Today’s delve shows us the first Japan-Taiwan win-save combo, a weak-hitting catcher going yard against his former team, another pitching success story for the Duncan-LaRussa combo, a player with a .670 OPS participating in an all-time home run mark and lots more.

Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga allowed just one run in eight innings and picked up the win.  If you told fans that Galarraga had 11 wins in mid-August, I’m sure they would have felt confident that Detroit was battling for first place in the AL Central instead of being three games under .500 for the season.  Galarraga is the only Tigers pitcher with more than six starts to have a winning record.  The win upped his mark to 11-4 for the season.

White Sox infielder Juan Uribe had two hits, a homer and two runs.  He was the last of four batters to hit consecutive home runs for Chicago in the sixth inning, just the sixth time in Major League history that mark has been accomplished.  I’m still more shocked that Uribe and his .670 OPS has played 21 games (including 17 starts) at third base for a team leading its division.

Astros first baseman Lance Berkman had a double, homer and three RBIs to lead Houston to its eighth-straight win.  Berkman has cooled off considerably from his torrid first half but still has a .394 OBP after the All-Star break.

Diamondbacks pitcher Dan Haren gave up two runs in eight innings and picked up the win, running his record to 13-6 on the season.  Along with Brandon Webb, Arizona’s top two pitchers have a 30-10 record.  The rest of the team has a 32-49 mark.  In their World Series championship season of 2001, the club’s top two pitchers, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, went 43-12 while the rest of the team went 49-58.

Cult figure and A’s rookie reliever Brad Ziegler gave up his first earned run of the season.  In 40 innings pitched, he now has a 0.23 ERA while his WHIP stands at 0.88.

Brewers outfielder Mike Cameron had two hits, a homer and two RBIs.  It was the fifth home run in 42 at-bats this month for Cameron, who has 20 home runs in 306 at-bats for the year.  Cameron’s career high in home runs for a season is 30, which he did in 2004 in 493 at-bats.

Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez had two hits, a homer, two runs, three RBIs and a walk.  And he left the game in the fifth inning with a left hip contusion suffered while diving head first into home plate.  His current pace has him on target to hit 27 home runs this year, which would be his second straight season under 30 dingers.  If he finishes with a .507 slugging mark, it would be his fourth straight season with a decline in that figure.

Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched seven shutout innings and ran his record to 14-2.  Compared to a season ago, when he went 15-12, Dice-K’s strikeouts are down and his walks are up.  He’s thriving because his BABIP is .257, his strand rate is 81.6 percent and he has a 0.59 HR/9 IP rate.  He’s not likely to duplicate any of those last three marks in 2009.

Orioles first baseman Kevin Millar had three hits, a double, a run and three RBIs.  Millar is often cited as having great intangibles but he’s got no business being a starting first baseman for a team that hopes to be more than cannon fodder for the rest of the league.  A .419 slugging mark is for slick fielding shortstops not at what is a power position.

Reds outfielder Chris Dickerson had three hits, two doubles, a triple, a run and an RBI.  Called up to replace Adam Dunn in left field after the trade, Dickerson is getting his first shot in the majors at age 26.  He posted a .287/.384/.479 line at Triple-A Louisville this season.  Dickerson is a tools guy, so as you might imagine he was successful on 26 of 33 steal attempts.  And as you also might guess, he struck out 102 times in 349 at-bats.

Mets catcher Brian Schneider hit a two-run homer against the Washington Nationals, the team that traded him this last off-season.  It was his third home run of the season and his ninth extra-base hit in 252 at-bats.  Those numbers produce a .313 slugging percentage, which would be the fourth-worst mark in the majors if he had enough at-bats to qualify.

Cardinals pitcher Todd Wellemeyer pitched 7.2 scoreless innings to pick up his 10^th win of the season.  Here’s yet another veteran pitcher enjoying a big season under Dave Duncan and Tony La Russ.  Wellemeyer’s success can be attributed to getting his walks under control.  After allowing 4.54 BB/9 IP last season, this year his ratio is 2.91.  All of his other numbers are down, too, but not at eye-popping levels.  For example, his BABIP is .275 while last year it was .287 and the year before that it was .271.  It looks like a case of a guy with good stuff who is putting it all together.

Dodgers pitchers Hiroki Kuroda and Hong-Chih Kuo combined for the win and the save.  Kuroda allowed one run in seven innings while Kuo hurled two hitless frames. Kuo became just the third pitcher from Taiwan to earn a save in the Majors, joining Chin-Hui Tsao and Chien-Ming Wang.  It was also the first time in Major League history that a guy from Taiwan saved a game for a guy from Japan.  And this came on the heels of Japan beating Taiwan in the Olympics, 6-1.