The Tampa Bay Rays optioned Jeremy Hellickson to Class A Charlotte on Tuesday night.

Over his first two-plus years in the Major Leagues, the right-hander had a 3.06 ERA and a 2-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio. After a poor outing on Monday against the Kansas City Royals, Hellickson has a 5.21 ERA in 27 starts.

His struggles this season have related to his secondary pitches.

From 2010 to 2012, hitters swung out of the zone 37 percent of the time on his changeup and curveball. On those pitches he missed the zone nearly 60 percent of the time.

This season 48 percent of those pitches are actually finding the zone.

"After getting hitters to chase on nearly one-third of his hooks out of the zone in the previous two-plus seasons, that number is below 25 percent this season. The less favorable location has led to a .271/.313/.408 line on his secondary pitches, a huge leap from the .202/.247/.342 he had in seasons prior, writes Tommy Rancel.

Chris Davis leads the American League with 46 home runs, representing the biggest challenge to Miguel Cabrera's second-straight Triple Crown season.

Cabrera has a comfortable lead in batting average (.359) and RBIs (130).

"As far as me being the obstruction for him doing it again, I hope he does do it again," Davis said. "That would be awesome. He's a great hitter. He deserves everything that he gets.

"My goal is not to go out there and keep Miguel Cabrera from winning the Triple Crown. It's to do everything I can to put us in position to win, whether that means I hit 10 more home runs or two more home runs. I've had a productive year so far, but if we don't make the playoffs, it doesn't really mean a lot."

Cabrera entered Tuesday with 43 home runs, three behind Davis.

Alex Rodriguez hit a solo home run against the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night, the 650th of his career.

Rodriguez is 10 home runs away from tying Willie Mays for fourth on the career list, which would trigger a $6 million bonus.

The Boston Red Sox defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-1 on Sunday night, giving them a series victory over the hottest team in baseball.

The Dodgers hadn't lost a series since June 14-16, when Pittsburgh also took two of three. Los Angeles is 46-12 since June 22.

Stephen Strasburg has pitched well for the disappointing Washington Nationals this season, but has not taken the next step to the Cy Young level.

His numbers are remarkably close to last season's, but his strikeout rate as actually dropped.

After striking out 30% of batters faced in 2012, he's down to 26% this year. Strasburg is also allowing 3.58 runs per nine innings against the 3.50 he allowed last season.

Clayton Kershaw dominated the Miami Marlins on Thursday, lowering his ERA to a Major-League best 1.72.

Only four pitchers have posted a sub-1.80 ERA at least 25 starts into a season. Dwight Gooden, Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez accomplished the feat.

"He kind of gets himself into routines and he's just marching onward all the time. One start's over and he's on to the next one. That one's over and it's time to start the next process," Don Mattingly said.

"What I enjoy with Clayton is that it's every pitch, every batter, no matter what the score is, he attacks, he's focused, he's not wanting to make one bad pitch, not wanting to let any runners on. He just wants to execute, execute, execute. That's tough to do over a long season. He's a machine."

The designated hitter slot was created to improve offense in the American League, but it hasn't been very successful this season.

AL designated hitters have a .246/.325/.409 line in 2013, against .256/.321/.405 for all AL hitters.

Only the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Kansas City Royals and Seattle Mariners have an .800+ OPS from their DHs.

Jayson Werth is just nine plate appearances short of qualifying for the National League batting title.

Werth, who is hitting .408 since the All-Star break, has a .330 average for the season.

Entering Tuesday's action, Chris Johnson was hitting .335, Yadier Molina .334 and Michael Cuddyer .323.

A player needs 3.1 PAs per team game played to qualify.

Robinson Cano went 4-for-4 against the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night, including a milestone home run.

Cano hit the 200th home run of his career, all with the New York Yankees.

He finished the game a triple shy of the cycle.

Miguel Cabrera hit his 40th home run of the season on Sunday against the Kansas City Royals.

Cabrera now has 361 career homers and is tied with Joe DiMaggio on baseball's all-time list.