ESPN More Sports

Yu Darvish picked up his sixth win of the season, tied for most in the majors, as the Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics 4-1.

Darvish has struck out at least seven batters in each of his last five starts after striking out 14 and walking 13 in his first three starts. That’s the longest streak off seven-strikeout games by a Rangers' pitcher since Bobby Witt in 1987.

The key for Darvish has been the most important pitch in baseball – strike one. When he throws a strike on the first pitch to a batter, they hit .146 and strikeout nearly eight times as often as they walk. A 1-0 count leads to a .308 average and more walks than whiffs.

Over his first three starts, Darvish fell behind in the count more often than not. He threw first-pitch strikes to only 42 of 88 batters (48 percent). In his most recent five starts, he has upped that percentage to 60 percent (84 of 139). On Wednesday, he threw a strike on the first pitch to 17 of 28 hitters, right at his average over his last five starts.

This has allowed him to rely less on his fastball and slider and more on his changeup and curveball. In his first three starts, nearly half of his pitches were fastballs and opposing hitters hit .343 against his heat. He was forced to go with the fastball when he fell behind in the count, recording 11 walks and just three strikeouts on the pitch in his first three starts.

In his last five starts, he has used the fastball just over a third of the time while unveiling a changeup that he didn’t throw in the first three contests and increasing his curveball frequency from 11 percent to 17 percent.

For the season, opposing hitters have only 3 hits in 38 at-bats (.079) and have struck out 24 times against his curveball. That’s the most strikeouts that he has recorded with any pitch, even though it’s only the fourth-most used pitch in his arsenal.

Around the Diamond
• Adam Jones hit a game-winning home run in the 15th inning as the Baltimore Orioles won in Kansas City. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first major leaguer with two game-winning home runs in the 15th inning or later in the same season since 1988. That year, Mark McGwire hit game-winners in the 16th inning of back-to-back days in July.

• Also from our friends at Elias, Jamie Moyer became the oldest player to drive in a run in a game. Julio Franco was nearly six months younger when he drove in his final run in 2007.

• Gio Gonzalez gave up his first home run of the season after 48⅓ innings. He was the last qualified starter – meaning a minimum of one inning pitched per team game – to allow a homer this year.

Lee Singer contributed to this post.

Don’t look now, but the Washington Nationals have zoomed to the top of the NL East following their 3-2, extra-inning win over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday afternoon.

The Nationals improved to 5-2, their best start since moving to Washington, and also win their first home opener since 2008. This is just the second time in the last 15 seasons the franchise has won five of its first seven games. In 2001, the Montreal Expos were 6-1 after seven games.

The Nats took a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning but Brad Lidge blew the save, allowing two runs on two hits and two walks. Lidge had allowed just one run over his previous 16 appearances dating to August of last year.

The Nationals won it in the 10th inning thanks to a wild outing by Reds reliever Alfredo Simon. Simon hit Ryan Zimmerman to lead off the inning and Zimmerman eventually came around to score four batters later on Simon’s wild pitch with Roger Bernadina at the plate.

This was the Nationals’ fifth win on a game-ending wild pitch since moving to Washington in 2005. Entering Thursday, the Nats had lost their last six extra-inning games against the Reds and were 0-5 in one-run games versus Cincinnati over the last two season.

Gio Gonzalez got a no-decision but deserved the win, tossing seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and just two hits allowed.

Gonzalez had success going low as Reds hitters went 0-for-11 in at-bats ending with pitches down in the zone or below. Gonzalez also did a good job finishing off batters, allowing zero hits in 13 at-bats that reached a two-strike count.

Around The Diamond
• The Minnesota Twins came back from a six-run deficit against the Los Angeles Angels thanks to home runs from both Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer. It was the first time that Morneau and Mauer homered in the same game since July 6, 2010.

• Matt Garza fell one out short of a shutout when he was pulled after 119 pitches in the ninth inning of the Chicago Cubs 8-0 win. Garza had his slider working, throwing 31 of them, as the Milwaukee Brewers were hitless including five strikeouts in nine at-bats ending with the pitch.

• The Detroit Tigers improved to 5-1 this season with a win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Austin Jackson scored a run and has now crossed home plate in all six games this season, the longest streak to start the season by a Tiger since Darrell Evans scored in the first eight games in 1986.

• Madison Bumgarner took a no-hitter into the sixth inning as the San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies 4-2. Bumgarner recorded a career-high 14 ground-ball outs (including a double play) with eight of them coming in at-bats ending in sliders.

Each Sunday, ESPN Stats & Information provides a statistical recap of notable transactions from the week.

Nationals trade for LHP Gio Gonzalez
Gonzalez became known in Oakland for his nasty curveball. Over the past two seasons, he’s thrown his hook nearly 30 percent of the time, the third-most-often among left-handed pitchers. His 212 strikeouts with the pitch in that span are the most in the majors.

One thing that Gonzalez did last season was change his approach against right-handed hitters. In 2009, when he was ahead 0-2 or 1-2 on a righty, he threw his fastball only 25 percent of the time.

In 2010, he upped that rate to 35 percent, then upped it again to 47 percent last season.

By the end of 2011, he’d struck out more right-handers with his fastball (73) than his curveball (71), a dramatic swing from a year prior, when he whiffed 98 with his curve and 33 with his fastball. The heat maps above show where Gonzalez located his two primary pitches when in 0-2 and 1-2 counts.

The change worked, as noted by Gonzalez’s effectiveness in the chart on the right.
-- Mark Simon/Lee Singer

Reds acquire LHP Sean Marshall in trade from Cubs.
Marshall had a statistically superb season in 2011, his second straight strong year.

Over the last two seasons, Marshall has averaged better than 10 strikeouts per nine innings, with a strikeout-to-walk rate of better than four-to-one. He’s the only one of the 176 pitchers who threw at least 150 innings in that span to be able to hit both of those benchmarks.

Marshall’s combination of strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed was so good that he led the majors in fielding independent pitching (2.07 FIP) over the last two years. He was valued at 5.0 wins above replacement combining 2010 and 2011, the best for any relief pitcher.

What makes Marshall so good?

Marshall succeeds because he gets hitters from both sides of the plate out at a high rate. He’s one of three lefties to hold both left-handed and right-handed hitters to a sub-.600 OPS over the last two seasons (minimum 200 batters faced on each side) along with Jonny Venters and Clayton Kershaw.

Marshall does this primarily with his breaking pitches. He threw the lowest percentage of fastballs of any left-handed pitcher over the last two seasons (just under 40 percent), relying on a curveball and slider, the former of which has the biggest horizontal break of any from a lefty in the majors.
--Mark Simon

Twins sign Jason Marquis
The pitch-to-contact righty Marquis will fit perfectly into the Twins' rotation, which last season had the lowest swing-and-miss rate and highest in-play percentage in the majors.

Batters missed on one of every six swings against Marquis and put the ball in play nearly 50 percent of the time when taking a cut last year.

More than half of his opponents' at-bats resulted in a grounder (this was true for each of his three primary pitches -- fastball, slider, changeup), putting Marquis among the top 10 ground-ball specialists in the league.

Marquis has posted an ERA below 4.00 just once in his career as a full-time starter, and will be challenged to achieve that performance level this year with the Minnesota Twins.

In 2011, Minnesota’s infield defense cost the team 45 runs, the worst mark by any major league team.

The Twins did slightly upgrade at the shortstop position this offseason.

The four shortstops that accounted for minus-27 defensive runs saved in nearly 1,500 innings in 2011 will be replaced by 37-year-old Jamey Carroll, who had minus-5 defensive runs saved in 504 innings at shortstop last year.
--Katie Sharp

After spending the past seven seasons on the East and West Coast, Carlos Beltran is headed back to the Midwest. Beltran agreed to a two-year deal with the world champion St. Louis Cardinals Thursday, according to sources. The six-time All-Star batted .300 and hit 22 home runs with 84 RBI last season with the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants.

This will be Beltran's second stint with a team in the state of Missouri. He spent seven seasons with the Kansas City Royals winning Rookie of the Year in 1999.

While he’s no longer a borderline MVP-candidate, Beltran’s track record of productivity can be matched by few in the National League since 2005. Beltran ranks sixth in the NL among position players in Wins Above Replacement over that span.

Besides his offensive and defensive skills, Beltran has a history of excelling in the postseason. No player in MLB history with a minimum 75 plate appearances has a higher OPS in the postseason than Beltran's 1.302.

With Beltran joining the Cardinals, St. Louis now has the two best offensive switch-hitters in the majors from last year. Lance Berkman's OPS was .959 last season while Beltran's was .910.

Meanwhile, the Oakland Athletics traded All-Star pitcher Gio Gonzalez to the Washington Nationals for four prospects according to sources. The Nationals receive pitchers Brad Peacock, A.J. Cole, Tom Milone and catcher Derek Norris. Gonzalez had a career best in wins (16), ERA (3.12) and strikeouts (197) last season, but also led the league in walks (91).

Few pitchers have provided a greater value for the dollar than Gonzalez. Over the last two seasons, 13 pitchers have won at least 30 games. Of those, Gonzalez has been the most cost-effective option, earning $26,613 for every win since 2010.

Gonzalez is under team control through 2015, but he's about to get more expensive. MLBtraderumors.com projects a $4.2 million salary in 2012, the first of Gonzalez's four arbitration-eligible years.

With the acquisition of Gonzalez, the Nationals now have three pitchers (Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann) who will all be age 26 or younger in 2012. They join two other franchises (Braves, Diamondbacks) who have at least three starters – all of whom were 25 or younger in 2011 - who posted a cumulative ERA better than 4.00 since the start of the 2010 season.

Today’s Trivia: When Bartolo Colon, 37, takes the mound Wednesday for his first start with the New York Yankees, he will be the oldest pitcher to start a game this season. Who currently holds that distinction?

Quick Hits: With some of the hottest pitchers set to take the mound, Wednesday sets up to be quite a day for pitching.

• Of the 34 starters scheduled for Wednesday, 11 have an ERA under 2.00 and nine are looking to start 3-0 or better. Eight of the MLB’s top ten in ERA draw starts Wednesday.

• Gio Gonzalez, Justin Masterson, Aaron Harang, Jered Weaver and Matt Harrison are all scheduled to pitch. Each has allowed 1 ER or fewer in 6+ innings in each of their first three starts. (According to baseball-reference.com), the last pitcher to start a season with four straight such starts was Cliff Lee in 2008 (who did it in five straight).

• The last time multiple pitchers started the season with four straight starts of 1 ER or fewer in 6+ innings was 1998: Chuck Finley and Greg Maddux.

• Weaver (4-0, 1.30 ERA) looks to become the first pitcher in MLB history with five wins by April 20, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

• He faces Harrison (3-0, 1.23 ERA), who looks to be the first Texas Rangers pitcher to win each of his first four starts since Darren Oliver in 2001.

• Gonzalez (2-0, 0.47 ERA) faces the Boston Red Sox with the MLB’s best ERA. He’s boasts a streak of 17 scoreless innings and opponents are 0-for-13 with RISP.

• Masterson (3-0, 1.33 ERA) has held right-handed hitters to a .103 BA (3-for-29).

• Jaime Garcia (2-0, 1.35 ERA) takes on the Washington Nationals. In his career, he is 4-1 with a 1.17 ERA. In seven career April starts, he’s never allowed more than two earned runs.

• Dustin Moseley is 0-3 despite a 1.83 ERA. A big reason? The San Diego Padres haven’t scored a run in any of his three starts. According to Elias, the only pitcher in the last 30 years whose team was shut out in each of four consecutive starts was Arizona's Randy Johnson in June-July 1999.

• Harang (3-0, 1.50 ERA) draws the second start of the day for San Diego. He looks to become just the third pitcher to win his first four starts of a season with the Padres. Only Randy Jones (1976) and Andy Hawkins (1985) have done so. Dennis Rasmussen won his first four starts with the Padres in 1988, but was a midseason acquisition.

Trivia Answer: Derek Lowe, who also takes the hill Wednesday, is the oldest pitcher to start a game so far this season. Also 37, he’s just eight days younger than Colon. Last season, Jamie Moyer (47) and Tim Wakefield (44) were the oldest to start a game.

The Oakland Athletics won the bidding for Japanese right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma earlier this month, but reports Sunday indicated that the team and pitcher are at a negotiating standstill, with Iwakuma's group looking for a contract worth comparable to Barry Zito's $18 million per year.

Given that the Athletics boasted one of the best rotations in baseball last season and are on a strict budget, the question that comes to mind is why the need is so great for the team to sign Iwakuma.

Perhaps because it would be wise to expect some regression from the Athletics starters in 2011.

There are several indicators that suggest that the performance of the Athletics rotation in 2010 was not statistically sustainable. While the rotation ranked fourth in baseball in ERA at 3.47, it ranked a much more average 17th in Fielding Independent Pitching at 4.10 (according to Fangraphs.com).

Fielding Independent Pitching is an ERA estimator based around strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed, helping to understand how well a pitcher pitched, regardless of how well his fielders fielded. This gap between the team’s ERA and FIP suggests that the team could experience some regression in 2011.

Further supplementing that point is that the team also posted the lowest Batting Average on Balls In Play in the Majors at .275, while the percentage of runners that were left on base by the team’s pitchers was the fifth-best in baseball at 74.7 percent. While a strong defense is certainly at least partly responsible for the low BABiP, history says that it's a tough level of performance to maintain.

While the team might boast a frontline rotation at first glance, there are reasons why stockpiling pitching depth might actually be a good use of resources. Three of the team’s primary rotation pieces from 2010 had significant gaps between their ERA and FIP, most notably Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez and Vin Mazzaro, the latter of whom was traded to the Royals already this offseason. Of the top 35 qualified starters in baseball according to ERA, only Jon Garland had a higher FIP than Cahill.

In addition to the team’s likelihood of regression in 2011, there’s also two other factors to consider. First, the starter with arguably the most upside on the staff, Brett Anderson, also has experienced durability issues in his first two seasons. He threw just 131 ⅔ innings overall last season between the majors and minors and has never thrown more than 175 ⅓ innings in any professional season.

The team also is putting together a foundation built upon pitching and defense and, as part of that plan, the team is loading up on groundball-heavy pitchers. The pitching staff as a whole ranked fifth in MLB in groundball percentage at 48.2.

Not coincidentally, here’s what ESPN.com’s Keith Law wrote about Iwakuma:

“He pitches differently than most of the Japanese pitchers who have come over, with a more conventional delivery and a pitch-to-contact approach that yields ground balls and few walks but not many strikeouts.”

So while at first glance the Athletics move to sign Iwakuma might seem redundant for a team that was so pitching-heavy last season and is in such desperate need for offense. But as has been demonstrated time after time, there’s never enough pitching, particularly when the numbers suggest there’s some regression ahead in 2011.

Today’s Trivia: Since September 1, 2009, Jose Bautista has 53 home runs. In the last decade, only three AL players hit 53 HR from one September through the following August. Can you name them?

Quick Hits: With August in the books, let’s take a look back at the statistical oddities of the month.

• Miguel Cabrera was intentionally walked 13 times in August. Only the Philadelphia Phillies (17) and San Francisco Giants (14) had more intentional walks as a team. In fact, over the last 50 years, only Barry Bonds’ 15 IBB in August 2004 exceeded Cabrera’s total in that month. Over the previous 50 years, no Detroit Tigers player had more IBB than Bill Freehan’s six in August 1967.

• The Los Angeles Dodgers did not have a triple in August. Their last triple-less month was June 1985.

• Eric Young Jr. had 66 at-bats in August and did not record an RBI. That’s the most in a calendar month without an RBI since Willy Taveras had 72 in September 2006.

• Overall, only 808 HR were hit in August, 170 fewer than 2009. In fact, it was the fewest home runs hit over a full August of MLB action since 1993.

• In his first full month in the majors, Houston Astros first baseman Brett Wallace was hit by more pitches (six) than anyone else. Over the last 50 years, Craig Biggio’s 10 HBP in August 1997 are the only greater total by an Astros player.

• Felix Hernandez had a 0.82 ERA and 51 strikeouts last month. Over the last 50 years, only Tom Seaver (1973 Mets), J.R. Richard (1979 Astros) and Roger Clemens (1998 Blue Jays) have had 50+ K and an ERA below 1.00 in August. Would you believe King Felix’s two losses were not unprecedented in such a month? Seaver was 3-3 despite a 0.99 ERA.

• Fausto Carmona allowed five sacrifice flies in August. Prior to 2010, he’d never allowed more than four over the course of an entire season.

• With 12 HR and 24 RBI, Jose Bautista led the AL in both categories in August. The last AL player to do that in August (without being tied in either category) was Rafael Palmeiro in 1999 (15 HR, 39 RBI).

• Aramis Ramirez hit .579 (11-19) with runners in scoring position. He had entered the month hitting just .220 with RISP.

Today’s Leaderboard: From the perspective of opponents’ batting average, August’s top four pitchers come from two teams and one state. Oakland’s duo of Dallas Braden and Gio Gonzalez were tops in baseball, while the Padres’ Mat Latos and Jon Garland were the best in the NL.

Key Matchups: It’s good to be Brian McCann right now. For one, he is 7-for-10 with a pair of HR in his last three games. That figures to continue Wednesday against Mike Pelfrey, the pitcher he has faced the most in his career. McCann is 18-for-37 (.486 BA) against Pelfrey, including a single, two doubles and a home run in his last four at-bats against him. McCann’s eight doubles are twice as many as any other batter against Pelfrey.

Among those glad to see August in the rearview mirror, Tim Lincecum ranks among the happiest. Entering the month at 11-4 with a 3.10 ERA, he went 0-5 with a 7.82 ERA. Will September be kinder? Standing in the way on Thursday is Colorado, a team he’s 0-2 against this season. With a .455 BA, Todd Helton has been a tough out for Lincecum. However, it’s Chris Iannetta who has been the toughest out. In 22 plate appearances, the Rockies catcher has six hits and eight walks against Lincecum. That’s good enough for a .727 on-base percentage.

Trivia Answer: From September 2001 to August 2002, Alex Rodriguez had 60 HR. Through those same months in 2005-06, David Ortiz had 58 HR and Travis Hafner had 53.

Let's take a look at some notes from around baseball on Tuesday night:

• The New York Yankees hit five HR for the second time this season in their win at the Toronto Blue Jays. It's the first time the Yanks have hit five HR at Toronto since 2004.

• Derek Jeter hit his 10th HR, and now has 10+ HR and 10+ SB in 15 consecutive seasons. In MLB history (according to the Elias Sports Bureau), only Barry Bonds has a longer such streak. Bonds did this in 16 straight seasons from 1986 to 2001.

• The Chicago Cubs improved to 2-0 under Mike Quade with their win over the Washington Nationals. Alfonso Soriano smacked his 20th HR, giving him nine straight 20-HR seasons. That is tied for the third-longest active streak in baseball. Alex Rodriguez (15 straight season) and Albert Pujols (10) have the only two longer streaks.

• Also for the Cubs, Tyler Colvin hit his 19th HR. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is tied for the third-most HR by a rookie in Cubs history. Only Billy Williams (25) and Geovany Soto (23) have ever hit more. Ernie Banks is one of three others to also hit 19.

• The Pittsburgh Pirates knocked off the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3. It's the second time in the last week that the Cardinals lost a one-run game, leaving the bases loaded with two outs in the ninth inning.

• The New York Mets topped the Florida Marlins with Luis Castillo's walk-off single. It's Castillo's seventh career walk-off hit (third with the Mets). It's just the third walk-off loss of the season for the Marlins (only the Yankees have fewer).

• The Oakland Athletics topped the Cleveland Indians, 5-0, as Gio Gonzalez pitched seven shutout innings. Athletics starters have tossed a franchise-record 16 consecutive quality starts. Gonzalez is 4-0 with a 0.89 ERA in five career starts vs the Indians.

• The Detroit Tigers knocked off the Kansas City Royals, 9-1. Detroit has now won five straight, outscoring its opponents 40-7 during this streak. Miguel Cabrera drove in his MLB-leading 104th run of the season, surpassing his total from last season.

• The Texas Rangers defeated the Minnesota Twins, 4-3. Josh Hamilton hit his 29th HR and has now driven in a run in five straight games for the fifth time in his career. Neftali Feliz notched his 32nd save, which is the fourth-most by a rookie since saves became an official stat in 1969.

• The Chicago White Sox topped the Baltimore Orioles, but Luke Scott hit his 25th HR for Baltimore, matching the career high he set last season. He's the first Oriole with 25+ HR in back-to-back seasons since Miguel Tejada and Melvin Mora in 2004-05. His 13 HR since the All-Star Break are the most by anyone not named Jose Bautista.

Daisuke Matsuzaka dazzled Phillies hitters Saturday night, throwing 7 2/3 hitless innings before Philadelphia's Juan Castro ended the bid with a bloop single just over the reach of Red Sox shortstop Marco Scutaro. That starting stint without a hit is the longest no-hit bid of Matsuzaka's career, surpassing his four innings without a hit vs the Angels on September 15, 2009. It has been 32 years since the Phillies have been no-hit (Bob Forsch, 1978).

Matsuzaka's outing also ties CC Sabathia for the longest no-hit bid this season that did not go on to finish as a no-hitter. In other words, only two pitchers have no-hit bids longer than 7 2/3 innings this season -- Ubaldo Jimenez and Dallas Braden.

Why Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka won:
- Had three innings of fewer than 10 pitches and zero with 20 or more. In his first four starts, Matsuzaka made it through just one inning with fewer than 10 pitches.
- The Phillies swung at 33.9 percent of Matsuzaka's offerings outside the strike zone, a season-high for Daisuke. Two of Daisuke's three swinging strikeouts were on fastballs outside the strike zone.
- Matsuzaka had success working up in the strike zone against the Phillies. Four of his five strikeouts were on high pitches, and the Phillies missed on five of their 15 swings against his offerings up in the zone.

Why Cubs starter Randy Wells deserved the win:
- Effective with off-speed stuff, particularly his slider. Rangers hitters were only 1-7 (.143) against the slider and the opposition is hitting only .204 against Wells' slider this season. His strike pct on all off-speed pitches was 74 (MLB average: 61 pct). Plus, Rangers hitters chased 46 pct of off-speed stuff out of the zone tonight (MLB average: 31 pct).
- Economical. Five of his 8 completed innings were 1-2-3 (62 pct; double the MLB avg.)
- Control. Went to a 3-ball count to only 4 of 31 batters faced (13 pct; MLB average: 19 pct).

Why Rockies starter Jeff Francis won:
- No solid contact. Of the 21 pitches that ended at-bats, Inside Edge determined only 2 balls were "well-hit." That .095 well-hit percentage is miniscule compared to the MLB average (.267).
- Dominated with slow stuff. Royals hitters were 0-11 against Francis' curveball and changeup. For the season, hitters are 2-for-21 against Francis' off-speed deliveries.

Why Athletics starter Gio Gonzalez won:
- Season-high first pitch strike percentage of 70.4. Giants hitters were 0-5 when putting the first pitch in play.
- The Giants were 0-7 with four strikeouts against Gonzalez's curveball and took just eight swings against it, despite the fact that he threw 38 of them on the day. Gonzalez got 12 called strikes with the curve, including three for strikeouts.
- Gonzalez retired the leadoff hitter in each of his eight innings..
- Gonzalez kept his curveball down in the zone, throwing 31 of his 38 curves in the lower third. The Giants were 0-4 with three strikeouts on low curveballs. For the season, opposing hitters are 0-35 with a whopping 29 strikeouts against Gonzalez curveballs in the lower third. On the season, Gonzalez has thrown 84 low curveballs before two strikes, and not a single one has been put in play. With two strikes, Gonzalez has thrown 85 low curveballs, with only six being put in play, all for outs.

Why Giants starter Matt Cain deserved better:
- Dominated with his curve and changeup. With a combined 0-for-7 performance against the two pitches today, opposing hitters are now 6-48 (.125) vs. Cain's curve and change in 2010.
- He got out of trouble. Cain retired only 3 of 8 leadoff hitters (38 pct; MLB average: 68 pct) but only allowed 1 to score - however it ended up being a big one.
- He put hitters away in all situations. When counts got to 2 strikes, 88 pct of at-bats ended in outs (MLB average: 72 pct). When counts got to 2-0, 2-1, or 3-ball, 82 percent of at-bats were outs (MLB average: 54 pct).

Why White Sox starter Gavin Floyd won:
- Commanded the inner half of the plate: 20 of Floyd's 24 pitches on the inner third went for strikes, and the Marlins were just 1-12 against those pitches. Six of Floyd's seven strikeouts came on inside pitches.
- Fooled the Marlins with his off-speed pitches (curveball, changeup, slider): Floyd threw 35 of 54 off-speed pitches for strikes, with 14 of the 35 strikes being of the called variety. The Marlins took 21 swings against Floyd's curveball, changeup, and slider, missing on 11.
- Five of Floyd's seven strikeouts were with off-speed pitches.
- Floyd retired the first six leadoff hitters he faced.

Why Angels starter Scott Kazmir won:
- A season high 79.5 pct (89 of 112) of his pitches were fastballs, with the Cardinals hitting just 2-18 against the pitch. Cardinals hitters missed on 14 of their 42 swings against Kazmir's fastball.
- Kazmir retired six of seven leadoff hitters he faced and retired the side in order in five of seven innings.
- Kazmir reached a 2-0 count on just one of the 27 hitters he faced.
- All five of Kazmir's strikeouts came on pitches on the outer third of the strike zone, with the Cardinals hitting just 2-16 against outside pitches.

The Orioles swept the Red Sox and a catcher recorded four hits in his first major league game, but Sunday's biggest shock came in Philadelphia:

Johan Santana gave up 10 runs in a game.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner was rocked at Citizens Bank Park, surrendering four home runs over 3.2 innings in an 11-5 loss to the Phillies. Here are some of the nuggets from his performance:

* Santana is the first Mets pitcher to allow 10 runs and 4 HR in the same outing.
* He is the 10th Mets starting pitcher to allow 10 runs in a game and the first since Orlando Hernandez allowed 11 runs on August 15, 2006, in Philly.
* Only two other pitchers since 2005 have allowed 10 runs and 4 HR in the same game: Gio Gonzalez (11 runs, 4 HR) vs. Twins on July 20, 2009 and Jason Marquis (13 runs, 4 HR) vs. White Sox on June 21, 2006.
* Ryan Howard and Chase Utley each hit their fourth career homer off Santana. Only Magglio Ordonez has hit more (five).

And here is why Santana lost:

* Didn't finish off hitters: Santana went to two-strike counts in 11 plate appearances and five Phillies reached base (4 hits, 1 BB). Three of the Phillies' four home runs came with Santana ahead in the count.
* Hittable fastball: Phillies hitters tattooed Santana's heater, going 5-11 with four extra-base hits and three home runs. Opponents are batting .301 and slugging .521 against Santana's fastball this season, both the worst of his career since 2007.

In Baltimore, the Orioles finished off a sweep of the Red Sox with a 3-2 win in 10 innings. It was the O's first THREE-GAME sweep of the Red Sox at home since 1974 (four-game sweep in 1998). After winning only four of their first 22 games, the Orioles took some of their frustration out on the visitors from Boston.

With Joe Mauer sidelined with a bruised heel, the Twins called up rookie catcher Wilson Ramos. Ramos didn't waste any time before contributing. The rookie collected four hits in his major league debut, helping Minnesota to an 8-3 win at Cleveland.

The Elias Sports Bureau tells us Ramos is the 21st player and first catcher in the modern era (since 1900) to record four hits in his MLB debut. The last player with four hits in his MLB debut was Derrick Gibson for the Rockies on Sept. 8, 1998 vs. the Marlins. The only Twin to do so was Kirby Puckett on May 8, 1984, vs. the Angels.