27 storylines this week in MLB: Inside the most dominating streak of the season

A look at some of the interesting statistics, storylines, and general anecdotes from around the league.

This week includes notes on Max Scherzer's unbelievable start, A.J. Burnett's improbable season, and one MVP's assault on an award-winning pitcher. But first ...

1. The offensive juggernaut Toronto Blue Jays. The 11-straight-wins Blue Jays. The eight-runs-per-game-during-their-streak Blue Jays. The MLB-leading plus-71-run-differential Blue Jays. The 31-runs-against-Boston-during-a-three-game-sweep Blue Jays. Yes, those Blue Jays. Here are 10 more takeaways from their dominating 11-game run:

2. Toronto has thumped its opponents 88-40 during its prolific streak, putting the Blue Jays on pace for one of the most impressive offensive months in recent memory. Their 7.33 runs-per-game average has them on track to score 198 times in 27 June games, which would be the most any team has scored in a month since the New York Yankees plated 202 in July 2007, per Baseball-Reference.

3. The Blue Jays' total could look especially gaudy in light of their unusually short June slate. Only two teams in the last 80 years (the 1951 Yankees and 1995 Angels) have scored at least 198 runs in a month featuring 27 games or fewer.

4. Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, they can't play every game against the Red Sox, who were outscored 30-11 over the final 25 innings this past weekend after entering the fifth on Friday with a 97.1 percent chance of winning the opener.

5. The Blue Jays, trailing 8-1 after four innings and 8-4 after six, plated nine straight batters before an out was recorded in the seventh, a feat that hasn't been pulled off since May 17, 2009, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

6. The streak wouldn't be possible without unlikely contributions from players like Ryan Goins and Justin Smoak, who combined for six extra-base hits and 12 runs batted in against the Red Sox over the weekend. Goins' four doubles during the 11-game streak matches the most he's ever hit in an entire month.

7. The real damage, though, is being done by Toronto's collection of MVP-worthy bats, which includes Russell Martin. The Blue Jays catcher has three homers, one double, one triple and a 1.071 OPS in June, with four multi-hit efforts in his last six games.

8. The Blue Jays' run has also coincided with Jose Reyes' 11-game hit streak, which incidentally (or not) began the day he was blasted by a member of the Toronto media for his "streetballer" play. Reyes' stat-stuffing month has seen him go 17-for-51 (.333) with two homers, two doubles and five stolen bases.

9. Add it all up and the Blue Jays lead the majors with 356 runs scored - 67 more than the second-place Texas Rangers. Toronto's plus-71 run differential is also 26 runs better than the second-best AL team, the Royals, who lost considerable ground in that department over the last three games:

10. It's been one streaky season so far for the Blue Jays, who have now won 15 of their last 19 games after dropping 11 of 14. That volatility might explain why closer Brett Cecil saved his first game Friday since May 4, the longest such streak (34 games) for a team in 13 years, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

11. The Blue Jays will look to set a new franchise record - against the team they share the longest streak of the season with - when they visit the New York Mets on Monday. To add to the intrigue, Monday's series opener marks the first-ever meeting between Toronto and former Blue Jays prospects Noah Syndergaard and Travis d'Arnaud, both of whom were sent to the Mets in the R.A. Dickey trade in 2012.

12. Speaking of prospects, Byron Buxton is an extremely fast one. The toolsy center fielder scored the winning run Sunday in his MLB debut, racing around from first base on a deep ninth-inning double to help the Twins to a 4-3 win.

Check out the replay and note how Buxton was rounding third before Leonys Martin even touched the ball. Can't wait to see the Statcast on this.

13. From the future to the past - or the present, as it were - A.J. Burnett is pitching 10 years younger than the age on the back of his baseball card. The 38-year-old right-hander has allowed just 18 earned runs in 13 starts this season, good for the third-lowest ERA (1.89) in the majors.

14. So why the career year now? Though he's highly unlikely to sustain his pace, one number that jumps off his Brooks Baseball page is 55 percent. That's how often he's turned to his sinker this season, a nearly 11-percent increase over his career-high usage rate last year.

15. Despite Burnett's improbable season, he's not even the best pitcher on his team. Gerrit Cole leads the NL in ERA (1.71), while ranking second in FIP (2.37) and fWAR (2.4). The hard-throwing righty hasn't allowed more than three runs in a start all season and has held the opposition without an earned run in three of his last five outings.

16. One award-winning pitcher who didn't look so All-Star-like Sunday was Corey Kluber, who was once again roughed up by two-time MVP Miguel Cabrera. Miggy launched a 452-foot blast off last year's Cy Young winner to improve to an unconscionable 20-for-35 (.571/.595./1.057) against Kluber for his career. Cabrera's five homers off the Indians ace are tied for his most against any opposing pitcher.

17. Miggy continues to show no ill effects of offseason ankle and foot surgery, pacing AL first basemen with three wins above replacement through 62 games. He leads the next-best player at his position by 1.1 WAR, yet trailed Eric Hosmer by more than 600,000 votes in the latest All-Star voting update.

18. And that's not even the biggest All-Star travesty. Omar Infante has more than double the votes of Jason Kipnis, Alex Rios holds a similar lead over Jose Bautista, and 12 players have more ballots counted so far than Josh Donaldson.

19. Not even skewed voting will keep Max Scherzer off the NL team, mostly because fans don't pick pitchers. But if they did, how could they not nominate Scherzer? The Nationals ace became just the 10th pitcher of all time Sunday to record a Game Score of 100 or more in a nine-inning start, tossing a one-hit shutout with 16 strikeouts and one walk against the Brewers. Scherzer now owns an absurd 8.07 strikeout-to-walk ratio - a mark nearly double that of his previous career-high.

20. Moving from one Washington superstar to another, here's a wild draft stat from MLB.com's Andrew Simon: "For the 5th straight year since drafting Bryce Harper, the Nationals have drafted players older than Bryce Harper."

21. Harper finally faced someone younger than him last week when he stepped in against 22-year-old Yankees pitcher Jacob Lindgren. It marked the first time in 415 games that Harper, who's seven months older than Lindgren, batted against someone younger.

22. In case you missed it, Joey Votto made another ridiculous defensive play at first on Saturday night. Great to see Votto back to his usual MVP form this year.

23. Which is more than can be said for Robinson Cano, who finds himself knee-deep in unfortunate comparisons as a result of his season-long slump.

24. Interestingly, on the topic of stats, and specifically which ones matter to which teams, here's what the Dodgers value most, according to the OC Register:

The things the Dodgers look at, the 'real predictors,' are exit velocities, weighted Runs Created (wRC+), weighted on-base average (wOBA), strikeout-walk ratios, first-pitch strike percentage, 1-1 count strike percentage, swing percentage on strikes and chase rate on balls.

25. Which explains why they love Joc Pederson so much (who doesn't, though?). The Dodgers rookie ranks second behind Giancarlo Stanton in percentage of batted balls 100 mph or more this season, per BaseballSavant.com:

26. How dominant is Stanton right now? Traditional stats-wise, he's got 48 homers, 121 RBI, 98 runs, 31 doubles and 13 steals over his last 162 games.

27. This week's final out goes to Red Sox pitcher Wade Miley, who put manager John Farrell on blast in the dugout Thursday after getting yanked in a 6-5 loss to the Orioles. It's hard not to empathize with Miley; he only gave up three homers, nine hits and five runs in four innings. Where's the trust?

- Videos courtesy: MLB.com
- Stats courtesy: Baseball-Reference.com, FanGraphs, Brooks Baseball