The Juice: Stephen Strasburg strikes out 13 Pirates, Inge hits second slam in three games

The Juice is back for its fifth season of fun! Stop by each weekday for an ample serving of news from the action, plus great photos, stats and video highlights.

Strastosphere: When the Pittsburgh Pirates and Stephen Strasburg get together, outdoor air conditioning happens — as in a lot of swinging bats that generate a breeze. Strasburg fanned 13 in a 4-2 victory for the Washington Nationals on Thursday, giving him 27 strikeouts in 13 career innings against Pittsburgh. Sample size be darned! If the Nationals really do plan to shut down Strasburg at 160 innings (and GM Mike Rizzo denies this, but national writers keep reporting it as fact), he surpassed the one-quarter mark against the Pirates. He's logged 44 innings, a pace for 176. Reel him in there, Nats! (I kid.)

New lease on life: Brandon Inge hit a grand slam for the second time in three games, the first Athletics player to do that since, oh, Jimmie Foxx in 1932. The A's were located in Philadelphia in those days. Foxx is in the Hall of Fame. Tigers manager Jim Leyland was not born yet, possibly to your surprise. While his last three home runs have been grand slams, Inge swears it's just luck and not wizard skills he never told the Tigers he had:

Whatever, demon. Regardless, it wasn't enough to overcome Inge's former team, the Detroit Tigers, who won 10-6. Miguel Cabrera went 4 for 5 with three RBIs to, he hopes, break out of a slump

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Quote of the Day: ''When it rains it pours, and it's pouring right now.'' — Ryan Doumit of the Minnesota Twins, who lost 6-2 to the Blue Jays and fell to 8-23 overall, the worst record in the majors.

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Photo of the Day: Silence at Fenway.

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Three Facts for the Water Cooler:

• The Baltimore Orioles opened the bottom of the first with three straight home runs, the first AL team in history to do so. Ryan Flaherty, J.J. Hardy and Nick Markakis went deep against Colby Lewis of the Rangers. Three other teams have done it, the previous one being the Milwaukee Brewers in 2007. As per the Associated Press, "Hardy was the middle man" for that tri-homer barrage as well. Weird! Yahoo! Sports' own Les Carpenter was there and files this report from the O's 6-5 victory.

• David Price allowed a pair of home runs to left-handed batters — Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson of the Yankees — after allowing six homers against lefties in his career over 613 2/2 innings coming in. The Yankees beat the Rays 5-3 behind CC Sabatha, who struck out 10.

• The Red Sox have lost 11 of their past 12 games at Fenway Park after the Indians pummeled Josh Beckett and the Beantowners 8-3. Beckett also said some stupid stuff.

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