Two hits, no walks, eight whiffs, one earned run over seven innings for win No. 17. No one in the NL has more.

Classic Kyle Hendricks: 103 pitches, 73 strikes; first-pitch strikes to 21 of 27 batters; 25 called strikes, 18 foul balls, 22 balls put in play, 8 pitches swung at and missed. It all adds up to win No. 13. And a comment.

Got a hanging slider and knew what to do with it for his first career home run. Added two singles as the Marlins blanked the Reds at home. Game time: 2: 30.

A game Chad Wallach will never forget.

Oakland A’s — Jeurys Familia pitched Saturday and allowed an earned run for the third time in four appearances. Meanwhile, Fernando Rodney has overcome a rough stretch of his own to string together four straight scoreless outings. We’ll keep an eye on where both of these former closers are trending in case Blake Treinen needs a night off prior to the postseason.

Hierarchy remains: Treinen | Familia | Rodney.

Atlanta Braves – Arodys Vizcaino earned his first save since June 17 when he closed out an NL East title for the Braves on Saturday. Vizcaino still needs to work towards back-to-back appearances, which should start this week. As the Braves prepare for the postseason, it would make sense for them to give Vizcaino another save chance or two to see if he’s capable of once again being a closer, even if it’s a shared role with AJ Minter.

Updated hierarchy: Minter | Vizcaino | Venters.

The Astros are dominating pitching K's this year and all-time with 1615.  The Indians are fifth with 1464.  FWIW, the Indians had 1614 last year, which was the MLB record.  The 2016 Dodgers had the previous record with 1510.  If you like K's, this is the era to be alive.  

Misplayed Daniel Murphy's line drive with two on in the fifth into a game-deciding double. "Basically I didn't think he hit it as well as he did," LaMarre said. "So I took a couple steps in, lost it in the lights just for a split-second. When it came out, it still had a little bit of steam on it, so it was a misread, a mistake, and I feel terrible."

So does Giolito.

Cubs move to 12-7 in interleague play, NL to 154-140.

Old school, new school -- he's the runaway MVP.

How do you explain it, Javier?

"I feel like I can slow down a little bit and let the game come back to me." 

Didn't like Javeir Baez's hard slide into second breaking up a double play; shared his feeling with umpire Joe West and got ejected.

Asked to comment after the game, Tim said, "I don't have much to say about him. Everybody knows he's terrible."

Win No. 17 puts Cubbies 3 1/2 up on the Brew Crew with a week to play.

No one in the NL is going to win 20 or come close. 

Clevinger becomes the fourth Indians pitcher to strike out 200. First time that's happened on any team.

The bullpen isn't shabby when it comes to Ks; I assume the Indians are within striking distance of the all-time record.

His third hit is the game-winner in the 11th against the Red Sox.

You have to love the K percent.

And Rotoman's projection.

In his second major league start, held the Mets to an infield single and a pair of walks over five innings. Nationals climbed a game above .500 yet again, after being officially eliminated from wild card contention when the Cardinals won. Time of game: 2:32.

Joined the club and kept going yesterday.

Anyone have Lourdes and Yuli? I tried to, but foolishly cut Lourdes when he was sent down.

Yuli wasn't lying when he said, "My brother is better."

The data says we (Patton and Co) said he was a $13 player. Or a $15 player, for Mike. Why? 

Walter Shapiro, I know, paid $13 in a keeper league with something like 10 percent inflation. He's currently in second place in  the ADL, though he's first in homers and RBI and could be in first overall soon. Boohoo.

As explanation, we have to choose between the recent  years. Because Piscotty was down in 2015 and 2017, partly because of injury, he wasn't treated as seriously as he should have been.

Finding young young guys who are undervalued is the main job for us. I missed on Piscotty. He should have been an $15 or something. 

Hmm, so Mike Fenger got this right. Good on him.

Tonight the Bad K lost a BA point, but the Nabobs lost a Wins point (half to the surging Moose pitching staff, half to the desperate Veecks pitching staff--8 starter, including guys like Covey, Skogard, Beeks, trying to make the 1,100 inning limit--who are all throwing brilliant September games. So, I'm up half a point. 

I may have kept Taylor Ward active too long. He did get a hit today on my bench, but really, the perceived advantage of having a Catcher who is a third baseman is overrated. At least this time.

NL Tout Wars ...

PCL ... 

Eaton grew up helping his dad who was a drag racer.

Saturday is his charity event in DC which is basically a "Cars and Coffee" event.

Details here.