Doug Fister tossed seven shutout innings against the Atlanta Braves on Thursday, extending a streak of scoreless innings by the Washington Nationals' starting rotation.

Washington's rotation has thrown a franchise-record 41⅓ consecutive scoreless innings over its past six games, the longest streak in the Major Leagues since Cleveland Indians starters strung together 44⅓ shutout innings in May 2008.

Marco Estrada retired the first 22 batters he faced for the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon, following up another no-hit bid in his previous start.

Estrada is the first Major League pitcher to take a no-hitter into the eighth inning in consecutive starts since Dave Stieb, also with Toronto, did so in 1988 -- both times with two outs in the ninth and two strikes on the batter, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The right-hander has a 3.45 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 63 strikeouts in 73 innings this season.

The New York Yankees are negotiating with the fan who caught Alex Rodriguez's 3,000th hit ball, according to sources.

Zack Hample recovered Rodriguez's 3,000th hit, a solo home run against the Detroit Tigers on Friday.

Hample said that after the team's head of security offered some items for the ball, he declined, and then met with Randy Levine and Lonn Trost in Levine's office.

Levine had asked Hal Steinbrenner if the Yankees had an interest in pursuing Rodriguez's ball. Steinbrenner said they did, but a deal was not struck on Friday.

On Monday, the two sides met again. Yankees spokesman Jason Zillo said "substantial progress" had been made in finding common ground with Hample, who works with a charitable organization called Pitch In For Baseball.

"I'm flattered," Rodriguez said.

Ryne Sandberg is aware of Chase Utley's vesting option for 2016, but says the contract issue won't dictate who he puts in the lineup.

Utley, 37, has a $15 million option for next season that vests if he reaches 500 plate appearances this season.

He entered Monday's action with 244 plate appearances, nearly halfway to the mark. The Phillies have played 72 games.

Albert Pujols will never again be the hitter he was in his prime, but a series of adjustments have allowed him to be a productive force for the Los Angeles Angels this season.

Pujols was hitting 177/.261/.355 in 69 plate appearances after an 0-for-4 performance on April 24, but in 210 plate appearances since he is hitting .301/.352/.622.

The 35-year-old "has dropped his hands and moved his left elbow closer to the pitcher with his bat much further from parallel than in previous years. He is also utilizing more of a leg kick than he did last year," writes Craig Edwards of FanGraphs.

Todd Frazier has experienced a power explosion this season, but is the surge sustainable?

The Cincinnati Reds third baseman has a 22.4% home run/fly ball rate, which may be primed for regression.

Over the course of his career, Frazier has seen his average fly ball get longer and longer. In 2012, his average fly ball went 280 feet. This season that figure is up to 303.8 feet.

Where his fly balls are going has changed this season as well.

"Frazier has always been a guy who had an even distribution of his home runs across fields, with a slight lean toward right field for his fly balls. Not in 2015," writes Owen Watson. "We can see his propensity to pull the ball has increased dramatically this season, with all but one of his home runs going to left or center field. We’ve seen the kind of power jumps that players can have when they start pulling their fly balls more; couple that tendency with a major increase in fly-ball distance (into top-20-in-the-majors territory), and you have the makings of a big year."

Bryce Harper isn't the only hot hitter on the Washington Nationals.

Yunel Escobar is hitting like he did as a rookie in 2007 when he was with the Atlanta Braves and hit .326/.385/.451 in 319 at-bats.

After several seasons with a sub-.260 batting average, Escobar has looked like a different hitter. He's hitting .331 with a .381 on-base percentage in 2015.

Escobar has been outstanding in his past 22 games, batting .365.

Escobar's swing rate was 45 percent, 44 percent and 45 percent the past three seasons. It's up to 52 percent in 2015.

The percentage increase is true both inside and outside the strike zone. Though Escobar's chase rate has gone up -- from 22 percent in 2014 to 30 percent in 2015 -- his numbers against pitches out of the strike zone haven't suffered.

Carlos Correa stole three bases against the Colorado Rockies on Thursday afternoon, becoming the second-youngest player (behind Rickey Henderson) to do so in the last 100 seasons.

Henderson, who was born on Dec. 25, 1958, stole three bases on Aug. 23, 1979, when he was 20 years and 241 days old. Correa was 20 years and 269 days old on Thursday.

"That's a big name when you say Rickey Henderson," Correa said. "He had a lot of stolen bases throughout his career and is obviously a Hall of Famer, and is a great player. To be behind him in that stat, it means a lot. I'm just going to go out there and help my team win in some way. If that means stealing bases, I'll do it."

The San Francisco Giants entered Friday averaging a Major League-best 5.2 runs in road games.

The defending champions also led baseball in road batting average (.289), on-base percentage (.346), and slugging (.449).

San Francisco is 34-31, more than three games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. They are 16-18 at home and 18-13 on the road.

Paul Goldschmidt has hit .299/.392/.539 in his career. Only five active players have a batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage equal or better than the Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman over their first four seasons -- Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, David Wright, Joey Votto and Mike Trout.

Since 1901, only 18 Major League players with 2,000 or more plate appearances have hit better than .298/.391/.539 over their first five seasons.

Former teammate Mark Trumbo says Goldschmidt's work ethic sets him apart.

"He's the most prepared player in the game," Trumbo said. "His preparation is what separates him from the pack."

Goldschmidt's manager, Chip Hale, believes his eye and discipline have carried him as well.

"As good as he is at hitting different pitches, he makes pitchers throw the ball in the zone," Hale said. "Very few times does he go out of the zone. So he’ll get into good counts because pitchers are trying to throw pitches that are off the plate to get him to swing."