If you look hard enough for trends and oddities in daily box scores, you’ll find them. Some are extraordinary and others purely mundane or random. Talk with lifelong fans and they’ll be quick to point out that you’ll likely see something different at any game you attend.

To our detriment everyone is focusing on the pace of play, increase in stolen bases and other aspects directly impacted by the new rules. Individuals are still doing amazing things on any day. Teams are baffling and befuddling the experts-even if it is a small sample size (who ever thought the Tigers would have rebounding after the Baez benching).

We all still marvel at the long ball and love the bat flip, yet yesterday was all about dominant starting pitching.

Yesterday six teams shut out their opponents and a seventh starter was equally as dominant but his bullpen allowed a lone run to spoil the shutout. There’s a nice mix of wily veterans and relative unknowns. Here’s the list.

Eduardo Rodriguez of the Tigers threw 8 innings of 4-hit ball over Cleveland in the 2nd game of a doubleheader. Lucas Giolito no-hit the Phillies for 6 innings but failed to get the victory. The White Sox lost game 1 so this was a needed win. Tampa rookie, Taj Bradley held the Reds to 3 hits in 5.1 innings in a 1-0 victory. Spencer Strider of the Braves pitched 6 innings of 1-hit ball before turning the ball over to the bullpen. They allowed one run to botch the shutout. Relative unknown, Dean Kremer, of the Orioles held the Nationals to four hits over 6.2 innings. Clayton Kershaw pitched 7 innings of 3-hit ball and moved into fourth place in strikeouts among lefties-passing Mickey Lolich. The Cubs continued their dominance over the Athletics and Marcus Stroman continued his excellent start with 6 more shutout innings (and one hit).

Editor’s note: Stroman has made four starts to date and has thrown 6 innings in each outing. He has only allowed two runs in one of the twenty-four innings and has a microscopic 0.75 ERA. Put more clearly, he has not allowed a run in 23 of 24 innings pitched this season.

Baseball being baseball, I have no doubt that nobody will be shutout today. In fact, several starters will probably fail to make it out of the 4th inning. Enjoy the games, if not the outcomes.