1. R.A. Dickey, Toronto Blue Jays: Suffice to say that when the Blue Jays traded to get the reigning NL Cy Young winner from the New York Mets after the 2012 season, they had high expectations for what that might mean for their chances in the AL East in the seasons to come. It only cost them top catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud and some live arm named Noah Syndergaard, after all. Two-plus seasons' worth of disappointment later, this remains a deal Jays fans might be disappointed with, especially with Dickey generally ranking about fourth- or fifth-best in the Jays' rotation.

Until now. Until the game's great knuckleballer threw seven innings of butterflies and futility at the Kansas City Royals to give the Jays a 5-2 win in Sunday's scrum. It's the sort of thing Jays fans could get used to, but is there more where that came from? Maybe, because all of Dickey's past three starts rank among his best five turns of the season, and this was his first start on the season without any runs allowed.

How'd that happen? It shouldn't come as a surprise that Blue Jays manager John Gibbons has kept a weather eye peeled on Dickey's high rate of fly balls and sinking strikeout rate: Dickey's whiff rate has dropped from 25 percent in his Cy Young season to 15 percent this year, while his ground-ball/fly-ball ratio is down around league average. So guess who would profit from plus defense in the outfield? Sensibly enough, it looks like Gibbons has lately made a point of putting speedster Ezequiel Carrera in a corner with defensive stud Kevin Pillar in center during Dickey's starts; now that Ben Revere is Blue Jays property and likely to play a lot of left field, Dickey is one obvious beneficiary.

Of course, this game is news for other reasons: Yet again, Royals pitchers made the wrong kind of headline, this time Edinson Volquez and Ryan Madson for plunking Josh Donaldson (in the third) and Troy Tulowitzki (in the seventh). Aaron Sanchez retaliated in the eighth by hitting Alcides Escobar to earn an ejection as well as that of bench coach DeMarlo Hale. This was after Gibbons had already been ejected in the seventh. Rather than blame the players it seems to me as if this was a situation plate umpire Jim Wolf handled badly by letting it go as far as it did. If a little bit of bad blood between these two teams gets revisited in an October showdown, you can bet both would relish the opportunity.

2. Andre Ethier, Los Angeles Dodgers: The Dodgers' sweep of the Los Angeles Angels was worth more than just Clayton Kershaw's scoreless streak or L.A. bragging rights -- it expanded their narrow lead over the San Francisco Giants in the NL West race. That's the most important thing to worry about with just two months to go.

There was plenty to brag about on Sunday: They got good work from Mat Latos in his first turn with the Dodgers, Howie Kendrick doubled and homered against his old teammates and Ethier's two-homer game gave them a lead in the eighth and a 5-3 walk-off win in the 10th.

Just remember, Mark Teixeira of all people hasn't hit a walk-off home run since the American League Division Series in 2009, and has never hit one during the regular season. But rather than rip on Tex, just remember that some of that is circumstance -- getting the right pitch at the right time of the game with the right score on the board. You can apply an adjective like "clutch" to that kind of execution if you choose to, but I figure it's just sort of fun to note that Ethier now has seven walk-off homers on his career. One in 2008, four in 2009, one in 2010 and now this one, all of them for the Dodgers -- and this was also his 11th multi-homer game.

So while we can debate where, when and to whom we should apply a label like clutch, it's an execution like this that makes for one sure bet: Andre Ethier is going to be remembered fondly by Dodgers fans for a long time to come. And you can't blame them for that, can you?

3. Noah Syndergaard, New York Mets: Hey, it's that Syndergaard kid again. Well, call it kismet, because on the same day that Dickey was delivering his best game of the year, the Norseman of the Nat-ocalypse was giving the Mets their first victory over Washington Nationals ace Jordan Zimmermann this season. He pitched his team into a tie in the NL East standings with a 5-2 win on Sunday night. Add in the fun of the Mets hitting three homers in five pitches -- including another one by red-hot Lucas Duda, and you can reasonably ask whether the Mets might not just win the division.

4. Daniel Norris, Detroit Tigers: Norris delivered a nifty game in his Tigers debut, taking a three-hitter into the eighth inning to beat the Orioles 6-1, even flashing some fielding chops. The Jays might already regret dealing Syndergaard; it won't take long for them to lament this swap as well unless they finally break through and play some October baseball this year.

5. Brandon Moss, St. Louis Cardinals: This wasn't Moss' debut with the Cards, but his game-winning walk-off single to beat the Rockies 3-2 was his first meaningful hit for his new club. If he gives them the lefty bat they've been missing since Matt Adams went down for quad surgery -- possibly losing him for the year -- they can put off the lamentations over what Rob Kaminsky and his big-bending curve might be capable of for a while yet.

Christina Kahrl writes about MLB for ESPN. You can follow her on Twitter.