MLB Bullets Leans Into It

So I've got places to be, so let's just get right to it.

• Max Scherzer threw a no-hitter on Saturday that was a perfect game with two outs in the ninth until a pitch hit Jose Tabata's elbow. Cy Brown has an appreciation of Scherzer's performance.
• If you missed the game, mlb.com has all 27 outs and one hit-by-pitch compiled into one highlight reel.
• Scherzer was pretty good in his last start too, accomplishing something that hasn't been done since Pud Galvin in 1884. And yes, I just wanted to say "Pud Galvin."
• David Schoenfield writes that Scherzer is now the best pitcher in baseball.
• Bill Baer thinks that Scherzer has a chance to throw consecutive no-hitters. Not a good chance, mind you, but it's not inconceivable.
• A lot of people, mostly Nationals fans, are upset with Tabata for "leaning into the pitch" that hit him. Baer says Tabata did nothing wrong.
• CJ Nitkowski agrees, saying Tabata's reaction was a natural response to an inside slider.
• Cliff Corcoran thinks the umpires should not have awarded Tabata first base. Also, video of Milt Pappas' no-hitter.
• Scherzer, for his part, says that hitting Tabata was his fault, not Jose's.
• Some columnists thought that the Nationals should or would hit Tabata in Sunday's game in retaliation. They didn't.
• On to A-Rod. Alex Rodriguez hit a home run off Justin Verlander for his 3000th hit.
• The guy who caught the ball is a collector and won't give it back to Rodriguez.
• Jon Paul Morosi writes that Rodriguez ought to go celebrate that milestone, tainted though it is.
• Morosi said the rest of us won't celebrate Rodriguez's milestone. But his colleague at Fox Sports Rob Neyer writes that he really enjoyed watching Rodriguez reach the milestone. More so than Jeter's same feat of a few years ago.
• And then there was a strange trade in which the Diamondbacks sent rehabbing Bronson Arroyo and his salary along with last year's first-round pick Touki Toussaint to the Braves for Phil Gosselin.
• Matt Snyder says this deal makes no sense for the D-Backs. That's pretty much everyone's opinion.
• Except Ken Rosenthal, who says that we should wait to see how this plays out before condemning Dave Stewart and Tony LaRussa.
• They're not happy over at AZ Snake Pit.
• Jim Caple talks about "Panda-Phone-Poop-Gate" and recent violations of clubhouse etiquette.
• Matt Ufford thinks Pandas should be allowed to poop just like everyone else.
• One of the reasons the Pirates have been such a pain in the Cubs plans this summer is that Francisco Cervelli has been a perfect replacement for Russell Martin. (ESPN Insider Only)
• Here's the same point on Cervelli made with graphics and free for everyone.
• J.D. Martinez hit 3 home runs in one game yesterday.
• Anthony Castrovince says the Rays are for real.
• Jerry Crasnick believes that Manny Machado is back on path to stardom.
• Edgar Martinez is the new Mariners hitting coach.
• Tim Healy thinks Jackie Bradley Jr. belongs in Boston, not Pawtucket.
• Jeff Sullivan notes that Mike Trout has already closed the hole in his swing that pitchers were exploiting last season. There really isn't much Trout can't do. If he threw a no-hitter tomorrow, I don't think I'd be surprised.
• Devin Mesoraco and the Reds finally succumbed to reality and Mesoraco will have season-ending surgery.
• You'd think after Bruce Bochy led the Giants to the only three titles they have ever won in San Francisco, that they wouldn't forget to pick him up and leave him stranded at Dodger Stadium.
• There were a lot of Father's Day stories yesterday. Dee Gordon talks about how he learned to love baseball from his dad, Tom "Flash" Gordon. I wonder if Stephen King will write a story about Dee now.
• Eric Byrnes won't win any Father of the Year awards as he goes all out to catch a foul ball the same way he did as a player with his son on his lap. The kid was unhurt. Maybe Byrnes knew exactly what he was doing after all.
• Jim Caple talks about missing his father and the love of baseball he got from him.
• Cute photos of ballplayers with their kids at the park.
• Speaking of cute kids, do you think you were excited by Dexter Fowler's grand slam yesterday? Check out the adorable reaction of Fowler's daughter.
• And finally, it's fairly long, but it is completely worth your while to watch this video by SB Nation's Jon Bois about Lonnie Smith. Most of this will be familiar to those of us who lived through the 1980s, but Smith really was one of the greatest characters of that era and it's good to remember that. And if you're too young to remember the eighties, then you really must watch. Also, Bois tells us up front that no one gets murdered in this story, so what are you waiting for? Someone to get killed?

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.