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Jon Lester narrowly missed out on tossing his first shutout since 2008, but he did manage his second complete game of the year as the Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 6-1.

The win was the fourth straight at home for the Red Sox after starting the season with a 4-11 record at Fenway Park. It’s their longest home winning streak since taking nine in a row last July.

With the win, Lester improves to 2-1 with a 1.67 ERA in his last four starts, a stark contrast with his 0-2 record and 6.00 ERA through his first four games.

He was able to get the Mariners out by featuring his hard stuff. He threw a fastball, cutter or sinker on 94 of his 119 pitches. The only time this season that he threw a similar number was against the Chicago White Sox on April 28, when he pitched seven scoreless innings and struck out a season-high seven batters.

The Mariners’ lack of plate discipline played into his hands as well. He didn’t walk a hitter and only threw six pitches when facing a three-ball count. That was despite the fact that less than half of his pitches – 58 of 119 – were actually in the strike zone. He tied a season-high inducing 14 swinging strikes.

He threw 12 curveballs in the game, right at his season average, but used it as his out pitch. Lester recorded four outs, including two strikeouts, without allowing a hit against his curve.

On the flip side, the Mariners lost for the ninth time in their last 10 road games. They had started the season by winning eight of their first 12 games away from Safeco Field.

Seattle starter Jason Vargas allowed home runs to Daniel Nava and Kelly Shoppach during his outing. He has allowed seven homers this season, all of them on the road.

Quick Hits
• Bryce Harper hit his first career home run. He’s the youngest player to homer in the majors since Adrian Beltre hit seven home runs in 1998.

• Speaking of the Washington Nationals, they scored eight runs in today’s win against the San Diego Padres, becoming the last team in the majors to reach that mark this season.

• Adam Dunn homered off Drew Smyly, the first time he went deep against a southpaw since hitting two homers against Clayton Kershaw in August 2010. His last 30 homers had been against right-handed pitchers.

It was his 12th home run of the season, surpassing his total of 11 from last year.

• Emilio Bonifacio stole his MLB-leading 18th base on Monday. He has yet to be caught stealing this season. No other player in the majors has more than seven steals without being caught.

• On the career hit front, Derek Jeter and Placido Polanco both reached milestones on Monday.

Jeter went 1-for-5 to move past Robin Yount into sole possession of 16th place on the all-time hit list. Polanco became the 17th active player to reach 2,000 career hits.

In 2011, everything went wrong for Adam Dunn.

After spending his first 10 seasons in the National League, Dunn signed with the Chicago White Sox in 2011 and posted one of the worst seasons in major-league history.

Dunn hit .159 in 2011 and struck out a franchise-record 177 times. His average was the lowest in MLB since 1900 among hitters with at least 450 plate-appearances. (His average is not the lowest in history because Dunn was six plate appearances shy of qualifying.)

Dunn also hit 11 home runs and drove in 42, both career lows.

So far in 2012, he’s looked very much like the Dunn of old.

Overall, he is not swinging appreciably more, has not cut down on his strikeouts, increased his walks, or decreased the rate at which he’s chasing pitches outside of the zone.

Rather, it appears he’s simply doing more when he does make contact. Dunn’s Home Run-to-Fly Ball rate is 28 percent, which ranks tied for fourth in MLB. Last season that rate was 10 percent.

Entering play on Tuesday, Dunn is tied for third in all of baseball with nine home runs.

His home run rate is at 9.0 percent, more than three times what it was last season (2.7).

Dunn -- who did not hit a HR in his final 28 games of 2011 -- didn’t hit his ninth home run of the season last year until July 8.

In terms of specific pitches, Dunn’s greatest improvement has come against fastballs. He hit .182 with eight home runs against fastballs last season. In 2012, Dunn already has eight HR off fastballs and is hitting .288.

Part of the uptick can be explained by an increase in his batting average on balls in play against fastballs, cutters and sinkers. It was .245 last season (244th out of 254 players who saw at least 750 fastballs/cutters/sinkers). This season, it's .273.

Sunday Night Baseball kicks off (ESPN, 8 ET) with the Chicago White Sox in Arlington to take on the two-time defending American League champion Texas Rangers.

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington was the most hitter-friendly stadium in the majors in 2011. According to Elias, teams scored 41 percent more runs and hit 50 percent more home runs in Rangers home games than in their games on the road. Coors Field ranked second with 35 percent increases in both categories.

Starting pitchers
Gavin Floyd goes on the road for his first start of the season. In 2011, he was much better on the road than at U.S. Cellular Field. Away from home he was 8-6 with a 3.41 ERA; his 5.66 ERA at home was the third-worst among major league starters, better than only Brandon Morrow and John Lackey.

Over the last three seasons, Floyd’s curveball has been one of the hardest to hit in the majors. Opposing hitters bat .144 against his curve. Only Ricky Romero allowed a lower average when throwing curveballs.

Floyd is especially fond of the curveball in two-strike counts. Twenty percent of his pitches overall are curves, but with two strikes his usage jumps to 37 percent. Last season, Floyd struck out 71 batters on curveballs, the fourth-highest total in the American League.

Matt Harrison went from being demoted to the bullpen in 2010 to 14 wins last season. The key was cutting his walk rate by more than a third, from 4.5 walks per 9 innings in 2010 to 2.8 walks per 9 last season. In three-ball counts, he improved his strike percentage from 71 to 81 percent.

Among left-handed starters, Harrison had the fifth-highest average fastball velocity last season. He has steadily increased his velocity from 90.8 mph in 2008 to 92.7 mph in 2011. That added zip has been key to an effective high fastball. Opponents hit .216 on plate appearances ending in a high fastball last year, down from .261 in 2010.

Key matchup: Harrison vs Adam Dunn
Dunn had a strikeout and two walks against Derek Holland on Saturday and struggled against left-handed pitchers last season. The three-hole hitter in the White Sox lineup hit .064 and slugged .074 against lefties last year. It was the first time in his career that he slugged less than .400 against lefties.

He was even worse against two of Harrison’s strengths. He went 0-for-23 against sliders and 3-for-56 against fastballs from thrown by left-handed pitchers.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Dunn is the only major-league player in the past 50 years who batted below .100 in a season with at least 100 plate appearances versus southpaws.

Jeremy Lundblad contributed to this post

A.J. Burnett faces Gavin Floyd when the New York Yankees visit the Chicago White Sox. Here are five things to watch on Wednesday Night Baseball (ESPN, 8 ET):

• Gavin Floyd has pitched well over his past three starts -- especially compared to his previous six -- and his biggest improvement has been getting ahead of hitters.

He’s thrown 76 percent first-pitch strikes since the All-Star Break compared to 66 percent in his previous six starts. He’s also had success by throwing his changeup more often, in place of his slider.

• A.J. Burnett will try to avoid losing his 10th game for the second time in three seasons with the Yankees -- he lost 10 games just twice in eight seasons before joining the Yanks (in seasons with at least 10 starts).

Burnett has been fighting a disturbing career trend as his average fastball velocity has decreased for four consecutive seasons -- from 95.1 MPH in 2007 to 92.6 MPH this season. Not surprisingly, he’s using it less this season (58 percent of his pitches) than he has in any other season in his career.

Due to the decreased velocity, his changeup isn’t nearly as effective even though he’s throwing it at the highest rate of his career (10 percent of his pitches). And it just hasn’t been any good.

• Adam Dunn, who signed a four-year, $56 million contract with the White Sox in the offseason, is having by far the worst season of his career. Among qualified hitters he’s last in the majors this season in batting average, batting average against lefties, strikeout percentage and Wins Above Replacement.

The Elias Sports Bureau tells us that if this holds up, Dunn’s OPS this season when compared to his career mark would be the largest difference in major league history (among players with 6,000 career plate appearances).

• With Derek Jeter starting slowly and spending time on the DL, there’s been debate about who should lead off for the Yankees. It’ll be interesting to see who hits there tonight. Brett Gardner is the popular choice because of his speed and it appears that the team performs better with him at the top of the lineup -- but HE hits better when he’s anywhere else in the order.

The Yanks score 5.6 runs per game and hit .270 when Gardner leads off but score just 5.1 runs per game and hit .260 with him lower in the order. Gardner’s batting average and on-base percentage are both 100 points higher when he bats anywhere from 2-9 than when he hits first.

• If the White Sox fall behind, this game will be over. Chicago has 16 comeback wins this season, tied for third-fewest in the majors. The Yankees only have 18 comeback losses, tied for third-fewest in baseball.

Along the same lines, don’t expect much late-inning drama. Both teams have just three walk-off wins this season, only the Rockies have fewer. As for walk-off losses, the Yankees have three and the White Sox have five -- only the Red Sox (one) have fewer than New York.

The Cleveland Indians' Asdrubal Cabrera entered this season with 18 home runs in 387 career games.

Following his two-HR game on Monday against the Boston Red Sox, Cabrera now has 19 this season.

His second home run came in the eighth inning off Daniel Bard, who had not allowed a run in his last 25 appearances (26.1 innings). The last time Bard gave up a run was May 23 -- an RBI double by Cabrera that gave Cleveland a 3-2 lead and eventual win.

That second home run traveled a distance of just 320 feet, making it the shortest homer hit in 2011. The previous shortest home run was 323 by Sam Fuld of the Tampa Bay Rays back on April 11.

Cabrera also became the first Indians shortstop in 60 years to hit two home runs in one game at Fenway Park. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that had last been done in July 1951 by Ray Boone, whose grandson, Aaron, was part of ESPN’s broadcasting crew for Monday night’s game.

And while Indians' Josh Tomlin didn't pitch great (10 hits, five earned runs), he did go six innings. Tomlin now has pitched at least five innings in each of his first 34 starts. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the only pitchers who debuted in 1900 or later with longer such streaks than Tomlin are Oscar Jones (51 straight starts from 1903-04) and George Winter (37, 1901-02).

AROUND THE REST OF MLB

Adam Dunn of the Chicago White Sox went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts against CC Sabathia, and now is hitting .039 this season against left-handed pitchers. Dunn has 18 games with at least three strikeouts this season twice as many more as Austin Jackson and Ryan Raburn of the Detroit Tigers have for second most.

Joey Votto’s double in the third inning on Monday night gave him an extra-base hit in each of his last 11 games at Minute Maid Park. The Elias Sports Bureau tells that in modern major-league history (that is, since 1900), only two other visiting players produced an extra-base hit in at least 11 consecutive games at a particular park: Jimmie Foxx in 12 straight games at Sportsman’s Park, over 1939 and 1940, and Jeff Bagwell at Candlestick (3Com) Park, from 1993 to 1995.

Derrek Lee hit two home runs in his Pirates debut on Monday night, but that was the extent of Pittsburgh’s scoring in a 5-3 loss to the Cubs. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Lee is only the second player in Pirates' history to belt two home runs in his first game with the team. The other was Shawon Dunston in September 1997, after he was traded, coincidentally, by the Cubs.

Mike Stanton’s 24 home runs this season are well behind Jose Bautista for the MLB lead and a good distance away from Lance Berkman for the NL lead.
But Stanton still has a claim as the man who mashes the most.

Why? Because Stanton has hit 20 home runs this season that went at least 400 feet. That’s not just the most in the majors, it’s three more than anyone else in the league.

Doing the math tells us that 83.3 percent of Stanton’s home runs this season have gone longer than 400 feet. He averages 414.7 feet per homer this season; only Justin Upton (425.6) has a longer average distance.
But home runs don’t just travel far, they travel high as well – and that’s what Vlad Guerrero did against the Blue Jays. Guerrero’s moonshot reached 149 feet at its apex – the second-highest home run this season. Only Adam Dunn’s 150-footer scraped more sky.

Of course, high doesn’t always mean far. Despite its height, Guerrero’s home run had a distance of just 351 feet. In fact, none of the five tallest homers this season have even traveled a distance of 375 feet.

AROUND THE DIAMOND

-Emilio Bonifacio (26 straight games) and Dustin Pedroia (25) both extended their streaks. The last time MLB had concurrent 25-game hit streaks was September 29, 2005. Jimmy Rollins was sitting on 33 games and Michael Young was at 25. Young broke his streak the next day with an 0-for-4 against the Angels.

-On the other end of the spectrum, Craig Counsell is in an 0-for-41 slump for the Brewers. Elias says that his 41 straight AB without a hit is the longest streak in Brewers history, breaking the record of 38 owned by Greg Vaughn in 1990. It’s also the longest by any player for any team since Todd Zeile went 0-for-44 over the 1996-97 seasons.

-For the first time in team history, the Mets swept a four-game road series from the Reds. The Mets recorded their 32nd road win of the season – already matching their total from last season.

-Josh Beckett had never allowed a home run to the Royals despite tossing 55.2 innings against them in his career. He had also never lost to the Royals – a 6-0 record and 2.26 ERA against them. Both of those changed when Billy Butler homered in the fourth inning and the Royals won 4-3.

CC Sabathia bolstered his case for the AL Cy Young Award with another gem on Tuesday night. He struck out a career-best 14 batters while allowing just one hit in seven innings, as the New York Yankees sent the Seattle Mariners to their 17th straight loss.

Sabathia took a perfect game into the seventh inning before Brendan Ryan broke it up with a one-out single. It was the longest perfect bid by a Yankee since Andy Pettitte went 6⅔ innings in 2009.

Sabathia also struck out seven straight Mariners, the longest streak by a Yankee since Ron Davis set down eight in a row on May 4, 1981. Sabathia’s 14 strikeouts are tied for the fourth-most by a Yankee left-hander, the most since David Wells had a 16-strikeout game in 1997.

Sabathia’s pitching line of 14 strikeouts and one hit allowed has been duplicated by just four other left-handers in the Live Ball Era. Randy Johnson had six such games, while Steve Carlton (1972), Sandy Koufax (1965) and Warren Spahn (1960) also did it.

The Mariners extend their franchise-record losing streak to 17 games, the longest since the Royals dropped 19 in a row in 2005. They struck out 18 times, tied for the second-most strikeouts in a game in team history, and got just one hit on the night.

Only one other team in the Live Ball Era has struck out at least 18 times with one hit or fewer: in 1998, the Chicago Cubs Kerry Wood tossed 20-strikeout, one-hit shutout against the Houston Astros on May 6, 1998.

Around the Diamond
•  Vance Worley allowed two runs for his first career complete game. He snapped his streak of six straight starts with five-or-more innings pitched and one earned run or fewer allowed, which was tied for the longest by a Philadelphia Phillies starter since earned runs became official in 1913.

Worley didn’t get a swing-and-miss during his complete game, the first pitcher since Steve Trachsel on May 28, 2007 to throw a complete game without getting a swing and miss.

• Jered Weaver tossed seven innings of one-run ball, extending his streak of quality starts to 13. He’s now tied with Hall-of-Famer Bert Blyleven for the second-longest such streak in Angels history.

•  Joe Nathan recorded his 254th career save, tying Rick Aguilera for the most in Twins franchise history.

•  Justin Verlander allowed two homers in a game for the third time this season. It’s the seventh time the Chicago White Sox have taken him deep twice in a game during his career, the most multi-homer games against him by any team. Only three other teams (Oakland Athletics, Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays) have even had two such games.

•  One of those home runs was by Adam Dunn after he was down in the count 0-2. It was his first home run - and only second hit this season - after being down in the count 0-2. Prior to that at-bat, Dunn was 1-for-74 (.014) with 50 strikeouts after being down 0-2.

•  Dustin Pedroia extended his hit streak to 23 games, tied with Del Pratt in 1922 for the longest by a Boston Red Sox second baseman in the Live Ball Era.

Thanks to the Elias Sports Bureau and Baseball-Reference.com for providing many of the notes

With the All-Star break upon us, we take a look at some of the game’s best players who are having anything but their best years. We present to you, Major League Baseball’s “All-Struggling Team – Hitter’s Edition.”

C: Kurt Suzuki, Oakland Athletics (.225 BA, .284 OBP, 7 HR, 22 RBI)

A .264 career hitter who averages 10 HR and 60 RBI per season.

1B: Derrek Lee, Baltimore Orioles (.235 BA, .294 OBP, 9 HR, 28 RBI)

Still stellar in the field, but Lee is far off his career pace of .282, 22 HR, 73 RBI.

2B: Dan Uggla, Atlanta Braves (.185 BA, .257 OBP, 15 HR, 34 RBI)

After career highs in average (.287), HR (33) and RBI (105) in 2010, Uggla has fallen hard.

SS: Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins (.242 BA, 8 HR, 37 RBI)

Ramirez has hit .310 with 4 HR and 20 RBI in 25 games since coming off the DL, so he might approach career averages of 21 HR, 65 RBI, .313.

3B: Chone Figgins, Seattle Mariners (.183 BA, .231 OBP, 6 CS)

His numbers continue to plummet in the two years since coming to Seattle. He had been a .291 career hitter (.363 OBP) who averages 35 steals a season.

OF: Alex Rios, Chicago White Sox (.213 BA, .262 OBP, 6 HR, 21 RBI)

He appears poised to have his lowest RBI total and batting average of his career this season.

OF: Shin-Soo Choo, Cleveland Indians (.244 BA, 5 HR, 28 RBI)

According to Fangraphs.com, Choo was worth 11 wins over a replacement-level player in 2009 and 2010. Battling injuries in 2011, Choo has a 1.5 WAR rating.

OF: Jayson Werth, Washington Nationals (.215 BA, 10 HR, 31 RBI)

What does seven years and $126 million buy you? Not as much as you’d expect.

DH: Adam Dunn, Chicago White Sox (.160 BA, 9 HR, 34 RBI, 104 K)

Dunn has been injured and ineffective. In fact, in the first year of a four-year, $56 million contract, he’s on pace to have the worst offensive season in the history of baseball.

Tuesday saw several notable historic achievements around Major League Baseball. Below is a series of notes and tidbits from Tuesday's slate of action.

1. Throwback night for the New York Yankees

In the Yankees' 9-2 win over the Cleveland Indians, both Curtis Granderson and CC Sabathia joined the ranks of history. Granderson hit two home runs, giving him 25 on the season. Not only does that already exceed his total from all of 2010, but it gives both he and Mark Teixeira 25 HR on the season.

The Elias Sports Bureau confirmed that the only other time in which the Yankees had two players with at least 25 HR before the All-Star break came in 1961. That season, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle did so en route to Maris' then-record-setting 61 home run season.

On the pitching side of the ledger, Sabathia became the fifth pitcher in the last 20 seasons to win at least 12 games before the All-Star break in consecutive seasons. Sabathia also firmly established himself in Yankees history, as he and Ron Guidry in 1978 are now the only Yankees pitchers with 2 straight starts of 10 or more strikeouts and zero runs allowed. Some additional details on how Sabathia won on Tuesday:

• Once again, Sabathia had his slider working. He had nine strikeouts with the pitch, his most since July 13, 2008. The Indians swung at 16 Sabathia sliders, missing on 13, the most misses by a team against Sabathia's starter since that start in 2008. The Indians missed on 81.5 percent of their swings against Sabathia's slider, highest by a team against Sabathia since 2006 in a start in which he threw at least 12 sliders.

• Sabathia went to his slider with two strikes more than in any of his starts in the last three seasons. Sixteen of his 27 two-strike pitches were sliders (59.3 percent), his highest percentage of two-strike sliders in the last three seasons. Indians hitters were 0 for 12 in at-bats ending with a slider; all of those at-bats ended in two-strike counts. The 12 outs with his slider are the most in a start by Sabathia since July 13, 2008.

• He had even more success with his slider when he kept it down. Twenty of Sabathia's 28 sliders were down in the zone or below it, and Sabathia got eight of his nine slider strikeouts on those low pitches. Indians hitters missed on 11 of 12 swings against Sabathia's slider when it was low.

• Sabathia had more velocity on his fastball than in any start this season. His fastball Tuesday averaged 95.6 MPH, almost a full mile per hour more than in any previous start this season. Sabathia's fastball has averaged more than 94.1 MPH three times this season, all in the last three starts.

2. The Good and the Bad in Reds-Cardinals

With his 23rd home run of the season, Lance Berkman now has 350 career home runs. That ties him with Chili Davis for fourth all-time among switch hitters. On the flip side, the starter for the Cincinnati Reds -- Edinson Volquez -- once again struggled in the first inning.

He entered Tuesday with a 12.00 first-inning ERA and six first-inning home runs allowed. On Tuesday, Volquez yielded two more first-inning home runs. His road ERA now stands at 6.35 for the season.

3. Pirates Up, Brewers Down in NL Central

The Pittsburgh Pirates won their 45th game this season and, consequently, moved four games above .500. Last season, Pittsburgh did not get win No. 45 until September 3. It's the first time since April 26, 2009 that the Pirates are four games above .500.

The Milwaukee Brewers' loss Tuesday was their second straight home loss. They hadn't lost two straight home games all season. They had been the only team this season not to lose consecutive home games.

4. Another night, more struggles for Adam Dunn

In a season that has seen his OPS drop 282 points from 2010, Adam Dunn once again struggled on Tuesday. Dunn went 0-5 with three strikeouts in the Chicago White Sox loss to the Kansas City Royals. That marks Dunn's 75th game over the last 10 seasons where he went hitless with three or more strikeouts. That is easily the most such games during that span, a full 25 games ahead of second-place Jack Cust. It was Dunn's 12th such game this season.

The NL Central race couldn't be much tighter with four teams separated by only three games heading into Tuesday, when the Cincinnati Reds visit the division-leading St. Louis Cardinals.

Jaime Garcia is on the hill for the Cardinals, which could not be much worse news for the Reds. Garcia has been lights out at home this season, going 4-1 with an 0.88 ERA in seven starts.

We're just halfway through the season, but it's worth noting that no pitcher has finished with a sub-1.00 ERA at home for an entire season since Sandy Koufax (0.85) in the 1964 campaign.

Opponents are batting only .173 against Garcia at Busch Stadium while compiling a paltry .218 slugging percentage. On the road those numbers balloon up to a .326 batting average and a .470 slugging percentage.

Garcia's key to success at home has been his fastball. Opponents are batting .225 in at-bats ending in a fastball when Garcia pitches in St. Louis and hitting .419 elsewhere. At home he has not allowed a single home run in 71 at-bats ending in fastballs, but has given up four long balls in 86 such at-bats on the road.

The lefty faces one of his toughest tests this season in a Reds lineup that has killed left-handed pitching.

Cincinnati ranks first in the National League in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging against southpaws.

Last year's NL MVP, Joey Votto is among the Reds players to tear apart lefties this season, compiling a .372 batting average and .616 slugging percentage, second on the team in both categories behind Jonny Gomes.

It will be interesting to see how Garcia attacks Votto, who has been devastating against fastballs versus left-handed pitchers. He's hitting .512 in at-bats ending with that pitch, second highest in the majors among players with a minimum of 50 such plate appearances.

Reds slugger Jay Bruce was 12-for-24, with four home runs against lefties in May, but faltered in June. He was just 5-for-34 (.147) and did not homer.

Bruce is just one home run shy of matching Johnny Bench (87) for the fourth most all-time by a Reds player in his first four MLB seasons. With 14 more home runs he would join Frank Robinson (134) and Adam Dunn (118) as the only Reds players with 100 home runs in their first four MLB seasons.

News came out on Monday that the Cardinals may enjoy the return of their MVP Albert Pujols ahead of schedule. Along with Lance Berkman that would give the Cardinals a duo that has tormented the Reds. Pujols has more hits (219) and runs scored (142) against the Reds than any active player.

Berkman has more hits (175), home runs (50), RBIs (139) and runs scored (127) against Cincinnati than any other team he has faced. Berkman ranks in the top three among all active players versus the Reds in each of those categories.

He has also fared well against Reds starter Edinson Volquez, reaching base eight times in 13 plate appearances, reaching on a walk five times.

April showers have brought May flowers for Jay Bruce.

The Cincinnati Reds slugger Sunday hit his National League-leading 15th home run of the season and his 11th homer in May, which ties Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays for the most during the month this season.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 11 home runs in May are the most by a Reds player in a single calendar month since Adam Dunn hit 12 in July 2008.

Bruce ended the month of April struggling with four home runs, 11 RBI and a .237 batting average, which ranked 135th in MLB among players with at least 75 plate appearances.

This month has seen a completely different story. He’s hitting .330 with 11 HR and 29 RBI. In his previous two years in May, Bruce had just a .239 batting average with 12 homers and 30 RBI over 57 games.

So what’s been the difference? According to Inside Edge, Bruce is getting aggressive and taking advantage of fastballs. In the month of April, Bruce had a slugging percentage of .364 on at-bats that ended on the first pitch. That is up to .778 this month.

On at-bats that ended on the fastball, Bruce hit .254 during the month of April. That was below the MLB average of .285 in the situation. This month, he’s increased that to .344 and his slugging percentage is at .889.

But Bruce wasn’t the only “Jay” that had a strong Sunday.

• The Toronto Blue Jays scored 13 runs, including a six-run first inning as they clubbed the White Sox 13-4.

• Ricky Romero got the win for the Blue Jays as he allowed two runs over seven innings. According to Baseball Reference, his nickname is “RR Cool Jay”, like the rapper and entertainer “LL Cool J.”

• J.A. Happ (pronounced “Jay") did not allow a hit until the fifth inning for the Houston Astros. He also hit his first career home run.

• Jayson Werth of the Washington Nationals had three hits, but he was left stranded in scoring position in the eighth inning as the potential go-ahead run.

• J.J. Hardy of the Baltimore Orioles had a pair of hits, including a double.

• Jay Gibbons of the Los Angeles Dodgers had three hits. He entered Sunday with a .190 batting average and eight total hits for the season.

• Jon Jay of the St. Louis Cardinals and John Jaso of the Tampa Bay Rays each hit their eighth career home run. Alphabetically, those two are next to each other on the active player list. It was the first time they've gone deep on the same day.

Coming off consecutive starts in which he allowed five earned runs, David Price bounced back in a big way striking out a career-high 12 batters as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Cleveland Indians.

Price overpowered the Indians hitters as they swung and missed on 17 pitches against Price, the most for Price in his past 18 starts. He had great command of his fastball as 15 of the 17 swings and misses were against the heater, including seven which resulted in strikeouts.

The Rays ace displayed great control working the corners of the plate. Of Price's 110 pitches, 81 were either on the inside or outside corner of the plate. The Indians went 1-for-13 with eight strikeouts in at-bats ending with a pitch inside or outside.

Price also mixed in his slider well, throwing 14, his second highest total in any game this season. Cleveland went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in at-bats ending with the slider.

While Price was brilliant, he did receive some help with poor plate awareness from the Indians batters. Cleveland missed on 46 percent and chased 39 percent of balls outside of the strikezone (both season highs for Price).

Ugly swings were a theme throughout the night in this game for both teams. Matt LaPorta of the Indians and B.J. Upton of the Rays each struck out four times in Friday's game.

The only other game this season to feature two "Golden Sombreros" was on May 12, when Ian Desmond and Jayson Werth both recorded four strikeouts for the Nationals against Atlanta.

Elsewhere around the majors:

• While LaPorta and Upton had rough nights, perhaps no one had a more forgettable Friday than Drew Stubbs. Batting out of the leadoff spot, Stubbs was the only Cincinnati Reds hitter to have six plate appearances against the Atlanta Braves. He went 0-for-6 with four strikeouts.

The only other Reds player to do this in a nine-inning game in the live-ball era was Art Shamsky against the Giants on Oct. 1, 1965.

Out of the leadoff spot, Baseball-Reference.com shows us that only two other players have done it in a nine-inning game in the live-ball era. Oddly, all three of their teams won the game in spite of their dismal line.

• While former Red and current Chicago White Sox player Adam Dunn suffered a four-strikeout game on Thursday, he rebounded Friday drawing four walks in a loss against the Toronto Blue Jays.

According to Elias, the last time a player struck out four or more times and then walked four or more times the next game was Jim Thome in 2000.

The Chicago White Sox aren’t hitting and because of that they aren’t winning and that puts some of the focus on their big offseason acquisition, Adam Dunn.

Barely a month into the season, Dunn has been nearly a non-factor on offense. He’s hitting .150, striking out once every three plate appearances (25 strikeouts in 74 appearances) and hasn’t gotten a hit off a left-handed pitcher yet. (It should be noted that Dunn was sidelined with an emergency appendectomy in the second week of the season and missed six games.)

Dunn’s miss percentage on pitches in the strike zone from left-handed pitching is way up, one reason he’s 0-for-7 against lefties this season. His miss percentage against left-handed pitching this season is 40 percent, well above his average of 21.6 percent from 2007-10. Against right-handed pitching, his miss percentage is 27.8 percent this season. (It was 18.0 percent over the last four seasons.)

Last season, Dunn hit .314 with 24 home runs on at-bats ending in a fastball. This season he has six hits and one home run in 37 at-bats (.162). His miss percentage against fastballs has also spiked. From 2007-10 it was 20.8 percent, but this season it’s almost doubled to 39.2 percent.

Making matters worse for the White Sox, the rest of the team seems to be following Dunn’s lead. They’ve scored three runs or fewer in 11 of their past 12 games. After scoring 72 runs in the first 12 games, they’ve been held to 26 runs in their past 12 -- and nine of those came in one game.

Chicago, which will try to push its modest win streak to a season-high three tonight against the New York Yankees, has suffered slow starts by Gordon Beckham and Alex Rios as well. They have combined for two home runs and 13 RBI.

The problem for Rios and Beckham is the same as it is for Dunn: inability to hit fastballs. Entering play on Wednesday, the major-league average against fastballs this season is .277. Beckham is hitting .205 and Rios .179 against fastballs. Rios’ average against fastballs is the seventh-lowest this season among hitters with at least 90 plate appearances.

Beckham has also seen his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) dip to .227 this season after posting a .294 mark over the past two seasons. This, despite the fact that he’s putting balls in play at roughly the same rate (73 percent this season compared to 70 percent in 2009-10 combined). The same can be said for Rios, who has a .203 BABIP, far below his career number of .314.

Today’s Trivia: On Monday, the Los Angeles Angels' Jered Weaver looks to become the first American League pitcher since Zack Greinke in 2009 to win each of his first six starts. Who was the last American League pitcher to lose each of his first six starts in a season?

Weaver is off to one of the hottest starts in the American League, but there are several others who are not:

• The New York Yankees' Brett Gardner is hitting .140, which ranks last among 187 qualifying hitters. He’s 0-for-21 with 10 strikeouts on at-bats ending in an off-speed pitch.

• Gardner’s teammate Nick Swisher is 4-for-43 (.093) against right-handed pitches, a year after hitting a career-best .285 with 25 home runs against them.

• As a member of the Washington Nationals last season, Adam Dunn hit .314 with 24 home runs on at-bats ending in a fastball. In his first season in the American League, Dunn’s hitting .067 with two hits in 30 at-bats.

• The Chicago White Sox's Alex Rios is hitless in his last 20 at-bats, and has seen his batting average drop to .160. Last season, on pitches down the middle, Rios hit .392. This season? 1-for-12 (.083).

• The Angels Vernon Wells is 1-for-29 (.034) with two strikes in the count.

• Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury already has struck out looking 11 times this season, tied for the most in the majors.

• The Oakland Athletics' Daric Barton is 0-for-19 this season on pitches located up in the strike zone or above the strike zone. Last season, he hit .315 (34-108) on those pitches.

• With a 29.4 swing percent, Cleveland Indians catcher Carlos Santana has been swinging at fewer pitches than anyone else in the league. (He was at 38.7 last season.) But the bigger discrepancy is his swing percent at pitches in the strike zone. Last season it was 61.9. In 2011, it’s just 47.2, fifth lowest in the majors.

Sunday was Derek Jeter’s first four-hit game before the month of May since April 9, 2001, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Jeter now has 36 four-hit games in his career, tied for third among Yankees in the Live Ball era (since 1920). Lou Gehrig has the most with 53 followed by Earle Combs’ 37.

Staying with the Yankees, A.J. Burnett is 8-0 in the month of April as a member of the Yankees, and 18-24 after April. The Yankees will be facing Phil Humber tonight at Yankee Stadium. Opponents are hitting just .061 (2-33) against Humber’s off-speed pitches this season.

Trivia Answer: In 2007, Jered’s brother Jeff Weaver was 0-6 after six starts for the Seattle Mariners.

For Washington Nationals fans, this must seem like déjà vu all over again. Perhaps the Nationals and GM Mike Rizzo did not feel Adam Dunn was worth the $14 million per year he’ll receive from the Chicago White Sox. Perhaps they felt his questionable defense was no longer a fit in the National League. But it’s how they lost Dunn that has to leave fans scratching their heads.

As the trade deadline approached in 2006, the Nationals possessed arguably the most desirable player who was also seemingly available -- Alfonso Soriano. Soriano was in the midst of a career year, reaching the rare 40 home run/40 stolen base plateau.

At the trade deadline, Soriano was hitting .289/.365/.588 with a whopping 32 home runs. Due to the interest in Soriano and Washington’s presumed long-term focus, there was potential to net several impact young players in exchange for the last few months of Soriano. It was also obvious at the time that Soriano was in line for a payday that would exceed what the Nationals were likely willing to give.

Then-GM Jim Bowden did not trade Soriano, who left in the offseason for an eight year, $136 million contract with the Chicago Cubs and the Nationals received two compensatory draft picks. They turned them into high school lefthander Josh Smoker -- who is 9-17, 5.48 ERA in his minor league career, failing to rise above Single-A -- and college righty Jordan Zimmermann. Although he has shown promise, he missed half of 2009 and nearly all of 2010 due to injury and has a 4.71 ERA in his Major League career.

Last season, the Nationals found themselves in a similar position -- out of the postseason race and with one of the premier available commodities in Dunn. At the deadline, Dunn was hitting .276/.366/.558 with 24 home runs. Given the team’s focus on the future, the Nationals seemed perfectly positioned to cash Dunn in for a handful of prospects or young impact players, particularly since they had been unable to sign him to an extension.

Rizzo did not trade Dunn and the slugger left for Chicago. Washington will receive a compensatory draft pick, a return that will almost certainly fall well short of what they could have received had they traded Dunn in July.

Any hope the Nats had that Soriano or Dunn would lead them on a second half surge proved misguided. Both players were at their peak values at the trade deadline; Soriano’s OPS dropped from .953 before the deadline to .830 after, and Dunn’s dropped from .924 to .830. In the end, the Nationals whiffed on two opportunities to cash in impending free agents for a package of young players and/or prospects.

Instead of two different packages of young talent, the team will receive compensatory draft picks of considerably less value, one of which has already been used on a player that lacks impact upside. The fact that this happened despite a change of front office regimes has to be doubly disappointing for fans in the nation’s capital.