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Heading into the final few games of the season, I heard an interview with Joe Maddon where he was asked what it will take for the Rays to get through these next few games and into the postseason.

Part of his response: "You need your best players to perform." (Or something of that ilk.)

The two best players in this tiebreaker game were David Price and Evan Longoria, especially with Yu Darvish having pitched Sunday for the Rangers and Adrian Beltre playing on a sore hamstring. We spend a lot of time these days breaking down everything that goes into a baseball game, and that's fun and informative and interesting, and dissecting all the numbers and strategies and potential strategies are part of what makes baseball so appealing to many of us.

But sometimes the analysis is simple. Sometimes you just need your best players to perform. Price was outstanding, Longoria homered with one of his three hits, and the Rays beat the Rangers 5-2 to keep their season alive.

For Price, he exorcised some personal demons of sorts. He had defeated the Rangers just once in 11 career starts, including three postseason starts. His career ERA in Texas was over 10.00 in four games. He wasn't necessarily dominant, striking out just four in throwing a complete game. He had pretty good command of his fastball, however, and basically challenged the Rangers to hit it. He threw fastballs on 73 of his 118 pitches, and while the Rangers swung and missed at just one fastball all game, they didn't do any severe damage against it, or at least not enough damage. (Price actually induced just four swing-and-misses the entire game.)

The Rangers didn't exactly throw out a strong lineup. With Jeff Baker sidelined with a sports hernia, Ron Washington's starting nine included three lefties -- Price held left-handed batters to a .195 average with just two home runs -- and two of those, Leonys Martin and Mitch Moreland, are pretty weak against lefties. Nelson Cruz hadn't played in two months due to his suspension, Beltre hurt his hamstring on Sunday and Elvis Andrus had just 25 extra-base hits on the season. It was a game where the Rangers shouldn't have expected to score many runs.

It didn't help that Andrus got picked off in the first inning and Ian Kinsler got picked off in the third. Washington had apparently stressed to his club to play aggressive, but in the end those were two costly mistakes.

Once the Rays took a 4-2 lead, the key at-bat against Price came in the eighth after Kinsler doubled down the third-base line with one out. Price was over 100 pitches, and you could have expected to see Joel Peralta in the game to face the right-handed threesome of Andrus, Alex Rios and Beltre. Peralta was warming up, but he can be a little home run-prone (seven home runs) and Maddon might have been thinking of the four outings in September where Peralta allowed two or more runs.

Sometimes you just go with your best.

Andrus laid down a near-perfect bunt down the first-base line on an 0-1 pitch, but Price made a terrific play (especially for a lefty), flipping the ball with his glove to first to get Andrus. Rios grounded out to shortstop to end the threat. What if Andrus had hit away? We'll never know, which is the beauty of "what if" in baseball. With a little more cushion after Sam Fuld created a run in the top of the ninth, Maddon let Price begin the bottom of the ninth. Why not? One-two-three, game over.

As for Longoria, he lined a single to right-center in the first inning off rookie lefty Martin Perez to send Wil Myers to third; Myers would score on Delmon Young's sac fly. In the third, Perez faced Longoria with two outs and a runner on first. Longoria took an inside 94 mph fastball and drilled it into the wind tunnel in right-center, just clearing the fence for a two-run homer.

I can't really fault Washington too much in this game. His bullpen had been worked hard in the final few days (although he inexplicably used closer Joe Nathan for a fourth straight game on Sunday to close out a 6-2 lead), and while you could argue for a Matt Garza or Alexi Ogando earlier in the game, Garza hasn't been good and Ogando started on Friday.

Perez settled down after the Longoria home run, and Washington correctly yanked him with one out in the sixth when Longoria came up again. Ogando just didn't have much in this game. Longoria doubled off him, and with two outs, pinch hitter David DeJesus doubled him home (you could argue that Neal Cotts should have been brought in there).

In the end, the Rays are the better team. The AL East was easily the best division in the majors this year and the Rangers made it this far in large part due to their 17-2 record against the lowly Astros, an opponent the Rays didn't get to face 19 times.

Now the Rays get the Indians, and while the game will be in Cleveland, the Rays have to like their chances with the underrated Alex Cobb, who went 11-3 with a 2.76 ERA in 22 starts, on the mound. Cobb throws an excellent changeup that dives away from left-handed hitters -- they hit .214/.245/.325 off it -- but he changed the grip on his curveball last summer and it's given him a second out pitch alongside the changeup. Cobb learned the grip from former teammate James Shields and batters have hit .260 off it, but with just one home run in 100 at-bats.

The Rays will face another rookie in hard-throwing Danny Salazar, who has made 10 career starts, but averages 96 mph on his fastball and has reached 100. The Indians have held him to tight pitch counts, going more than 89 pitches just once and held under 80 in five of his starts, so Terry Francona will likely tell Salazar to cut it loose for as long as he can go and turn it into a bullpen game early on.

Thanks to Price, Maddon will also enter with a rested bullpen, so there should be plenty of pitching changes and possible pinch-hitting moves to discuss and argue about.

Of course, it could be that it will come down to the best player. The Indians are good and they're hot, having won 10 in a row, but Longoria will once again be the best player in this game.

FYI: He's hit 22 of his 32 home runs off fastballs.

There were some moments there when it appeared the Tampa Bay Rays would complete a mini collapse of sorts, especially when manager Joe Maddon lost his cool as the Rays were starting to melt down in the seventh inning and he had an Earl Weaver moment, getting ejected after arguing with plate umpire Paul Schreiber following a trip to the mound.

The Rays had entered the weekend in control of their own wild-card destiny, but while the Indians and Rangers were beating the Twins and Angels, Tampa had lost twice to Toronto. A six-run first inning made it appear it would be an easy win on Sunday, but the Rays saw a 7-0 lead slide to 7-3 in the sixth, then 7-4 in the seventh and then 7-6 in the eighth as closer Fernando Rodney gave up two run-scoring singles and then a walk that loaded the bases. But he struck out Moses Sierra with two outs and got through the ninth and now the Rays will play the Rangers in the tiebreaker game on Monday night to move on to the wild-card game.

On paper, the pitching matchup goes to the Rays, with David Price starting against Martin Perez. The Rays set up their rotation back in early September to line up Price to start the wild-card game or, if necessary, this game. The Rangers had to scramble at the end and, needing a win on Sunday, started ace Yu Darvish, so the start here falls to the young left-hander.

Before we get to Price's checkered big-game history -- especially against the Rangers -- I'm left with two thoughts on this year's wild-card race.

First, the Rays are arguably better than the Indians or Rangers. By that, I mean the AL East was clearly a tougher division than the Central or the West. AL East teams went 242-188 outside the division, the Central went 210-220 and the West went 197-233. If the Rays had played 19 games against the Astros and Mariners instead of the Orioles and Blue Jays, they would have likely won a few more games.

But them's the breaks, I guess, and strength of schedule matters only for NCAA tournament seedings. Plus, the Rangers are hosting the game because they did win the season series, 4-3.

The second issue is the decision the Rays made to start Wil Myers in the minor leagues and not recall him until June 18. While the Rays can claim they wanted Myers to work on cutting down his strikeouts, we also know this move is something the Rays have done in the past to save money. By delaying Myers' call-up date, they saved not only a season on his free agency but also postponed his initial eligibility for arbitration by a year. That will save them millions down the road, but maybe it will end up costing them a playoff berth this year.

From Opening Day until June 17, Rays right fielders hit .246/.327/.427, not awful but below Myers' .295/.353/.482 line. Matt Joyce and Ben Zobrist played a lot out there early on, so in essence the Rays were playing guys like Ryan Roberts and Sam Fuld early on instead of Myers. I think it's fair to suggest the Rays would have at least one more win if Myers had been called up six weeks earlier.

OK, so what about Monday's game? While Price is understandably the guy Maddon wants to give the ball to, it's also true that the Rangers sort of have the whammy on him. Price is 1-4 with a 5.98 ERA in eight regular-season starts against Texas and is 0-3 with a 4.66 ERA in three postseason starts. Those are the only three playoff starts of Price's career, and remember also that on that memorable final day of 2011 he started and dug a big hole for the Rays when he allowed six runs in four innings to the Yankees. So he has a checkered past in big games.

After missing all of June with a triceps injury, Price returned and had the best stretch of his career, eight starts where he went 5-1 with a 1.40 ERA, a 44-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio and had three complete games where he threw fewer than 100 pitches. He's allowed two runs in each of his past four starts, but hasn't had quite the same efficiency. What he's done, however, is keep the ball in the park as he's given up just two home runs in his past 11 starts.

In a move to perhaps counteract Price's dominance against left-handers, the Rangers announced Nelson Cruz will be activated for Monday's game. They didn't say whether he would be in the starting lineup, but you have to think Ron Washington may take that chance even though Cruz hasn't played a major league game since Aug. 4.

The past week or so, Washington has gone with Craig Gentry in left, Leonys Martin in center and Alex Rios in right, with David Murphy, Jeff Baker and others rotating through the DH slot. Martin hasn't hit lefties (.231/.286/.300), but an outfield of Gentry/Martin/Rios is the best defensive alignment the Rangers can throw out there. Baker will be in the lineup somewhere, considering he's slugged .667 against left-handers (10 home runs in 105 at-bats). An infielder by trade, Baker has started 15 games at first base. If I'm Washington, I keep the outfield intact, play Baker at first, bench Mitch Moreland and use Cruz as the designated hitter.

(Update: Baker has a hernia and has been ruled out from playing in the field the past few weeks. Plus he hasn't homered since August, so we'll likely see Moreland at first but maybe still see Cruz at DH.)

Perez doesn't have Price's résumé, but he has a 3.05 ERA over his past 11 starts. The peripherals aren't quite as good, with just 51 strikeouts in 73 2/3 innings. However, Perez has a great changeup that has actually made him more effective against right-handed batters. Maddon is pretty limited in his lefty-bashing options at the plate. You may see David DeJesus, who has delivered some big hits down the stretch, but you're unlikely to see Matt Joyce, who hit .167 against lefties.

Washington, of course, has a deep bullpen so he'll have the luxury of a quick hook and the ability to mix and match with righties and lefties. Remember, expanded rosters are in play since this is simply Game No. 163 of the regular season. While Perez has been solid of late, I don't think Washington should play around unless Perez is absolutely dealing; a quick hook should be in order. On the other hand, in sweeping the Angels, Washington did use Tanner Scheppers and Joe Nathan all four games and Neal Cotts in three. Not that Scheppers or Nathan will be unavailable, but it probably means Washington is even more unlikely to be a little creative and maybe stretch those two for four or five outs instead of three.

Given where the Rays were a week ago, I feel like more pressure is actually on them. The Rangers won their last seven just to get here and have to feel good just to have one more game. If the Rays lose, they'd become the first team since the 2002-03 Mariners to miss the playoffs two straight years while winning 90-plus games, so they face the frustration of another excellent season that falls just short of the postseason.

I don't see Price going the distance, so it becomes a battle of the bullpens in the late innings. Advantage, Rangers. I'll say Texas 4, Tampa Bay 3, with Fernando Rodney taking the loss in the bottom of the ninth.

Some quick thoughts on Tuesday's results and a look forward to Wednesday.

Blown opportunity No. 1: The Orioles led the Yankees 4-1 after Chris Davis belted a big two-run homer in the fifth off Ivan Nova, but Alfonso Soriano and Mark Reynolds homered off Miguel Gonzalez in the sixth. Then it got interesting. Kevin Gausman had a one-two-three seventh inning, striking out Lyle Overbay and Brett Gardner, so Buck Showalter brought the rookie back out for the eighth. It's an inning Showalter might manage differently in an alternate universe. Alex Rodriguez doubled to lead off the inning, but Showalter left Gausman in to face Robinson Cano instead of bringing in lefty Brian Matusz. Cano singled to tie the game, and then Soriano homered again. No Matusz, no Tommy Hunter, no Francisco Rodriguez (until the lead had been surrendered). Hunter had pitched the day before but not two days prior. Matusz ended up pitching in the ninth anyway. Showalter put faith in his rookie, but Matusz versus Cano seemed like the obvious matchup there, with Hunter or Rodriguez facing Soriano.

Blown opportunity No. 2: Like the Orioles, the Indians had a chance to pick up a game on the Rays with Tampa Bay losing to Boston. They had 12 hits but grounded into three double plays, and the Royals won 6-3. Carlos Pena did not pinch-hit.

Blown opportunity No. 3: The A's led the Twins 3-2 in the eighth with a chance to pick up a game on the second-place Rangers, who would lose to the Pirates. The A's had lost just four games all season when they led heading into the eighth, but Sean Doolittle gave up a single and Ryan Cook entered to face Josh Willingham, who promptly deposited the baseball on the wrong side of the fence (for Oakland) -- the first homer Cook had allowed to a right-handed batter this season.

Pitching performance of the day: David Price allowed three hits in eight innings for the Rays. Unfortunately, two came in the same inning, as Boston scored twice in the fifth and Clay Buchholz and three relievers combined on a four-hit shutout.

At-bat of the night: Milwaukee's Wily Peralta had a no-hitter going in a 0-0 tie in the sixth inning against St. Louis. With two outs and Matt Carpenter on after a walk, Peralta fired a first-pitch, 95 mph fast one and Matt Holliday crushed it 426 feet to center field. The Cardinals went on to a 4-2 win.

Most important win: The Yankees climbed back to just two games behind the Rays.

Most important loss: Tough one for the Orioles, but at least Tampa Bay also lost. With St. Louis and Pittsburgh both winning, the Reds dropped three games behind the Cards and two behind the Pirates after losing to the Cubs (and Tony Cingrani left in the second inning with a back injury).

Wednesday's best pitching matchup: A.J. Burnett versus Matt Garza (Pirates at Rangers, 2:05 p.m. ET). The Rangers are now 3-8 over their past 11 games, averaging fewer than three runs per game in that stretch. Garza likely needs a big effort as the Pirates go for the sweep. He's allowed four-plus runs in six of his past seven starts, not exactly what the Rangers expected when they traded for him.

Players to watch: Pedro Alvarez, Pirates, and Curtis Granderson, Yankees. Two similar lefty hitters -- home runs when they connect, but connecting can be a problem. Over the past two weeks, Alvarez is hitting .143/.217/.238 and Granderson is hitting .135/.200/.243.

So, they were back, sort of. You might already be tired of this “underdog Yankees” thing, but to their credit after blowing out the Toronto Blue Jays last week, the Bombers had improved their fortunes: They elevated themselves all the way up to tail-end Charlie of the American League’s postseason pack, and for all that, they were nevertheless still in fourth place in the American League East.

That’s sort of the problem for the Bombers in a nutshell, because, after running into a Tampa Bay Rays team with something to lose -- the division -- the Yankees aren’t so hot any more, taking two quick losses despite sending Hiroki Kuroda and CC Sabathia to the mound. And that provides a timely reminder that it isn’t narratives that win ballgames. It’s ballclubs and the organizations that field them.

Considering the Yankees have losing records against all three of the teams ahead of them in the East, their run as big-budget Cinderella has some major stumbling blocks to overcome down the stretch. Namely, the Boston Red Sox, Rays and Baltimore Orioles don't seem likely to curl up and go away. While the Yankees have made it to the postseason four straight seasons, they’re almost sure to fall short of October this time around -- Clay Davenport gave them a 20 percent chance before Satuday’s loss, while CoolStandings has them at less than half of that. Meanwhile, the Rays could make it a third time in the past four despite a payroll around a fourth the size of New York’s.

And for that, the Yankees have only themselves to blame: By setting the bar so high for so long for what it takes to win the AL East -- even at a time with two wild-card teams -- they’ve long since sewn their own stomping grounds with dragon’s teeth, long since grown into teams more than ready to push past them season after season. The same competitive dynamic that demanded that the Yankees spend vast sums to reliably contend in the AL East is the same engine that has bred three teams they’ll have trouble beating down the stretch, because among their 33 games remaining, they have seven more apiece against the Orioles and Red Sox and four against the Rays.

The challenge of contending in the AL East had long since forced upon the Rays a developmental discipline that makes them even more frightening than the Yankees' payroll, capable of winning with machine-like efficiency. Underdogs? As if. The Rays almost relish problems just for the chance to solve them, as documented so well in Jonah Keri’s book, “The Extra 2%,” as much of a must-read as “Moneyball.” Despite a payroll around a quarter the size of the Yankees’, the Rays haven’t won less than than 90 games since David Price’s rookie season, and that’s not about to change; the Yankees haven’t won less than 95 since they signed Sabathia, and that will.

Much like the A’s before them, the Rays enjoy the role of sabermetric darlings because of the way in which the analysis community worships at the altar of market efficiency. But do not for a minute think that makes them underdogs. Money doesn’t buy success, but it’s the one thing the Yankees have had to consistently rely upon. Every asset the Yankees were supposed to rely upon to win, the Rays deliver on in their own way.

Take their lineup cards. The Yankees spent big on known quantities and established stars, but how much good has that done them with Mark Teixeira shelved, or with Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson sporadically available? Their fixes have involved trying to breathe new life into yesterday’s men: Lyle Overbay, Vernon Wells and Alfonso Soriano. The Rays aren’t to be pitied because they can “only” afford to churn through rental first basemen -- Casey Kotchman, Carlos Pena and James Loney the past three seasons, all varying definitions of disposable. With Evan Longoria and Wil Myers as pillars with the power to propel any lineup and with Ben Zobrist, Kelly Johnson and even utility man Sean Rodriguez operating as multipositional flywheels, every lineup card Joe Maddon comes up with is designed to beat you tonight, every night. You don’t need to respect the selections, just the results.

And the rotations? Saturday’s duel between yesterday’s big-ticket hired gun versus (perhaps) tomorrow’s hired gun to-be captures the dynamic in a nutshell. Both Sabathia and Price became regulars in their respective rotations in 2009. The Yankees waited a season saving up to buy their ideal ace at a price that only they could afford; the Rays conjured their own up more economically via the draft. In the broad strokes, neither method is intrinsically better than the other, not unless you want to spend your time celebrating how much a Steinbrenner spent or a Sternberg saved. The end result -- stud lefty on your staff -- had been much the same the past four seasons. Different methods, similar results and whatever it takes to win. But not this season; this season, youth has been served.

Money has long been the weapon the Yankees have on hand. They might have had to spend big money to employ the famous people, but that’s in part because they had to. After seeing so many of the products of their farm system come up short, can you blame them? Yankees fans might well be asking: Phil Hughes, David Phelps, Joba Chamberlain, what have you done for me lately? Spending on free agents is by its nature expensive and, as Sabathia’s rough season reflects, not necessarily a guarantee of anything beyond the first couple years in any deal. Even playing the golden oldies card with Mariano Rivera this one last time meant paying top dollar for the privilege. Meanwhile, the Rays found a way to fix Fernando Rodney and make him a closer good enough to win with, an entertaining example of when too much is enough when it comes to lauding save generators.

So perhaps we should cast the Yankees as the underdog after all, not because of their in-season narrative, but because this was a relatively static ballclub built with an expiration date. Whereas the Rays are the example par excellence for adapting and overcoming any challenge to put themselves into the postseason with whatever combination works, the increasing sclerotic Yankees are due to reap a destiny brought on by their big-budget commitments and constraints. Like all of us, they can rage against the dying of the light. Maybe that engenders some sympathy while they go up against lighter, tighter and younger operations; maybe that makes them underdogs. But this is the destiny they’re due.


Christina Kahrl covers baseball for ESPN.com. You can follow her on Twitter.

OK, the trade deadline has come and gone. As we head into August, which playoff contender has the best 1-2 pitching combo right now? Eric and I discuss -- although after watching Clayton Kershaw on Wednesday night, I ask: Would you want to face the Dodgers in a five-game series where Kershaw may start two times?

From ESPN Stats & Information, following Roberto Hernandez's complete-game win for the Rays on Tuesday: The Rays now have seven complete games this month thrown by four different starters (David Price, Chris Archer, Matt Moore and Hernandez, with Jeremy Hellickson the slacker). The last MLB team with 7+ complete games in a month was the Phillies in May 1999 (7). The last team with complete games from four different starters in one month was the Marlins in August 2005 (Josh Beckett, A.J. Burnett, Jason Vargas, Dontrelle Willis).

It's an amazing run for that rotation. Collectively, the rotation is 18-3 with a 2.10 ERA in July and has averaged just over seven innings per start. Going deep into games has a ripple effect, of course -- the bullpen doesn't get overused and Joe Maddon always has his best relievers available.

What's impressive is that Maddon hasn't had to stretch out the starters in any of these games. All three of Price's complete games required fewer than 100 pitches, as did one of Archer's complete games. The high pitch total was Archer's 112 in his five-hit shutout over the Astros on July 14.

This run reminds me of the run the Giants rotation went on in September of 2010, when the starters posted a 2.36 ERA and rode that momentum all the way through the postseason to a World Series victory.

Jason Collette wrote on the Rays rotation a couple days ago here: "Over the first three months of the season, the starting pitchers held opposing batters to a .242/.312/.392 slash line while striking out 21.7 percent of them and walking 8.5 percent. In July, that slash line has fallen to .197/.240/.302 and while the strikeout rate is down a bit to 19.5 percent, the walk rate has plunged four percentage points to 4.5 percent."

Right now, it's a championship-caliber rotation. But championships aren't won in July.

1. OK, the call was wrong. Daniel Nava was safe, sliding under Jose Molina's tag. Jerry Meals missed the call. Rays 2, Red Sox 1.

2. It probably wasn't one of the 100 worst calls of the season -- certainly not in the league of Angel Hernandez not overturning the blown home run call in the A's-Indians game back in May.

3. Or a dozen other Angel Hernandez calls.

4. How did Nava not score from second base on Stephen Drew's double to right on the play before Monday night’s Fenway edition of "The Play"? The Red Sox can blame Meals, but there's blame to go around here, even if Nava thought the ball was going to be caught.


5. I suspect since this happened to the Red Sox -- as opposed to, say, the A's -- the uproar will be a thousand times louder. So at least we'll be that much closer to instant replay, at least on plays at home plate.

6. It's sort of like the infamous "Snowplow Game" in the NFL, when the Patriots beat the Dolphins 3-0 in 1982. You don't mess with Don Shula. After that game, the NFL outlawed the use of snowplows during games. You don't mess with the Red Sox or Yankees, either.

7. Did Joe Maddon actually intentionally walk the potential winning run in the bottom of the ninth when he had Fernando Rodney give a free pass to David Ortiz?

8. Yes, he did.

9. If Dusty Baker did that, he'd be called many awful names. When Maddon does it, he's a genius.

10. By the way, remember when Rodney was really bad, blowing five saves through May 25? He's 2-0 and 16-for-16 in saves since then, with a 2.31 ERA and 32/9 strikeout/walk ratio.

11. The real hero of the game, of course, was David Price, brilliant once again, allowing two hits and one run in 7 1/3 innings.

12. If not for a 39-minute rain delay, Price may have tossed his fourth complete game in five starts (in the three he did throw, he was under 100 pitches each game). He did come back after the delay to face one batter before leaving after 90 pitches.

13. Price didn't walk a batter, either. Since returning from the DL on July 2, he has 35 strikeouts and just one walk. I'd feel pretty good about Price starting Game 1 of a playoff series right now.

14. Tampa Bay is 20-4 in July. A patented Tampa Bay run.

15. The Rays and Red Sox have just three games left against each other -- Sept. 10-12 in St. Petersburg.

16. Evan Longoria is batting second. Rookie Wil Myers is batting cleanup. Maddon is a genius.

17. Jerry Meals ... that's right, he's the ump who blew the call at home plate in that 19-inning Pirates-Braves game in 2011. The Pirates lost and a huge collapse followed.

18. Jerry Meals ... that's right, he's also the guy who called Mark Teixeira out at first base on a game-ending double play last September, giving the win to the Orioles.

19. Can we get more instant replay before the playoffs begin? Especially if the Red Sox make it.

20. This is going be a very fun race.

Quick thoughts on Tuesday's major league baseball action ...

Which team will win the NL West?

•  
  16%
  Diamondbacks
•  
  5%
  Rockies
•  
  3%
  Padres
•  
  65%
  Dodgers
•  
  11%
  Giants

(Total votes: 1,286)

• With the rest of the NL West stumbling along, the Dodgers are suddenly just 2.5 games behind the Diamondbacks after Clayton Kershaw pitched a four-hit shutout over the Rockies. On June 2, the Dodgers were 8.5 games out of first. Yasiel Puig debuted the next day -- although he did not immediately ignite the club. On June 22, the Dodgers were still 9.5 games out, but they've picked up seven games in the standings in their past nine games. Yes, winning nine of 10 has helped, but so has the putrid play of every other team in the division. This is starting to resemble the 2008 NL West, when the Dodgers won the division with 84 wins. (To be fair, this year's NL West is more about mediocrity from top to bottom; the 2008 NL West was horrible, as the five teams won 84, 82, 74, 72 and 63 games.)
• Oh, yeah, Puig homered to deep right-center on a 1-2 pitch and made a great catch.
• Steve Mancuso of Redleg Nation with an account of Homer Bailey's no-hitter: "It's been a great twelve months for David Dewitt Bailey, Jr. He traveled to Africa where he killed a lion with 'just a little stick and string,' threw the two no-hitters and rose to the occasion in October with possibly his best performance in the most important game of his life. You've got to wonder what the next calendar year will bring for Homer Bailey. Whatever comes along, Homer's homers and I will be right there cheering and cheering for him."
• In case you didn't see, here's the head's-up play by Joey Votto in the seventh inning that helped preserve the no-hitter.
• Justin Grimm may be about to lose his spot in the Texas rotation after the Mariners pounded him in a 9-2 victory. He has a 9.31 ERA over his past six starts. Kendrys Morales hit two home runs for Seattle, but the amazing Raul Ibanez hit his 20th -- the most by the All-Star break of any player in his age 40+ season (Ibanez is 41). Since May 10, Ibanez is hitting .271/.319/.624 with 18 home runs in 43 games.
• Matt Carpenter and Yadier Molina are batting 1-2 for the Cardinals. I wonder if that's the slowest 1-2 combo ever? Still, I love Mike Matheny thinking outside the box and simply understanding it's more important to have guys who can get on base hitting at the top of the order than guys who can run fast.
• Big three-run, two-out homer by Derek Norris in the eighth inning off Cubs reliever James Russell to give the A's an 8-7 victory. He also threw out Luis Valbuena stealing in the ninth (Starlin Castro struck out on a hit-and-run play). Sharing time with John Jaso, Norris is hitting just .203, and while he's never going to hit for much of an average, his power has been a disappointment, with four homers in 172 at-bats. He could provide a nice lift to the bottom of the order with a little more production.
• Watched the first couple innings of David Price's return before flipping to the final few innings of Bailey's gem, but he looked sharp, commanding his fastball, mixing his pitches -- including some first-pitch changeups that are just unfair. Granted, it was the Astros, but in seven innings he threw just 70 pitches and still struck out 10 batters in an 8-0 victory. That looks like the Price who won the Cy Young Award last year. "That's probably the best I've felt on a baseball field maybe in my entire life, honestly," Price said. "I felt like that's the most control I've had of a baseball game in a very long time. I think that was better than I threw the ball really at any point last year." Watch out, AL. I feel a second-half surge coming from the Rays.

When the Tampa Bay Rays changed their name in 2008 and transformed overnight from the hapless laughingstock of the American League to 97-win division champions, their rotation featured five pitchers 26 or younger: At 26, James Shields was the old man of the group, which included Scott Kazmir, Matt Garza, Edwin Jackson and Andy Sonnanstine.

The genius of the Rays since then has been their ability to consistently replenish the staff with young starters and yet remain one of the best in the league. With the departure of Shields this offseason, that original five has been completely made over; a transition began when David Price joined the rotation during the 2009 season. The unofficial title of staff ace has shifted from Kazmir to Shields to Price, and it appears another shift is taking place in 2013.

Matt Moore, your presence as a Cy Young contender is duly noted. With reigning Cy Young champ Price struggling -- earning just one win in nine starts while posting a 5.24 ERA, and then landing on the DL a few days ago with triceps strain -- it is Moore who has helped keep the Rays afloat more than any one pitcher. He improved to 8-0 on Sunday, limiting the Baltimore Orioles to five hits and one run over seven innings in a 3-1 victory, as the Rays completed an impressive sweep in Baltimore.

Moore lowered his ERA to 2.29, the Rays improved to 23-20 with their ninth win in 11 games, and this is looking like a team starting to click on all cylinders -- even as Price sits on the sidelines the next two weeks.

At 23, Moore became the youngest American League pitcher to start 8-0 since another hard-throwing lefty named Babe Ruth did it in 1917. The scary thing about his start is that the ability to perform even better is there, as he has been inconsistent with his command and pitched seven innings just twice. Manager Joe Maddon suggested as much, telling MLB.com:

I think from where he's coming from, he knows he can be better. He doesn't like those five-inning outings. He doesn't like that at all. So I'm sure he's deflecting based on that. As you see him get deeper into the games and more consistent with the wins, I think you might see him step out a little bit.

But I like the idea that there's humility involved. I like the idea that he knows that he can get better. I love that. The accountability is tremendous. That doesn't surprise me. ... Historically speaking, it has been wonderful, but there is 'more' in Moore. And he knows that.

Moore has held batters to a .175 average but he has also walked 26 in 55 innings, so there's room for improvement. In some ways, that's what made Sunday's outing impressive: He struck out only three but walked one, avoiding a big inning in the process. Another area for improvement is that while Moore's fastball/curveball/changeup arsenal has destroyed right-handers -- they're hitting .064 off the curveball with 20 strikeouts in 47 plate appearances -- he hasn't yet learned to dominate lefties, who have hit a respectable .236/.335/.361 off him the past two seasons he sticks mostly to the fastball against them.

Of course, a major reason he's 8-0 is excellent run support, but this isn't a typical Tampa Bay offense that struggles to put up runs. After outscoring only the Royals, Indians and Mariners last season, the Rays have scored just 12 runs fewer than the best-in-the-AL Tigers. The Rays' OPS has increased from .711 to .760 and not just because Dodgers castoff James Loney is off to a .356 start. Matt Joyce has eight home runs and Luke Scott has driven in 12 runs in 17 games since coming off the DL; both homered in Sunday's win. Kelly Johnson is hitting .274 with seven home runs. With Loney's hot start, that gives the Rays four threats from the left side. Logic says to throw left-handed pitching at the Rays, but the division isn't exactly ripe with left-handed starters once you get past CC Sabathia and Jon Lester, especially with Mark Buehrle struggling and Andy Pettitte and Wei-Yin Chen currently on the DL.

Throw a lefty, however, and there's that guy named Evan Longoria waiting for you in the middle.

But here's why I'll stick with my preseason choice of the Rays to win the AL East: pitching, pitching, pitching. At least starting pitching. (The bullpen is the team's major issue right now.) At Triple-A Durham, the rotation included Alex Torres (2.39 ERA, 49 SO, 14 BB in 37.2 IP), Jake Odorizzi (3.83 ERA, 47 SO, 15 BB in 44.2 IP), Chris Archer (4.38 ERA, 40 SO, 19 BB in 39 IP) and Alex Colome (2.86 ERA, 59 SO, 20 BB in 50 IP). The Angels would kill to have those four in their rotation right now.

Torres was called up to replace Price, but Odorizzi will get the start on Monday afternoon against Toronto. All Torres did on Saturday was pitch four hitless innings in relief of Roberto Hernandez to earn his second major league win.

It's all those arms that explain why Price will likely make his billions with another team eventually.

Not that Maddon doesn't want his ace back as quickly as possible … or co-ace, that is.

David Price's rough season got worse last night when he left his start with a triceps injury and might miss a start or two. Let's hope it's nothing more severe than that.

Eric Karabell speculates on who the Rays will start in his place. As Eric points out, Jake Odorizzi started Wednesday for Tampa's Triple-A club, so he's on Price's schedule, although he pitched poorly on Wednesday. I love Chris Archer and the way he pitched down the stretch in the majors last year, but he hasn't pitched as well in Triple-A, although his strikeout rate is fine. Maybe he's one of those guys who does better on the big stage.

Personally, I like Archer's upside a lot more, but Odorizzi's Durham numbers are pretty solid (3.83 ERA, 47 SO, 15 BB in 44 innings). Alex Torres (2.39 ERA, 49/14 SO/BB ratio) has also been outstanding, and Alex Colome (2.84 ERA, 51 K's in 44.1 inings) might finally be reaching his potential. Basically, Tampa Bay's Triple-A rotation is probably better than several major league rotations.

No matter who gets the call, that's some nice depth. Now the Rays just need to get the big league staff rolling as they're 11th in the AL in runs allowed, an unusual position for a Tampa Bay club.

Back in March, we would have predicted this showdown of reigning Cy Young winners R.A. Dickey and David Price -- just the third time that that has happened -- would be a monumental duel between two of the game's best pitchers, maybe with first place in the AL East on the line.

Instead, the Toronto Blue Jays entered with a lousy record, a lousy run differential and a starting rotation in shambles, both in performance and injury status. The Tampa Bay Rays were a little better but still three games under .500, and their biggest problem hadn't been scoring runs, but preventing them. This isn't the Blue Jays team we expected to see, nor the Rays team we've grown accustomed to seeing.

The Rays ended up winning 5-4 in 10 innings, but let's review how things went for our Cy Young winners.

Dickey entered with a 2-5 record and 5.36 ERA, and his problems compared to 2012 were pretty easy to spot: more walks (1.5 more per nine innings), fewer strikeouts (down nearly two per nine innings), more home runs (eight, already one-third his total of 24 from 2012) and a low strand rate (80 percent in 2012, 65 percent in 2013).

Numbers are numbers, but they don't tell us why the numbers were bad. In this case, however, a deeper dig reveals a primary cause: Dickey hasn't been throwing -- or has been unable to throw because of back and neck inflammation -- his "hard" knuckleball as often. According to research from Mark Simon and Katie Sharp of ESPN Stats & Information, Dickey threw his knuckleball at 80 mph or higher 491 times last season, or 20 percent of his total pitches. Entering Thursday's game, he had thrown only 12 knuckleballs at 80-plus mph, or 2 percent of his total pitches. The kicker is that results against Dickey's sub-80 knuckleballs were nearly identical: .241/.293/.382 in 2012 versus .226/.294/.397 in 2013. But last season, his hard knuckleball, with that late break, was his dominant putaway pitch. He hasn't had that this season.

Thursday's outing saw more of the same. Of the 110 pitches Dickey threw, 104 were knuckleballs, but only two registered 80-plus. He walked five in his six innings, although he escaped with minimal damage, three runs allowed. It's too early to make a judgment on how Dickey's season will go; some of this could be the back, some of it could be adjusting to new catchers, some could just be not having the feel right now for the knuckler.

In his last game at home, he was booed after giving up three home runs to the Mariners. "We're somewhat of a dysfunctional team right now," Dickey said after that loss. "We're kind of searching for a way to score runs, a way to pitch well. We're doing a lot of things poorly, myself included."

Thursday's game didn't do anything to alleviate those issues. The Blue Jays ended up losing in the 10th inning on a bases-loaded two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch to Luke Scott by Brad Lincoln. He had entered with two on and walked pinch hitter Ryan Roberts to load the bases. But that had been preceded by John Gibbons having lefty Aaron Loup intentionally walk left-handed James Loney with a runner on second. I understand why the move was made; Loney is hitting .381, second in the AL, and once Roberts was announced -- he's hit .152 against right-handers -- Gibbons made the switch. Of course, Loney hasn't hit lefties in years (ignore this season's small sample size), and if Gibbons was so concerned about matchups, why not bring in Lincoln to face Evan Longoria, who had doubled with two outs to start the rally?

Anyway, another bad loss for the Jays, with plenty of blame to go around. They're 10 games under .500 at 13-23. In the wild-card era, 95 teams have started 13-20 or worse and only three (2001 A's, 2005 Astros and 2009 Rockies) recovered to make the playoffs.

The returns on Price were much more positive. He pitched eight innings, allowed four runs (two earned) with eight strikeouts and a walk. While much has been made about his drop in fastball velocity (an average of 95.4 mph in 2012 versus 93.2 mph entering Thursday's game), Mark and Katie discovered that Price's curveball perhaps has been the bigger problem. Basically, he has been throwing it for strikes too often and it has been getting hit instead serving as a punch-out pitch. Last season, batters hit .153 against it; before Thursday, they were hitting .323 against it.

He threw his curve 13 times against the Jays, but only one ended up as a decisive pitch in an at-bat (he got the out). The good news is he kept his pitches down. He'd thrown 53 percent of his pitches in the upper half of the strike zone entering the game, up 12 percent from 2012. On this night, that figure was just 26 percent. As a result, he didn't allow a home run for only the second start this season.

While one win in his first eight starts isn't how Price and Rays fans envisioned things, there are clear reasons to be optimistic about him. It hardly would be a surprise to see him roll off seven or eight great starts in a row and get that ERA close to 3.00 by the All-Star break. The Rays still need to get the bullpen going and stop surrendering so many home runs (tied for fourth most in the majors), but if you ask me which team -- Toronto or Tampa Bay -- is more likely to climb into the pennant race, I'd go with the Rays.

David Price, reigning AL Cy Young winner, hasn't pitched liked David Price: He's 1-3 in seven starts with a 6.25 ERA and batters are hitting .302 off him, including eight home runs -- half of the 16 he allowed last year.

Jason Collette of The Process Report has a good take on one issue of Price's: His velocity is down. Check out Jason's work and some cool graphs showing how in his weekend start against the Rockies, Price reverted to a lot more secondary pitches later in the outing.

I don't think it's "sky is falling" time just yet. As we've learned with Felix Hernandez, good pitchers learn to adjust and Price's velocity is still plenty excellent. And it may start improving as the season moves forward anyway. Still, that doesn't mean there aren't issues of concern here; the Rays aren't going to make the playoffs with Price winning one of every seven starts.

The Washington Nationals, fresh off a 98-win season and expecting a similar result in 2013, enter their weekend series with fewer wins than their surprising opponents, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Which team is better? That's an easy one. It's the team with Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman. Of course, those three guys are all in the news for various reasons and, as we've seen in the past, to various degrees. Will Strasburg and his secretive forearm "problem" pitch? Will Harper avoid turning his bruised lat into a bigger issue? And Zimmerman's hamstring is healed, and he's slated to come off the DL Friday, but how long before his balky shoulder forces him out of action again? Here is what else to watch this weekend.

Rivalry rekindled: We don't exactly throw the records out when the Nats and Bucs meet, but things tend to get interesting when the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants get together, for better and occasionally, worse. The team's aces, however, are in far different places these days. Lefty Clayton Kershaw is dominating, again. He's scheduled to face the still-effective Barry Zito Friday. On Sunday night on ESPN the Giants will send Matt Cain to the mound. Cain has already permitted nine home runs, matching his season total from 2011. Last year he allowed 21. Dodgers Adrian Gonzalez (4 homers off Cain) and Andre Ethier (.450 batting average) are licking their chops.

Red Alert: Hyun-Jin Ryu and Shelby Miller enter the weekend leading rookie pitchers in strikeouts, but then it's electric Cincinnati Reds lefty Tony Cingrani, boasting 28 whiffs in a mere three starts. Cingrani is scheduled to flummox Chicago Cubs hitters at Wrigley Field on Saturday, and one has to think when ace right-hander Johnny Cueto comes off the DL in a week or two that the rookie has done enough to secure his starting role. Or has he? Manager Dusty Baker does love his veterans. Regardless, enjoy Cingrani while he's dominating.

David vs. Goliath: Sunday's matchup in Houston sure doesn’t seem like a fair fight between hurlers with no-hitters to their credit. The Detroit Tigers send Justin Verlander to the mound. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. He's really good, wins awards, gets the commercials and the ladies. The Houston Astros send Philip Humber out there. He threw a perfect game in Seattle barely a calendar year ago, but things have not gone so well since then. Humber boasts a 7.44 ERA since, and this season he's 0-6 with a 7.58 ERA. You know you're curious how this one ends up, admit it.

Price's punishment: David Price and umpire Tom Hallion didn’t quite get along this past weekend, resulting in tweets and fines and probably much ado about nothing. What's worse for pending future gadzillionaire Price, the $1,000 fine levied on him by Major League Baseball, or having to pitch Saturday at Coors Field? Lotsa runs get scored in that place. Price pitched there once, allowing five runs in seven innings and losing the game in 2009. Could we make the case the paltry fine is offset by the potential damage to Price's ERA and his next contract? OK, perhaps not. But watch two pretty good teams go at it. The Rays are sputtering in fourth place, the Rockies start the weekend in first place, hoping shortstop Troy Tulowitzki will play and avoid injury. Cross your fingers.

Worst to first: Alas, the lone matchup of first-place teams this weekend pits the surprising Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers. The Cinco de Mayo game on Sunday features Jon Lester and Yu Darvish, which should be interesting. Lester seems rejuvenated, though his outing earlier this week in Toronto was a rough one. Darvish, off to a blistering start and leading the majors in strikeouts, faced the Red Sox once in his rookie season, but it was at Fenway Park. This one is in Texas. Expect another terrific outing for the eventual AL Cy Young winner.

Enjoy your weekend!

1. I am not a liar 2. I would not make that stuff up 3. My own dad doesn't speak to me that way 4. Again I am not a liar #accountability

— David Price (@DAVIDprice14) April 28, 2013

Think our entire dugout would ERUPT cause an ump told me to throw the ball over the plate? No, I'm sorry that wouldnt happen #accountability

— David Price (@DAVIDprice14) April 28, 2013

Here's the most important takeaway from the David Price-Tom Hallion incident on Sunday: Hallion missed the call.

Price thought he had struck out Dewayne Wise to end the seventh inning on a pitch on the outside of the corner. He even took a step to the dugout, but Hallion didn't ring up Wise. Price got Wise on the next pitch but after the game said Hallion swore at him.

"I'm walking off the mound, I'm just mad at myself," Price said. "I didn't say a single word or look at him. He [Hallion] yells at me." Hallion told a pool reporter, "I'll come right out bluntly and say he's a liar. I said, 'Just throw the ball.' That's all I said to him."

Something is fishy, but let's start here. Don't call the player a liar if you got the call wrong. Below is the location of the five pitches to Wise; the fourth one is the one in question.

According to ESPN Stats & Info data, Hallion didn't have a good game on Sunday, with a correct call percentage of 83 percent: Out of 199 pitches that were taken in the game, he missed on 33 ball-strike calls. (Price benefited from some bad calls as well.) The league average is 87 percent, so while 83 percent doesn't appear drastically worse than average, it is -- that would be in the bottom-10th percentile of the league. Out of 200 pitches, we're talking a difference of eight pitches, which is certainly enough to potentially help swing the game's outcome.

Is Hallion a bad umpire? We can't go off one game, so let's check the season numbers: He ranks 64th of the 74 umpires who have umped at least one game behind home plate, with a correct percentage of 85.3. But that's only seven games. What about last year? Hallion ranked 66th of 82 umpires at 86.3 percent. In 2011, Hallion ranked 65th of 83 umpires. I think the trend is pretty clear: Hallion isn't very good at calling balls and strikes. He's not the worst, but he's a long way from the best.

He's a crew chief who began his major league career in 1985; he should know better than to offer a comment when asked about Price, let alone call the player a liar. Even if there was a misunderstanding, he should keep his mouth shut; umpires should always remain in the shadow.

In the end, the missed call to Wise didn't matter. Wise grounded out, and the Rays broke open a 3-3 game with three runs in the eighth and two in the ninth to give Price his first win of the season. But this little incident is a reminder: It's never good news when you're reading about umpires. We're stuck with them -- and the job is tough -- but we shouldn't be stuck with umpires who publicly call out pitchers they have to call balls and strikes on.

REST OF THE WEEKEND
Three stars
1. Anibal Sanchez, Tigers. Sanchez did something Justin Verlander hasn't done, something Jack Morris or Jim Bunning or Hal Newhouser never did in a Tigers uniform: He struck out 17 batters in beating the Braves 1-0 on Friday night, the first win of an impressive sweep for the Tigers as they outscored the Braves 25-7. Sanchez set the Tigers' franchise record for strikeouts -- Mickey Lolich twice fanned 16 in 1969 -- and did it in eight innings. Dan Uggla and Freddie Freeman each fanned four times, as Atlanta K'd 18 times altogether. Sanchez also became just the fifth AL pitcher since 1920 to fan at least 17 with one walk or fewer, joining Roger Clemens (twice), Johan Santana, Vida Blue and Luis Tiant.

2. Jordan Zimmermann, Nationals. Zimmermann tossed a one-hit shutout over the Reds on Friday -- a night after Gio Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano had one-hit the Reds. According to ESPN Stats & Info, Zimmermann didn't allow a single hard-hit ball and was especially dominant with his slider, throwing it a season-high 20 times as the Reds went 0-for-8 against it. Amazingly, the Reds became the fourth team since 1920 to have one or fewer in back-to-back games, joining the 2008 Astros, 1996 Tigers and 1965 Mets.

3. Russell Martin, Pirates. The Pirates took two out of three from the Cardinals, with Martin hitting a big home run in Saturday's 5-3 win and two more in Sunday's 9-0 shutout. The Pirates are 8-2 in their past 10 games, winning series against the Cardinals, Phillies and Braves.

Clutch performance of the weekend
Yoenis Cespedes, A's. With Cespedes on the DL, the A's had lost eight of nine. They were staring at an 8-6 deficit when Cespedes stepped in with one out and one on in the bottom of the ninth in his first game since April 12. With Orioles closer Jim Johnson having pitched in four of the team's previous five games, Buck Showalter had lefty Brian Matusz face Cespedes, but Cespedes ripped a low slider out to left-center and tied the game with a long home run, and the A's won in the 10th on a throwing error by third baseman Manny Machado (who tried to throw out a runner at third on a sac bunt).

Best game
Padres 8, Giants 7 (Saturday). The Giants jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two innings, but the Padres rallied for six off Barry Zito in the bottom of the fourth (including a great move by Bud Black to hit for pitcher Eric Stults with Jesus Guzman, who delivered a two-run single). The Giants retook the lead, but the Padres tied it up in the bottom of the seventh. Both bullpens were stellar into the 12th, with the Padres finally beating Giants closer Sergio Romo when Marco Scutaro booted what could have been an inning-ending double-play ball. OK, the Zimmermann game was pretty good as well -- he outdueled Homer Bailey and threw just 91 pitches while Bailey threw just 89 in seven innings. Good luck seeing another game this year that features just 194 pitches.

Hitter on the rise: Brandon Crawford, Giants
Is the light-hitting defensive whiz really hitting .291/.361/.547? He hit his fifth home run on Saturday -- one more than he hit last season.

Pitcher on the rise: Lance Lynn, Cardinals
After a sluggish start, some fans wondered whether Lynn -- who dropped 40 pounds in the offseason -- had dropped too much weight. But he's allowed just three hits and one run over 14 innings in his past two starts.

Team on the rise: Yankees
Wait a minute, they've made the playoffs every year except one since 1995! What are they rising from? What about preseason predictions of their demise? The Yankees swept the Blue Jays over the weekend, the bats are hitting home runs, the rotation is solid, David Phelps and David Robertson have pitched some key innings in the pen and Mariano Rivera looks like he only has another seven or eight years in him. The Yankees have some overachievers early on (Vernon Wells, the now-injured Francisco Cervelli), but as long as CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda and Andy Pettitte continue to pitch well, they should hang in the AL East hunt.

Team on the fall: Angels
The Giants have lost five straight, including a sweep to the Padres, but the Angels lost three of four in Seattle and are staring at the same lousy April they had a year ago. Will Mike Scioscia still be managing the club this time next week?

Thoughts on Tuesday's fun night of baseball ...

• Matt Harvey has deservedly been stealing all the headlines, but Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright is quietly off to an amazing start. He pitched 8.1 scoreless innings in a 2-0 win against the Nationals, improving to 4-1 with a 1.93 ERA. He also walked his first batter of the season -- he has 37 strikeouts -- and that was a careful pitch-around to the red-hot Bryce Harper with runners at first and third and two outs in the sixth. His 2-2, 94-mph four-seam fastball to then strike out Adam LaRoche was a thing of beauty. Good note from Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com on how catchers Yadier Molina and Tony Cruz arrived early to look at video from last season, when the Nationals twice scuffed up Wainwright, including knocking him out in the third inning in the postseason: "I don't want to say I don't do this every day, because I do," Molina said of the pregame video work. "But I was so focused to beat those guys, because I know last year [Wainwright] had a hard time facing the Nationals, so I wanted to do something different." Wainwright threw just one changeup and used his four-seamer more -- he had five strikeouts on fastballs after having just six in his first four starts.
• Big 6-4 win for the Diamondbacks against the Giants after Brandon Belt tagged J.J. Putz for a pinch-hit two-run homer in the ninth to tie it. Didi Gregorius scored the go-ahead on a wild pitch, but the game's crucial play happened in the bottom of the 10th when Cody Ross threw out Pablo Sandoval at home plate -- by about 25 feet. Check out the jump -- or lack of it -- that Sandoval got on the hit, which wasn't even hit that hard. The Diamondbacks have to be a little concerned about closer Putz, who is now just 3-for-6 in save chances, although Arizona has managed to win all three of those games. And Matt Cain remains winless for the Giants in five starts.
• Speaking of winless starters: The Rays are now 0-5 when David Price starts after losing 4-3 to the Yankees. Price pitched into the ninth inning with the game tied, but left after Robinson Cano's leadoff single. Fernando Rodney couldn't contain the damage as Ichiro Suzuki eventually hit a soft liner to center with two outs to score two. Price pitched OK, but remember that the Yankees have been among the worst teams in the majors against left-handers.
• With a 4-3 win against the Blue Jays, ESPN Stats and Info reports that the Orioles have now won 100 consecutive games when leading after seven innings, the third-longest stretch in major league history (the 1906-07 Cubs won 121 and the 1998-99 Yankees won 116). The Orioles scored all four runs off R.A. Dickey in the second inning, with walks to Ryan Flaherty and Nate McLouth keeping the rally going.
• Oh, those Marlins. Here's a story from the Miami Herald on how Marlins players are upset that veteran Ricky Nolasco was made to start the night game of the doubleheader while rookie Jose Fernandez started the day game. Sources told Clark Spencer that the decision was made by management, not manager Mike Redmond and pitching coach Chuck Hernandez. As for Fernandez, watched some of his outing; he has to stop throwing so many first-pitch fastballs. The Twins started jumping on the pitch, including three straight hits in the fourth, including Oswaldo Arcia's three-run homer, his first in the majors.
• Eric Karabell wants me to point out that the Phillies couldn't score off Jeff Locke. ... Mariners fans flooded Twitter with more disgust after yet another Raul Ibanez misadventure in left field. ... Jose Valverde is back with the Tigers and he'll be the closer. ... Watched Clayton Kershaw, and he scuffled through five innings, including a walk to Mets reliever Robert Carson that led to a two-out rally. The Dodgers won anyway as Mark Ellis hit two home runs. ... Howie Kendrick had the big walk-off homer in the 11th for the Angels. Curiously, Josh Hamilton was back in the cleanup spot. ... The Brewers won their ninth in a row even though Yovani Gallardo allowed eight hits and five walks in 6.2.