Rain turned an 11-game schedule into a nine-game schedule Thursday. Here is our daily recap of the day's baseball action ...

Final scores

Mariners 4, Nationals 2 (box score)
Pirates 9, Braves 4 (box score)
Phillies 2, Rockies 1 in 11 innings (box score)
Rays 4, Angels 0 (box score)
Cubs 5, Giants 1 (box score)
Red Sox 6, Rangers 2 (box score)
Padres 4, Mets 3 (box score)
Diamondbacks 4, Brewers 0 (box score)
Astros 7, Tigers 6 (box score)
Dodgers 7, Cardinals 3 (box score)
Reds at Indians PPD
Royals at Yankees PPD

Astros rally for win over Verlander

Three-zip lead with Justin Verlander on the mound? The Tigers would sign up for that every day of the week. More often than not, that turns into a win. Not on Thursday though.

The Astros hung a five-spot on Verlander in the fourth inning Thursday, turning that 3-0 deficit into a 5-3 lead. Houston eventually went on to win the game 7-6. Amazingly, the 'Stros scored those five runs in the fourth inning on three home runs. Carlos Correa (two-run), Marwin Gonzalez (two-run), and Juan Centeno (solo) did the honors.

Including Thursday, Verlander has started 362 games and thrown exactly 2,400 regular season innings in his career. This was only the second time he's allowed three home runs in one inning.

Verlander's other three-homer inning was actually a four-homer inning. It happened last June and it was the first four-homer inning by a pitcher in Tigers history. Considering Verlander was able to bounce back from that terrible four-homer inning to finish second in the AL Cy Young voting last year, I wouldn't worry too much about Thursday's hiccup. That said, it did happen and it did contribute to the team's loss.  

Interestingly enough, after the game Verlander said the bad fourth inning was the result of a new catcher. James McCann had to leave the game after being hit by a pitch, forcing Alex Avila to take over behind the plate. Verlander and Avila hadn't gone over the scouting reports together.

The Tigers have now lost four of their last five games, and Verlander himself is in a little bit of a slump. He's allowed 16 runs in 24 2/3 innings in his last four starts. Ouch. Detroit has an aging core and they are very much a win-now team, so they can't manage too many more 1-4 stretches this season.

The Astros, meanwhile, improved to 32-16 on the season with Thursday's win. That is the best record in baseball. 

Phillies snap Rockies' winning streak

The first three games of the Rockies-Phillies series at Citizens Bank Park were very one-sided. The Rockies won all three games and outscored the Phillies 23-5 in the process. Total domination.

Thursday afternoon, the Phillies rallied for a come-from-behind win to salvage the four-game series and snap Colorado's four-game winning streak. Tommy Joseph was the hero. He hit the game-tying home run in the seventh, then had the walk-off single in the 11th. Here's the video:

Despite Thursday's loss, the Rockies still have the most road wins in baseball (18) and the National League's best record at 31-18. This is easily the best 49-game start in franchise history. The previous best was 27-22 by the 1995 Rockies.

Bogaerts hits first home run

Believe it or not, Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts went into Thursday's game with zero home runs on the season. Not one. This is a 24-year-old All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger who hit a career-high 21 home runs last season. And yet, none through his first 41 games of 2017. Weird.

Bogaerts finally got into the home run column Thursday night. He took Rangers righty Nick Martinez deep:

Here are the players with the most plate appearances and zero home runs going into Thursday's action:

  1. Dee Gordon, Marlins: 195 plate appearances
  2. Alcides Escobar, Royals: 184 plate appearances
  3. Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox: 177 plate appearances
  4. Alex Gordon, Royals: 163 plate appearances
  5. Tyler Saladino, White Sox: 127 plate appearances

Bogaerts got the monkey off his back Thursday. You're on the clock, Dee and Alcides.

Is Bartolo done?

Braves right-hander Bartolo Colon, who turned 44 years of age on Wednesday, entered his Thursday start against the Pirates with an ERA of 6.38 through nine starts this season. Then he went out and did this ... 

player headshot
Bartolo Colon
TEX • SP • #40
vs. PIT, 5/25
IP5
H10
R7
ER7
SO1
BB3
HR1
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That stinker of an outing raised his 2017 ERA to 6.96 after 10 starts. Beyond that ugly ERA, there are other causes of concern. His current K/BB ratio of 2.43, if it held, would be his worst such mark since 2009. He's also seeing his groundball tendencies erode, and he's giving up harder-than-average contact off the bat.

During his successful late-career run, Colon's thrived despite sub-par velocity because he kept the ball on the ground and kept hitters from squaring the ball up all that often. One-fourth of the way through the current season, it seems like those skills have been lost. 

Vanishingly rare is the player who's even still on a major-league roster in his 40s, so Colon's already done something special. At age 44, though, it may be that he's finally run out of whatever magic it was that allowed him to rescue his career at such an advanced age. It's been fun, but we may be seeing The Last Days of Bartolo. 

Mariners break out offensively

"Break out" is a relative term here. The Mariners scored exactly one run in each of their previous five games -- they were outscored 41-5 in those five games (yikes!) -- before putting four runs on the board Thursday afternoon. In this case four runs felt like an outburst.

Three of the four runs came on Nelson Cruz's home run:

The Mariners were the first team since the Royals last year to score no more than one run in five straight games. They were also the first team since the 2011 Twins to score exactly one run in five straight games.

Recent offensive malaise aside, the pitching staff is the big problem right now for the Mariners. They lead the AL in runs allowed with 243.

Frazier continues surprising season, McCutchen sits again

Things are not going according to plan for the Pirates this season, who are 22-26 overall and in last place in the NL Central even after Thursday's win over the Braves. Starling Marte is serving a performance-enhancing drug suspension, Andrew McCutchen is pulling an Andruw Jones, and youngsters Tyler Glasnow and Chad Kuhl have combined for a 6.27 ERA in 18 starts.

It's not all bad for the Pirates, however. Utility man Adam Frazier, who had a solid season as a part-time player last year, has been a force so far in 2017, hitting .361/.446/.515 overall. He clubbed a three-run home run Thursday:

Beyond the offense, Frazier has also played six positions for the Pirates this year. Six! He's played everywhere other than pitcher, catcher, and first base. Between his offensive production and defensive versatility, Frazier has quickly become a valuable piece for Pittsburgh.

McCutchen, meanwhile, was not in the starting lineup for the second straight game Thursday. He is hitting a woeful .203/.274/.360 (66 OPS+) so far this season. Here's more from Stephen Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

In his office, Hurdle informed McCutchen, mired in an 0-for-15 slump, he'd be left out of the lineup for Wednesday's game. It seemed as good a time as any. Last August, Hurdle benched McCutchen for a three-game series in Atlanta, and his offense was better the rest of the way.

...

"It's hard for Andrew right now," Hurdle said, "so we have to find a way to help him."

Getting McCutchen right is the top priority for the Pirates right now. They won't be able to get back into the postseason race without him, and, even if they don't get back in the race, they want him to start hitting so they can put him on the trading block. Right now no team will give up anything of value for the former NL MVP.

Lamet impresses in MLB debut

With Jered Weaver on the disabled list, the rebuilding Padres added right-hander Dinelson Lamet to their rotation. He made his MLB debut on Thursday night, and struck out the first batter he faced, the molten hot Michael Conforto.

Lamet, who really should be pitching for the Mets rather than against the Mets with that name, finished the night having allowed one run on a Lucas Duda home run in five innings of work. Three hits, two walks, eight strikeouts. Nice little big-league debut, I'd say.

According to Baseball Savant, Lamet averaged a healthy 94.8 mph and topped out at 98.1 mph with his fastball Thursday. MLB.com currently ranks him as the 10th-best prospect in San Diego's stacked farm system. Here's a piece of their scouting report:

Lamet's ability to develop a third pitch and improve his control and command will determine whether he ultimately succeeds as a big league starter. The Padres are optimistic he will, because he's athletic and has little effort in his delivery, but should that not pan out, there's little doubt that he could become an impactful late-inning arm, possibly even a closer.

Sure enough, Lamet threw only one changeup out of his 91 pitches Thursday. That's something he'll have to work on going forward. The Padres, given their status as a deep rebuilding team, can afford to give Lamet all the time in the world to figure out a changeup.

Cubs travel with 'Anchorman' theme

Following Thursday's win over the Giants, the Cubs set out for a six-game West Coast trip. They'll play three games against the Dodgers and three games against the Padres.

As he is wont to do, Cubs manager Joe Maddon had his club dress up for the road trip. This trip's theme? "Anchorman." One of Will Ferrell's tolerable movies. Check it out:

In the past Maddon has had his clubs wear pajamas for road trips, or an '80s theme, things like that. It helps keep the team loose.

Giolito throws Triple-A no-hitter

Lucas Giolito, the headliner in the trade that sent Adam Eaton from the White Sox to the Nationals, chucked a seven-inning no-hitter in Triple-A on Thursday. (They play two seven-inning games during doubleheaders in the minors.) He struck out three. Here is the final out:

MLB.com currently ranks Giolito as the eighth-best prospect in baseball, though you wouldn't be able to tell from his numbers. Thursday's no-hitter gives him a 5.44 ERA with 43 strikeouts and 25 walks in 46 1/3 innings this season. The White Sox are still working with Giolito to correct some mechanical issues.

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