What happened?

While Craig Calcaterra is on vacation, pinch hitter James Clarkin Breslin is filling in for our daily game recaps:

Mets 6, Marlins 5: Luis Castillo plates the game-winning run with a walkoff bloop to right. Mike Stanton has a strong arm, but unfortunately he was trying to throw it to his buddy sitting behind the third base dugout – his second wild throw home in 2 innings. Gaby Sanchez was bemused when asked about R.A. Dickey’s signature pitch: “What’s so tough about it? It doesn’t even spin.”

Pirates 4, Cardinals 3: By his standards, Adam Wainwright got shelled, and the Cards lost to the Bucs 4-3. Neil Walker drove in three. Don’t look now, but the Pirates seem to have the beginnings of a very solid, young core. If you’re a Neal Huntington believer, there could be a decent squad in Pittsburgh a few years away.

Cubs 5, Nationals 4: Carlos Zambrano (7.1 IP, 8K, 1BB) and Alfonso Soriano (3-R HR) provided the firepower in a game that ended up close thanks to Crazy Old Carlos Marmol. Marmol has now walked 40 batters in 57.2 IP; he’s also struck out 105. Seriously.

Giants 16, Reds 5: Travis Wood gets knocked around, pretty much for the first time in his career. Fortunately, he won’t have to worry about that too much more given that he plays his home games in the cavernous Great American Ballpark. Brandon Phillips hit two bombs.

Padres 5, Dbacks 0: Clayton Richard struck out eight D’Backs and didn’t allow an ER, although he did walk five. The Padres have the best record in the National League, and, wait for it… the San Diego Padres are the best team in the National League with a month to go in the 2010 season.

Rockies 5, Braves 2: Carlos Gonzalez went deep for the 26th time this year and the Rockies won 5-2. CarGo currently sports a 4.9% BB rate and a .248 ISO. The guy can mash, but at some point he either has to learn how to take a walk, or pitchers will never throw him another strike again.

Dodgers 5, Brewers 3: Rod the Bat hit a three-run blast in his blue debut. Mets fans told you Minaya shouldn’t have let him go. Even though you don’t remember it, they told you, and now look, see, they were right. Before the game, the Brewers unveiled a new statue of Bud Selig. To cement his legacy, the franchise employed a talented Milwaukee-based sketch artist to draw Selig’s likeness before the iron was cast. Unfortunately, the artist drew his inspiration from a freeze-frame of Bud in the stands at the 2002 All Star Game in the 11th inning.

Astros 4, Phillies 2: The Astros won in a wild one that lasted 16. Roy Oswalt played left field for the Phillies in the 14th after Ryan Howard was ejected for throwing his bat and helmet after striking out. Oswalt also grounded out to end the game, but given that Howard was 0-7 with 5Ks to that point, it was sort of a personal victory for Oswalt.

Mariners v. Red Sox (postponed): No baseball in Beantown. They’ll try to get in 2 today.

White Sox 7, Orioles 5: Gordon Beckham hit a 3-R HR in the 7th to put it out of reach. The White Sox, though, took a hit to their playoff hopes when they placed J.J. Putz and Matt Thornton on the DL. We can once again refer to the Orioles as “lowly,” as Buck Showalter’s magic seems to have worn off.

Rays 10, Angels 3: Evan Longoria and the Rays beat the Angels into submission. The Angels haven’t been able to find that Pythag-defying magic this year, but hey, at least they have that really weird Monster Energy Drink thing in center field (can someone tell me what that is please?).

A’s 5, Indians 0: Gio Gonzalez and the As rode the larger-than-life bats of Jeff Larish and Coco Crisp to victory.

Tigers 9, Royals 1: On Monday, the Red Sox claimed Johnny Damon off waivers, but he had the right to waive a trade to Boston in his contract. So before the game, Johnny Damon said that he, quote unquote, loves Detroit, as justification for his wanting to stay with the Tigers. Something’s up with that: any verb that goes beyond “tolerate” when talking about the city of Detroit just sounds contrived (either that or Johnny is just confused—not impossible). Re: the game: Kyle Davis started for the Royals (that’ll do, right?).

Yankees 11, Blue Jays 5: The Yankees jumped all over Rzep. (etc.) and stayed tied atop the AL East with an 11-5 win. Curtis Granderson is swinging a hot bat after taking a few days off a couple weeks ago to retool his swing.

Rangers 4, Twins 3: The Rangers win a tight one in which Josh Hamilton homers. Hamilton currently has a .356/.406/.631 triple slash, which, frankly, is a little ridiculous. I’d like to think that we’ve reached the point where we can talk about Josh Hamilton sans the “comeback from crippling addiction” rhetoric, and just talk about him as probably the best hitter in 2010.