1. Mike Fiers, Houston Astros: Fiers’ status as “the other guy” in the Carlos Gomez trade perhaps makes his no-hitter against the Dodgers that much more fun for them and for him, but they knew what they were adding what they got him -- although they probably didn’t expect this.
The key is that Fiers really isn’t the same pitcher who broke through as a rookie with the Brewers in 2012. Nor is he “just” the guy who rebounded from a miserable 2013 in which he was demoted and then shelved with a broken forearm to come back up in August 2014 and throw quality starts in seven of his first eight turns.
What’s different? Last year he came back having picked up some velocity, averaging about 90 mph with a fastball that had previously come in a tick or two slower than that. He kept that gain this year and his heat has become his bread and butter in an increasingly simplified mix, with his change and curve helping keep people off-balance.
The added velocity might not seem like much to some, but it’s a huge difference for the finesse righty. It has especially helped generate better separation and results from his change, which is now getting swinging strikes 16 percent of the time, according to FanGraphs data before Friday’s action.
But there are other things Fiers is doing differently these days, as well, which contributed to his big game. In particular, he’s become much more aggressive pitching up in the zone, as well as inside: Before his 2013 meltdown, 55 percent of his pitches were in the lower half of the zone; in 2014-2015, his high-low split is 50-50, and with his fastball he’s aiming for the upside 60 percent of the time. And even though the Dodgers were warned, that’s where he was getting results on Friday night.
2. Yoenis Cespedes, New York Mets: Let’s skip putting his three-homer, five-hit night in the Planet Coors category of awesome for a moment and recognize what he did. He didn’t pull any of the three home runs, for starters. On the first one, the slam hit off rookie Jon Gray, he powered a full-count 96 mph fastball that was up and on the outer half of the zone into the right-field seats. The second was slow heat over the plate from Chris Bergman -- he muscled that out to center field. The last was a curveball from lefty Christian Friedrich that he smoked to right-center. This is from a guy who had previously hit 68 of his 91 career homer to the left of center. Now, maybe that’s just possible while playing in Denver, and maybe that’s just a reflection of a guy with the ability to exploit his environment. But whatever you want to call it, it was entirely awesome.
3. David Price, Toronto Blue Jays: The power lefty dealt his fourth quality start in his fourth turn to notch his third win for the Jays while beating on an Angels team that is, after all, supposed to be in the playoff race. It’s probably no coincidence that he also held Mike Trout and Albert Pujols hitless on the night; he has now held the Angels’ towers of power to 6-for-35 with three walks, and he has struck Trout out nine times in 19 plate appearances.
4. Chris Sale, Chicago White Sox: Fourteen whiffs in seven innings? That’s Sale’s 12th start this season reaching double digits in strikeouts, and it means he’s struck out 29 of his past 52 batters faced in his past two starts. And he did it while the White Sox beat up on Felix Hernandez and the Mariners in an 11-4 win.
5. Those powered-up San Francisco Giants: Madison Bumgarner did something new and epic in his victory over the Pirates after also homering off Jeff Locke: He became the first guy since Carlos Zambrano in 2006 to get to 15 wins while hitting five home runs, and that’s just the second time anyone has done it since Bob Gibson did it for the Cardinals in 1972. And all while bringing the Giants to 1.5 games back of the Dodgers in the NL West race.
But wait, there’s more! Marlon Byrd homered in his first game in the Giants’ lineup. Did you notice that Byrd now has 69 homers in the past three years, his age-35-through-age-37 seasons? That’s his best three-year run for homers in his career, and while it might be easy to get hung up on what he doesn’t do (walk), his combo of power and good defense in a corner should help the Giants stay in the playoff race.
Christina Kahrl writes about MLB for ESPN. You can follow her on Twitter.