be traded that were not: Heath Bell, B.J. Upton, Wandy Rodriguez, Hiroki Kuroda (invoked no-trade clause), Josh Willingham, Carlos Pena, Jason Kubel, Denard Span and Drew Storen.

The San Diego Padres are at the forefront of the upcoming trade deadline, with arguably the two most coveted pitchers on the market - Heath Bell and Mike Adams.

Since Bell took over as the Padres' closer in 2009, his 118 saves lead all pitchers. His 29 saves this season are tied for third most, and he has failed to convert only two save opportunities.

While Bell clearly has both the name recognition and "proven closer" tag, there's a great argument to be made that Adams is actually both preferable and a better pitcher at this stage of the game.

Adams has both a better K per 9 IP and BB per 9 IP rate this season. It also helps that Adams is under control through next season, while Bell will be a free agent at season's end.

The Padres appear to agree with this assessment, reportedly demanding as much or more for Adams than Bell, with owner Jeff Moorad telling Adams he’s “not going anywhere.”

Adams has pitched better than Bell on the most basic of levels – ERA – but his peripheral indicators suggest that his superior performance over Bell is legitimate.

We look to the metric xFIP (expected fielding independent pitching), a statistic that rates pitchers on what they control most and adjusts for league average rate of HR/fly balls allowed, and is used as a predictive measure for future performance. Adams' Expected Fielding Independent Pitching comes in over a full run lower than Heath Bell's.

Not only has Adams been an impact reliever for the Padres, but he’s been arguably the league’s best reliever since the start of the 2009 season. His 1.33 ERA over the last three seasons leads all pitchers with a minimum of 125 innings pitched.

While no team in the thick of the playoff race would pass up quality relief, if the Padres decide to trade either of these relievers, which contenders could use them the most?

Despite leading their divisions, the Detroit Tigers (4.70 ERA) and Texas Rangers (4.51) rank 29th and 27th respectively in team ERA by relievers.

Plus the St. Louis Cardinals' 19 blown saves are second-worst in the majors, while the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 18 blown saves, could use some back end help if they look to catch the Rangers in the AL West.

The Seattle Mariners scored eight runs Sunday but lost to the Boston Red Sox 12-8. The Mariners have lost a team-record 15 straight games, which is tied for the second-longest single-season streak by any team in the Wild Card Era (since 1995).

It's the most runs the Mariners have scored in a game since June 5, in a 9-6 win over Tampa Bay, and the first time all season they've scored at least seven runs and lost the game.

The Red Sox have won nine straight home games (a season high) and seven of their past eight games overall. They improve to 16-3 in July, the best record in baseball this month.

The San Diego Padres lost their 10th straight game to the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday, the second-longest losing streak by the Padres to the Phillies in team history -- they lost 11 straight meetings from 2004-06.

According to Elias, it's the longest current losing streak by a major league team against a single opponent.

The win for the Phillies means that they've gone 42 consecutive games without losing two in a row, assuring them of reaching 43 straight games Monday. According to Elias, that sets a franchise record -- they went 42 straight games without losing two in a row from April 14 to June 3, 1976.

Elias tells us that it also means the Phillies have won nine consecutive series of three or more games, which ties a franchise record. They last won nine straight series of at least three games in 1995.

Elsewhere around MLB:
• The Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Astros 5-4 in 10 innings, leaving the Astros with a 33-68 record. It marks the first time they've been 35 games under .500 since September 6, 1975.

The win means the Cubs have won three in a row for the first time all season -- they were 0-9 when going for their third straight win before Sunday.

• The Los Angeles Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles 9-3 behind a home run from rookie Mike Trout, the team's first-round draft pick out of high school in 2009. Trout -- at 19 years, 351 days -- is the third-youngest Angel to hit his first career home run and the youngest player to homer in the majors since Justin Upton (19 years, 347 days) hit his first on August 7, 2007.

• Mariano Rivera got his 25th save when the New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics 7-5. It's his 15th season with 25 saves, the most in major league history, one more than all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman.

• Tim Wakefield struck out four in Boston's win over Seattle, his 2,000th strikeout with the Red Sox. He trails only Roger Clemens on the franchise's all-time list.

The Twins and Athletics entered the weekend looking to snap matching 11-game losing streaks against their opponents, the Tigers and Yankees. Those were the two longest active streaks for any major-league team against an opponent, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

And both emerged as winners on Saturday afternoon, with the A’s slipping past the Yankees, 4-3, and the Twins beating the Tigers, 4-1.

The Athletics losing streak vs the Yankees was their longest against the team since a 14-game streak from 1956-57. The Twins losing streak vs the Tigers was their longest against Detroit in the history of the franchise.

For the A’s, Josh Willingham and Hideki Matsui homered to lead the offense. It was Willingham’s first career homer versus the Yankees, and Matsui’s fourth against his former team.

The Twins were led by a strong pitching performance from Scott Baker, who tossed five scoreless innings in his first outing since coming off the disabled list. Baker shut down the Tigers’ left-handed bats, who were 1-for-12 with five strikeouts against him.

Joe Nathan came on for the ninth and notched his seventh save this season and 253rd in his career, which is one shy of the Twins record set by Rick Aguilera.

Around the diamond

• The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Diego Padres 8-6, extending their win streak over them to nine games, which is now tied for the longest current win streak against an opponent in the majors.

Chase Utley hit two homers for his 19th multi-homer game, matching Rogers Hornsby for the fifth-most by a second baseman in the Live Ball Era (since 1920).

Chad Qualls entered the game in the seventh inning with a 4-3 lead and imploded, allowing five runs and three homers while getting just one out.

Qualls became the seventh reliever in the Live Ball Era to give up three-or-more homers and at least five runs while pitching one-third of an inning or fewer, and the first since Chris Spurling on July 18, 2005 vs. White Sox.

• The Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Astros 5-1, as Houston dropped to an MLB-worst 33-67. Prior to this week, the franchise hadn’t been 34 games under .500 since September 27, 1975, when they were 63-97 following 5-1 loss to the Dodgers.

The Cubs, who won the first two games of the series, will go for their first three-game win streak this season on Sunday. The last Cubs team to go this long into the season without a three-game win streak was the 1966 squad. They didn’t win three in a row until the 108th game, according to Elias.

Coming into Wedneday's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw, San Francisco Giants' ace Tim Lincecum was 0-3 this season against pitchers named Clayton.

Lincecum can now add a fourth loss to that list and his second to Kershaw, all because of a single pitch.

With the game scoreless in the seventh inning, Lincecum coughed up a solo home run to Dodgers C Dioner Navarro. That hit proved to be all the offense Kershaw needed, as he held on for the win, 1-0.

Kershaw threw eight shutout innings, allowing just three hits and a walk, while striking out 12 to improve to 11-4 this season.

It is the sixth time Kershaw has struck out 10 or more batters in a game this season - tied with Cliff Lee for most in MLB.

Lincecum, meanwhile lasted seven innings, tallying seven strikeouts and allowing five hits.

Kershaw went to his curveball more often than usual to put Giants hitters away. Ten of his 26 two-strike pitches (38.5 percent) were curveballs, above his 12.9 season average entering the start.

Five of Kershaw's strikeouts were with his curveball, matching his most in a start in the last three seasons.

Four more of Kershaw's strikeouts came with his slider, giving him nine strikeouts on the day with offspeed pitches. He leads the league in strikeouts, mostly because of his ability to punch hitters out with his breaking ball pitches.

ELSEWHERE AROUND THE DIAMOND:
• Vance Worley continued his stretch of strong starts as he allowed one earned run in eight innings for his sixth victory of the season as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-1.

Worley has now made six consecutive starts with five or more innings pitched, while allowing one earned run or fewer. The only other Phillies pitcher in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) with a streak that long is Steve Carlton, who did so in six straight in 1972. Jimmy Rollins homered from both sides of the plate against the Cubs, the second time in his career that he has accomplished that feat (August 12, 2006 vs. Cincinnati Reds).

• In a 14-3 rout of the Florida Marlins, all nine San Diego Padres players scored a run en route to leading by at least 13 runs through two innings for the first time since May 31, 1994.

The last team overall prior to the Padres to be up by at least 13 runs through two innings was the Cubs, who on August 14, 2009 led 14-0 over the Pirates.
The Padres have won three of four overall, as Aaron Harang (5⅓ IP, 3 ER) has not lost since May 2.

For the Marlins, Ricky Nolasco (1⅓ IP, 9 ER) becomes the first pitcher this season to allow nine or more earned runs in fewer than two innings pitched; it happened four times last season.

Hanley Ramirez hit his tenth home run; he's now hitting .366 over his last 25 games.

In a game that featured a combined 36 strikeouts -- a modern-era record for a game lasting 14 innings or fewer -- the San Francisco Giants defeated the San Diego Padres on a walk-off home run by Nate Schierholtz in the 14th inning.

It was his second home run of the game, the first Giants player with a multi-homer game that included a walk-off home run since Bengie Molina did it in April of 2008, also against the Padres.

Schierholtz, who hit his first home run in the fourth inning, became the first Giants player to hit two homer 10 innings apart in the same game since Barry Bonds who did so in September of 2001.

It marked the latest walk-off home run in the history of AT&T Park. In fact you have to go back to 1996 for the last time a Giants player hit a walk-off home run in the 14th inning or later. That was Tom Lampkin, whose three-run home run in the bottom of the 15th inning lifted the Giants to a win over the Florida Marlins.

Speaking of the Marlins they notched a walk-off victory on Mike Stanton's solo home run in the 10th inning to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies. It was Stanton's first career walk-off home run, and a rather special one according to Elias.

At 21, Stanton was the third-youngest player since 1900 to hit a walk-off home run against the Phillies. Eddie Mathews was 20 years old in 1952 when he hit a game-ending homer for the Boston Braves, and Alex Gonzalez was a "younger 21" than Stanton when he did the same for the 1998 Marlins.

While these games provided some late heroics, no game was more exciting on Wednesday than the tilt between the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals. The Reds narrowly escaped with a 9-8 victory in 13 innings -- after holding an 8-0 lead through five innings.

Elias tells us it was the first time in 57 years that the Cardinals lost a game after erasing a deficit of eight or more runs. On July 17, 1954 at the old Busch Stadium, St. Louis rallied from down 9-0 to tie the Giants, but New York won in 11 innings, 10-9.

Elsewhere Around the Diamond:

Jair Jurrjens continued his stellar 2011 campaign with six innings of one-run ball as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Colorado Rockies. Jurrjens heads into the All-Star break with a 12-3 record and a 1.87 ERA. According to Elias he is the first Major League pitcher to head into the break with 12 or more wins and an ERA below 2.00 since Randy Johnson in 2000.

Perhaps more impressive, he is just the third Braves pitcher all-time to have accomplished the feat joining Greg Maddux in 1998 and Tom Glavine in the 1991 season.

Jurrjens is a strong possibility to start for the National League in the All-Star Game, something Maddux and Glavine each did that season.

For the second time this season the San Diego Padres found themselves playing a game delayed four times by rain. This time -- with a combined delay of two hours and 25 minutes, just under the game time played of two hours and 49 minutes -- the Padres prevailed as they defeated the Boston Red Sox, taking two of three in the series at Fenway.

San Diego won consecutive games for the first time since winning three straight from June 3-5. Boston lost consecutive games for the first time since its four-game losing streak back from May 29-June 1.

John Lackey allowed five earned runs in just 3⅓ innings pitched to see his ERA balloon all the way up to 7.36 for the season. That's the highest ERA by any starter this season with a minimum of 10 starts.

It's also the highest ERA by a Red Sox starter with 10 or more starts through the teams first 74 games played since Mickey Harris in 1948, who had a 7.66 ERA at that point in the season.

In the loss on Wednesday against the Padres Lackey struggled with his slider as three of his five hits allowed, including the home run to Will Venable to leadoff the game, came against a slider.

Lackey has relied on this pitch more often since joining Boston. Using pitch data from the last three seasons his slider percentage thrown has jumped from 11.6 in the season before joining the Red Sox to 16.5 percent in the two seasons since.

He has gotten fewer swings and misses with his slider the last two seasons as his miss percentage has dropped from 41.4 percent in 2009 to 30.7 percent since 2010 began.

Elsewhere around MLB:

• Kevin Correia picked up his ninth win of the season as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Baltimore Orioles. He is the first Pirates pitcher with nine or more wins through the teams first 74 games of a season since Denny Neagle had 10 in the 1995 campaign.

It also set up a logjam of 11 pitchers tied for the major-league lead with nine wins. According to Elias, this is the first day since June 27, 1950 there will be nine or more players tied for the ML lead with exactly nine wins. Through games of that date the following 10 players were tied for the major league lead in wins: Joe Dobson, Ted Gray, Art Houtteman, Bob Lemon, Ed Lopat, Robin Roberts, Preacher Roe, Johnny Sain, Curt Simmons, and Warren Spahn.

• Jose Bautista homered in the Toronto Blue Jays loss to the Atlanta Braves. It was just his third home run in his past 28 games. He had hit 15 home runs in his previous 28 contests.

The Minnesota Twins are slowly but surely recovering from a terrible start and they have no one but their starters to thank.

Scott Baker struck out 10 for the third time in his career and the first by a Twins pitcher this season in a 1-0 win over the San Diego Padres on Saturday.

Baker induced a season-best 18 swings and misses and six of his 10 strikeouts came on pitches up in the strike zone. This season, no pitcher has more strikeouts which came on pitches up in the zone than Baker's 44.

It's the fourth time this season in which the Twins have won a game 1-0, the most in MLB. During the Twins six-game win streak, the starting pitcher has picked up the victory each time. All six times, the pitcher threw a quality start (at least six innings allowing three earned runs or fewer).

The Twins began June at 17-36, the worst record in the Majors. Since then, they have posted a 13-3 record, the best record in MLB. This month, the Twins have posted a 1.89 ERA, the lowest in baseball. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time the Twins franchise had a sub-2.00 ERA for an entire month was in April 1944 when the Washington Senators had a 1.48 ERA in eight games.

Perhaps the Twins are getting a head start on what they traditionally do under manager Ron Gardenhire, play well in the second half. Since Gardenhire took over as manager in 2002, the Twins have a .574 win percentage in games played after the All-Star break. The only American League team with a better record in that span is the New York Yankees at .627.

Speaking of recovering from a tough start, John Danks of the Chicago White Sox is also turning things around this month. He allowed one earned run in seven innings to help defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-2 Saturday.

Danks has made three starts in June and has won them all, posting a sparkling 1.22 ERA in that span. Before June, Danks was 0-8 and was the only pitcher without a victory among hurlers who made at least 10 starts (109 pitchers fit that qualifier).

Elsewhere, Mike Pelfrey pitched the fifth complete game by a New York Mets pitcher in interleague play as he allowed one run in a 6-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels. Pelfrey was the first Mets pitcher to throw an interleague complete game since Steve Trachsel in 2003, also against the Angels.

Pelfrey did well when he stayed out of the middle of the strike zone. On at-bats that ended on pitches inside and outside, Angels hitters were 1-for-19 (.053). When at-bats ended on pitches up and down, the Angels were no better, going 2-for-21 (.095).

Brian Wilson had a dominant 2010, leading the major leagues with 48 saves to go with a 1.81 ERA and 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings.

In 2011, Wilson’s ERA has grown as fast as his beard. His ERA is 3.38 with a 1.67-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Since taking over as the Giants' full-time closer in 2008, Wilson has never finished a season with a ratio under 2.

Part of Wilson’s inflated ERA can be chalked up to rust. After starting the season on the disabled list with a strained oblique muscle, Wilson gave up five earned runs in 1⅓ innings in his first two appearances. Since then, he has allowed just four runs (see chart).

Wilson still is walking hitters -- especially left-handers -- at a higher rate than last season. He’s already walked 10 left-handed hitters this season in 52 at-bats after walking 18 in 126 at-bats last season.

As for the Giants' starter on Wednesday, Tim Lincecum comes into the game having allowed no runs in three of his five starts in May. For his career, Lincecum is 5-1 with a 2.33 ERA in six starts against the Cardinals.

Lincecum might have to be that sharp, since Giants starting pitchers have been receiving very little run support. Offensively, the Giants are tied with the Minnesota Twins and San Diego Padres for the fewest runs scored this season.

And with a team batting average of .240 (13th in the National League), it’s not a surprise that the Giants' starting pitchers receive only 2.6 runs of support while in the game. Only the Padres' and Seattle Mariners' starters receive less run support.