Let’s jump right to it…

Saturday – The Philadelphia Phillies scored 4 runs in the top of the 9th inning off of Chicago Cubs closer Carlos Marmol to go on to win, 4-1.  Fausto Carmona and the Cleveland Indians edged the Detroit Tigers, 4-3 in the first game of a day-night double header.  The Indians won the second game, 2-1, in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the 11th inning on Austin Kearns‘ rbi single.  A.J. Burnett lasted only 2 innings as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the New York Yankees, 10-5 on the strength of Reid Brignac‘s 2 hr, 5 rbi day.  Burnett also injured his hand in a fit of rage after being yanked.  He’s considered to be able to make his next start, though.  Adam Wainwright moved to an impressive 14-5 on the year as he blanked the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 2-0 win.  Wainwright’s season ERA is now an incredible 2.02.  The Pittsburgh Pirates doubled up the Houston Astros, 12-6.  Hunter Pence homered in the affair.  Jose Bautista continues to rake as he hit his 25th hr of the year, propelling the Toronto Blue Jays passed the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2.  Tim Hudson took the loss in the Milwaukee Brewers’ 6-3 win over the Atlanta Braves.  Corey Hart went 2-4 with 3 rbi.  Prince Fielder, Matt Diaz and Eric Hinske all homered.  Carl Pavano moved to 11-6 on the year as the Minnesota Twins edged the Chicago White Sox, 3-2.  Edinson Volquez was dominant in his first game back from off-season surgery and his 50-game suspension tossing 6 innings of 1-run ball in the Cincinnati Reds’ 8-1 win over Jorge De La Rosa and the Colorado Rockies.  Josh Johnson scattered 7 hits over 6 innings of shut out ball for his 10th win of the year as the Florida Marlins defeated the Washington Nationals. 2-0.  Johnson’s ERA is now at a microscopic 1.62 on the year.  The Boston Red Sox clipped the Texas Rangers, 3-2 in extra innings.  Joakim Soria could not keep the game tied as the Oakland Athletics scored 1 in the top of the 9th to defeat the Kansas City Royals, 6-5.  The San Diego Padres defeated the lowly Arizona Diamondbacks, 8-5.  Chris Young, Adrian Gonzalez, Jerry Hairston Jr., Yorvit Torrealba and Tony Gwynn Jr. all homered (Gwynn’s was an inside the park).  The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim edged the Seattle Mariners, 7-6.  Justin Smoak hit his 10th homerun of the year.  The New York Mets fell short to Matt Cain and the San Francisco Giants, 8-4.  Ike Davis hit 2 hrs and Buster Posey homered as well, going 2-4 and batting .356 on the year.

Sunday – Jeanmar Gomez won his MLB debut for the Cleveland Indians as they bested the Detroit Tigers 7-2 to complete an unlikely 4-game sweep.  The New York Yankees increased their lead in the AL East with a 9-5 win over David Price and the Tampa Bay Rays.  However, Andy Pettitte injured his groin in the 3rd inning and is likely to miss a month of action.  Travis Wood took another hard-luck loss as the Colorado Rockies topped his Cincinnati Reds 1-0.  Gaby Sanchez‘ rbi double in the 5th inning was all the scoring as the Florida Marlins defeated the Washington Nationals, 1-0.  Jon Lester took the loss to C.J. Wilson as the Texas Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox 4-2.  Nelson Cruz continues to play hot when healthy, going 2-4 with 1 rbi.  Roy Oswalt left after only 4 innings after bruising his ankle from being struck by a hard Pedro Alvarez grounder.  Andrew McCutchen also left the game after suffering a neck/shoulder injury diving for a ball.  The Pittsburgh Pirates went on to defeat the Houston Astros, 8-0.  The Atlanta Braves beat the Milwaukee Brewer, 11-6.  Yunel Escobar hit his first homerun as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays – a grand slam (and his first homerun of the year) in a 3-4, 5 rbi effort as the Blue Jays topped the Baltimore Orioles 10-1.  Brian Matusz lasted just 1 2/3 innings and is 3-10 on the year.  The Oakland Athletics defeated the Kansas City Royals 9-6 despite the Royals scoring 5 runs in the bottom of the ninth.  Gordon Beckham stayed hot going 4-4 with 2 rbi in a losing effort as the Minnesota Twins scored 4 in the bottom of the ninth off of Bobby Jenks and Sergio Santos to edge the Chicago White Sox, 7-6.  Jonathan Broxton blew a save and took the loss, spoiling a nice pitching performance from Vincente Padilla as the St. Louis Cardinals rallied in the 8th and 9th to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4.  Allen Craig notched 3 rbis and the game-tying hit in the effort, on his birthday.  Jose Lopez singled in the winning run in the top of the 10th inning as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 2-1.  Jason Vargas and Ervin Santana did not factor into the decision.  The New York Mets salvaged one game against the San Francisco Giants despite another blown save by Francisco Rodriguez, wasting yet another stellar performance by Johan Santana.  K-Rod went on to get the win as Ike Davis doubled in the winning run in the top of the 10th off of Brian Wilson and the Mets won 4-3.  The San Diego Padres defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4 behind Chris Denorfia’s 2 hr, 2rbi, 4-4 effort.  The Chicago Cubs put up 5 earned runs on Roy Halladay as the Cubs bested the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-6.  Halladay is a somewhat surprising 10-8 on the year but his ERA is still a very impressive 2.40.

Monday - The St. Louis Cardinals pounded out 4 hrs in 6 at-bats in Monday’s 8-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.  Albert Pujols, Albert Craig, Skip Schumaker and Randy Winn all homered.  As trade talk continues to swirl, Prince Fielder continues to mash hitting his 23rd hr of the year in the Milwaukee Brewers’ 3-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Andrew McCutchen did not play due to his injured shoulder and is still considered day-to-day.  The Tampa Bay Rays beat up on the Baltimore Orioles 8-1.  Miguel Cabrera continues to garner MVP talk with his 2 hr effort in a wild extra inning affair that saw Nelson Cruz and the Texas Rangers beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-6 in 14 innings.  Cabrera’s line for the year: .340/24/82.  The Florida Marlins won in walk-off fashion off of Colorado Rockies’ closer Huston Street, 9-8.  Johnny Cueto moved to 9-2 on the year as the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Washington Nationals 7-2.  Aramis Ramirez stays hot in July but the Cubs do not, as they fall to the Houston Astros 11-5.  Yunel Escobar notched his second homerun as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays after hitting zero for the Atlanta Braves all year but Kevin Gregg blew the save in the bottom of the 10th as the Kansas City Royals nipped the Blue Jays, 5-4.  The Cleveland Indians pounded out 20 hits in a 10-4 win over the Minnesota Twins.  Mike Pelfrey had another terrible outting failing to get out of the 2nd inning in the Arizona Diamondbacks shalacking of the New York Mets 13-2.  The Mets are 1-4 since the All-Star break and thanks to a gift call by home-plate umpire Phil Cuzzi again San Francisco on Sunday, they should be 0-5.  The Boston Red Sox edged the Oakland Athletics 2-1.  Rookie Henry Rosenbagger, err, Madison Bumgardner continues to impress as the San Francisco Giants topped the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-2.  Rafael Furcal, however, stayed hot going 3-5 with a homerun.  Another rookie, Daniel Hudson, held the Seattle Mariners to 1 run over 6 2/3 as the Chicago White Sox defeated the Mariners 6-1 on the strength of Alex Rios’ 3 rbis.

Tuesday – The Baltimore Orioles outlasted the Tampa Bay Rays in 13 innings, 11-10.  Matt Garza was roughed up for 7 earned runs in 6 1/3.  Phil Hughes was also knocked around as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim bested the New York Yankees 10-2.  Mike Napoli went 3-5 with 1 hr and 4 rbis.  The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 11-9 behind rookie Pedro Alvarez‘ 2 hrs.  Tommy Hunter moved to 7-0 as the Texas Rangers blanked the Detroit Tigers 8-0 sending the Tigers to their 6th loss in a row.  Miguel Cabrera was 2-4 but Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton both homered and drove in 5.  Hamilton is now batting .357 on the year and has to also be considered in the MVP talks.  Rookie Mike Leake notched another win as the Cincinnati Reds edged the Washington Nationals 8-7.  Joey Votto and Ryan Zimmerman homered in the affair.  The Atlanta Braves increase their lead in the NL East with a 4-1 win over the San Diego Padres.  The Colorado Rockies blanked the Florida Marlins 10-0.  Aramis Ramirez went bonkers with 3 hrs and 7 rbis as the Chicago Cubs posted 14 runs on the Houston Astros in a 14-7 win.  The Cleveland Indians won their 6th in a row with a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins.  New Indians closer Chris Perez notched his 9th save of the year.  The Toronto Blue Jays outslugged the Kansas City Royals 13-1.  Jose Bautista hit his 26th hr of the year.  Chris Carpenter was dominant yet again throwing 8 innings of 1-run ball to collect his 11th win of the year as the St. Louis Cardinals bested the Philadelphia Phillies 7-1.  His ERA stands at 3.05 for the season.  The New York Mets offense sputters again as they fall to the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2.  Fantasy note – Josh Thole hit his first career homerun.  Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th to propel the Oakland Athletics past the Boston Red Sox, 5-4.  Los Angeles Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton got credited with another blown save  save – this time for Clayton Kershaw – in a hotly contested game which saw Don Mattingly (who was managing in place of the ejected Joe Torre) inadvertently make two trips to the mound forcing Broxton out of the game, and George Sherrill in, who quickly served up the go-ahead runs.   The San Francisco Giants ended up winning 7-5 sending the Dodgers to their 6th loss in a row and winless since the All-Star break.  John Danks was superb, pitching 7 2/3 scoreless 2-hit ball against the Seattle Mariners as the Chicago White Sox won 4-0.

Wednesday – The Tampa Bay Rays edged the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4, to keep pace with division leader New York Yankees.  Those Yankees meanwhile provided some nice run support for Javier Vasquez as the Yankees beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 10-6.  Alex Rodriguez remains stuck on 598 career homeruns in his search for 600.  Robinson Cano and Mark Teixiera drove in 5 runs combined.  The Minnesota Twins ended the Cleveland Indians hot streak by blanking them behind a strong pitching performance by Francisco Liriano, 6-0.  Zach Greinke seems to have rediscovered his form as the Kansas City Royals defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-2.  Ted Lilly and Brett Myers both pitched extremely well but didn’t factor into the Houston Astros’ 4-3 win over the Chicago Cubs in extra innings.  Geovany Soto‘s homerun in the bottom of the 12th brought the Cubs within 1 but they fell just short.  The Oakland Athletics defeated the Boston Red Sox, 6-4.  Deja vu?  Rookie Pedro Alvarez blasted another 2 hrs in the second consecutive day as the Pittsburgh Pirates pounded the Milwaukee Brewers, 15-3.  Max Scherzer cooled off the Texas Rangers with a dominant pitching performance to even his record at 7-7 on the year as his Detroit Tigers took the game, 4-1.  Ricky Nolasco pitched 8 dominant innings as the Florida Marlins defeated the Colorado Rockies, 5-2.  I’m sounding like a broken record but it was another very nice performance by The Phenom – Stephen Strasburg – as he notched his 5th win of the season in an 8-5 Washington Nationals win over Bronson Arroyo and the Cincinnati Reds.  The San Diego Padres took a 1/2 game lead over the Atlanta Braves for the National League’s best record in a 6-4 extra inning victory.  Nick Hundley provided the go-ahead runs in the top of the 12th.  Young Jaime Garcia continues to impress under the guidance of pitching coach Dave Duncan holding the Philadelphia Phillies to 1 run over 7 innings – the lone run coming from another Ryan Howard homerun, as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Phillies 5-1.  Matt Holliday stays hot as well with his 18th homerun of the year.  The New York Mets’ freefall continues as they were swept in the desert by the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-3 in extra innings.  Perhaps my “Meet the Diamondbacks” article posted earlier this week lit a fire under those guys.  Angel Pagan, Rod Barajas, Chris Young, Rusty Ryal, and Mark Reynolds all homered.  In a pitching dual between Gavin Floyd (who has really come on in recent weeks) and Felix Hernandez, the game went scoreless into the 11th when the Chicago White Sox scored in the top half of the inning.  But the Seattle Mariners’ Franklin Gutierrez singled in the winning run in the bottom half of the inning giving the Mariners a 2-1 victory.  The Gordon Beckham watch: 2-4 with 1 run scored raising his season average to .241.  Chad Billingsley‘s complete game shutout victory over Barry Zito propelled the Los Angeles Dodgers past the San Francisco Giants, 2-0.

Thursday – Ronny Paulino singled in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth in the Florida Marlins’ 3-2 win over the Colorado Rockies.  Josh Johnson didn’t factor into the decision but pitched another gem lowering his ERA to an MLB-best 1.61 on the year.  The Washington Nationals beat up on Edinson Volquez and the Cincinnati Reds in Volquez’ second start back from Tommy John surgery to the tune of 7-1.  Livan Hernandez went the distance and Adam Dunn homered again for his 23rd of the year.  Justin Verlander outpitched Ricky Romero as the Detroit Tigers topped the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-2.  Miguel Cabrera was 3-4 with 2 rbis.  Tim Hudson was stellar, as the Atlanta Braves blanked the San Diego Padres, 8-0.  Newly acquired Alex Gonzalez went 4-5 with 2 rbis for the Bravos.  In a good old-fashioned pitching dual, Cole Hamels and Adam Wainwright both took no decisions after throwing 8 and 6 scoreless innings respectively.  The Philadelphia Phillies finally broke threw in the top half of the 11th scoring 2 and Brad Lidge closed out the St. Louis Cardinals to the final score of 2-0.  Wainwright is now second in the majors in ERA at 1.94.  Carl Pavano pitched his second consecutive complete game, shutting out the Baltimore Orioles as the Minnesota Twins won, 5-0.  Pavano is now 12-6 on the year.  In his first game back from the DL, Yovani Gallardo threw 6 innings of shutout ball as the Milwaukee Brewers edged the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2.  John Axford notched his 13th save of the year.  Alex Rodriguez inched 1 hr closer to 600, hitting his 599th as the New York Yankees and C.C. Sabathia topped the Kansas City Royals, 10-4.  Derek Jeter hit an inside the park homerun – something he hadn’t done since his rookie season.  Cliff Lee almost went the distance as the Texas Rangers clipped the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 3-2.  Matt Cain was dominant for 8 shutout innings as the San Francisco Giants blanked the Arizona Diamondbacks, 3-0.  Matt Kemp provided all of the offense in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2-0 victory over the now irrelevant New York Mets.  Kemp went 2-3 with 1 hr and 2 rbis.  John Lackey took a no-hitter into the 8th inning with the Boston Red Sox up 6-1 (run scored on a passed ball) over the Seattle Mariners.  But he took a no-decision as the Red Sox bullpen imploded in the 9th giving up 5 runs.  The Red Sox went on to win in extras, however, to the tune of 8-6.

Friday – The Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers game was postponed.  Randy Wells blanked the St. Louis Cardinals in the Chicago Cubs’ 5-0 win.  The Baltimore Orioles edged the Minnesota Twins, 3-2.  Joe Mauer homered for the Twinkies.  Roy Halladay was dominant through 8 innings, shutting out the Colorado Rockies 6-0 in the Philadelphia Phillies win.  Raul Ibanez showed some signs of life going 3-5 with 3 rbis.  Kevin Correia moved to 7-6 on the year as the San Diego Padres bested the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-2.  The Cleveland Indians beats Jeff Niemann and the Tampa Bay Rays in a rain shortened game, 3-1.  A.J. Burnett had something to prove in the New York Yankees’ 7-1 victory over the visiting Kansas City Royals.  Alex Rodriguez did not homer and so he now has a chance to do so on Saturday off of Kyle Davies whom he hit his 500th homerun off of almost 3 years ago to the day.  Billy Wagner blew the save after the Atlanta Braves had scored 2 in the top of the 9th to give the Bravos the lead.  The Florida Marlins ended up winning to the tune of 7-6.  Brian McCann was 2-5 with 1 hr and 4 rbis.  Francisco Cordero notched his 27th save of the year as the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Houston Astros, 6-4.  C.J. Wilson and the Texas Rangers shut out the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 1-0.  The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Washington Nationals, 7-5.  Michael Morse for the Nats went 2-3 with 2 hrs and 4 rbis.  Jim Edmonds was 2-3 with a 1 hr and 3 rbis.  Jonathan Sanchez struck out 10 but got a no-decision in the San Francisco Giants’ 7-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Aubrey Huff blasted 2 hrs for the Giants and Kelly Johnson went 4-4 with a 1 hr for the Diamondbacks.  Mark Buerhle went the distance in the Chicago White Sox’ 5-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics.  The Boston Red Sox edged the Seattle Mariners, 2-1.  The New York Mets’ bats woke up for a 6-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Jason Bay went 2-4 with 3 rbis after having gone 0-12 with 8 strikeouts in his last 12 at bats.  Johan Santana finally got some run support to move to 8-5 on the year.