MLB Notebook: Jeter, Soriano reunion nets win

In 2002, the Yankees' Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano became the first shortstop-second base combination since 1929 to each tally at least 124 runs scored in a season. That year, with the lineup most often featuring Soriano batting leadoff and Jeter hitting right behind him, the Yankees won 103 games and boasted the best winning percentage in the Majors.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, "I once thought that there were no second acts in American lives, but there was certainly to be a second act to New York's boom days." For one day near the end of July, this -- when it comes to baseball -- certainly seemed to be the case.

Soriano went 4-for-5 with two runs scored, a home run and three RBIs, with the last of the three coming on a game-ending single. Jeter went 2-for-4 with two runs, a home run and an intentional walk. Helped in great measure by these two reunited teammates, the Yankees defeated the Rays, 6-5, on Sunday afternoon.

Soriano -- playing in his third game since being acquired by the Yankees -- had his first game-ending hit for New York since June 18, 2003 (also against Tampa Bay). Soriano has 13 career walk-off hits -- tied for the fourth most among active players.

Jeter -- playing in just his second game of the season -- put together his 972nd career multihit game. That total is the fourth most since 1916, behind Pete Rose (1,225), Stan Musial (1,059) and Hank Aaron (1,046).

Soriano and Jeter were two of the three Yankees players with multihit games in the victory, with Ichiro Suzuki going 4-for-4. Suzuki has 50 career games with four-plus hits, tying Rogers Hornsby for the 17th most for any player since 1916.

Before this game, Jeter and Soriano had last homered in the same game as teammates on July 17, 2003.

Fernandez mows 'em down
Making his 20th career appearance, Marlins right-hander Jose Fernandez fanned a career-high 13 and issued no walks.

At 20 years and 362 days old, Fernandez is the fifth-youngest pitcher since 1916 to have a game with at least 13 K's and no walks. Gary Nolan (19 years and 11 days old) is the youngest, followed by Dwight Gooden (19 years and 301 days old and 19 years and 306 days old) and Kerry Wood (20 years and 324 old).

Fernandez now has three games with at least 10 strikeouts. Those three through his first 20 games tie him (and Tony Cingrani, who also had his third such game on Sunday) for the 18th most for any pitcher since 1916. Gooden and Hideo Nomo lead, with eight apiece.

Here and there
• Ubaldo Jimenez (eight innings, two hits) and Vinnie Pestano combined on a two-hit shutout, leading the Indians -- at least on the pitching side -- to a 6-0 win over the Rangers on Sunday. Cleveland tops the Majors with 14 team shutouts. For American League teams in the designated-hitter era, the 14 shutouts through 104 team games place the 2013 Indians in a tie with three other clubs for the most. The 1973 Twins, '75 Angels and 2012 Angels also had 14.

• Playing in his 33rd career game, Wil Myers homered twice for the Rays on Sunday. Before Myers, the earliest a Tampa Bay player had homered twice was in game number 39 -- a feat achieved by Evan Longoria on May 24, 2008. Coincidentally, both Longoria and Myers were the same exact age for these multihomer performances: 22 years and 230 days old.

• Giants starter Tim Lincecum fanned 10 batters in a 2-1 loss to the Cubs on Sunday, giving him 35 career double-digit strikeout games in 210 appearances. Those 35 through his first 210 place Lincecum in a tie with Bob Feller for the eighth most since 1916. Lincecum's 10 K's give him a seven-year total of 1,454; with the effort, he passed Mark Langston (1,448) and moved into the fifth spot for the most strikeouts for any pitcher through his first seven seasons, since 1893. The top four: Tom Seaver (1,655), Bert Blyleven (1,546), Fergie Jenkins (1,466) and Walter Johnson (1,461).

• In the Rockies' 6-5 victory over the Brewers, Troy Tulowitzki doubled and homered. In baseball history, Tulowitzki is one of 72 players to have at least 800 games at shortstop through their age-28 season. Among this group, and looking at the respective totals through the players' age-28 seasons, Tulowitzki's extra-base hit percentage is the third highest, behind the marks generated by Alex Rodriguez and Ernie Banks.

• Yasiel Puig hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th to give the Dodgers a 1-0 victory over the Reds. Among the various notes from this three-hour and 43-minute affair:

Puig's first career walk-off hit also made him the fourth Dodgers player since 1958 to homer in extra-innings to break a scoreless tie and win the game. The full list:

Sept. 27, 2002: Paul Lo Duca solo homer in the 10th
Aug. 13, 2006: Russell Martin solo homer in the 10th
June 1, 2010: Matt Kemp solo homer in the 10th
July 28, 2013: Puig solo homer in the 11th

Before Puig's blast, the last time a Dodgers player hit a walk-off homer to break a 0-0 tie in the 11th inning or later was on May 2, 1955, when Brooklyn's Carl Furillo hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 12th.

The Dodgers won despite striking out 20 times. They are the 14th team since 1916 (and the second this season) to win a game in which they had at least 20 K's. Dating back to 1916, this is the first occurrence of this reality for the Dodgers.

• The Reds set a team record with 20 strikeouts. Their previous season high was 17, done twice. They also lost those two games. Cincinnati is the only team since 1916 to have three games in one season in which its pitchers tallied at least 17 strikeouts and the club lost.

• Cingrani fanned 11 with one walk and one hit allowed. 

Cingrani is the first Reds pitcher since Johnny Vander Meer on June 6, 1941, to have a game with at least 11 K's and no more than one walk and one hit allowed. In that game in '41, Vander Meer threw a one-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts and one walk against the Phillies.

Cingrani is the 15th left-hander since 1916 to have a game with at least 11 strikeouts, no more than one walk and no more than one hit allowed. Randy Johnson (four games) and Sandy Koufax (two games) are the only two with multiple efforts of this kind. The rest: Cingrani, Vander Meer, Steve Carlton, Bruce Hurst, Clayton Kershaw, Gary Peters, Jonathan Sanchez, Johan Santana and David Wells.