Cliff Lee and Brandon Webb have a lot in common. For one thing, they keep winning major league baseball games. But while they pitch in different leagues and different time zones and at different levels of the playoff race, the secret to both pitchers' success is keeping the ball on the ground.

On Friday night, Webb allowed only four hits to the Astros. Even more telling: He retired 16 hitters on groundouts. Webb has the best ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio (3.56) among major league starting pitchers; it's hard to hit home runs or blast extra-base hits if you can't get the ball out of the infield. After the game, manager Bob Melvin told the Arizona Republic he thought Webb's sinker was the best he has seen all year. "When the sinker's moving from belly button to knees, it can be a good night," Melvin said. "When you see guys actually having to adjust their swing in mid-swing, it means his ball is kind of unpredictable."

The lefty Lee is also keeping the ball on the ground. Not at Webb's rate, mind you, but Lee has failed to get at least eight ground-ball outs in only five of his starts this year. On Friday, the Indians turned four double plays, and when Lee is on the mound, the Indians' defense seems to play a little bit harder. Asdrubal Cabrera apparently agrees with that assessment. "I always play hard, but with Cliff I bear down more because I know he gets ground balls," Cabrera told reporters, through an interpreter, after Friday's game. Perhaps that's why Lee continues his Steve Carlton-esque season, being responsible for 31 percent of his team's win total.

It's so simple, isn't it? If the defense has a good idea that balls are going to be hit on the ground, they stay more alert. If they're more alert, they're more likely to make the play. The more plays you make, the more you win. Or maybe not. After all Derek Lowe, John Lannan and Ubaldo Jimenez all have GB/FB ratios better than 2.00 -- and they all have losing records. So maybe it's something else that sets Cliff Lee and Brandon Webb apart from the rest of the pack. Maybe it's just that they're both really, really good -- in some unquantifiable way that can't be summed up in a single sentence. And to a fantasy owner, it doesn't really matter "why" these two pitchers are head and shoulders above the rest, it only matters that they are. More importantly, it matters that there aren't any signs that their success is about to change anytime soon. In this case, there aren't.

Past editions: 8/15: Troika of pitchers headed to DL | 8/14: John Maine returns to the mound

Melvin Mora went 3-for-4 with four RBIs, and now has 15 RBIs in his past seven games. Mora is also batting .404 in 26 games since the All-Star break. … Going in opposite directions: Carlos Silva started the season 3-0; Francisco Liriano started the season 0-3. Look at them now. Facing off Friday, Silva was tagged for a career-high nine earned runs and now leads the league in losses with 14. Meanwhile, Liriano went seven strong innings, allowing no earned runs, and continues to be dominant in his return from the minors. … A couple of Royals hitters ended horrible slides Friday. Esteban German's third-inning double stopped an 0-for-17 streak, while John Buck's fifth-inning two-bagger put the brakes on an 0-for-30 stretch. … Mike Pelfrey allowed seven hits and didn't walk a batter in seven scoreless innings, beating the Pirates and improving to 9-2 in his past 15 starts. He's 11-8 overall. Aaron Heilman was the winner of the "Who's Going to Get Tonight's Save Opportunity?" lottery for the Mets. He now has three saves on the season. … Rick Ankiel might have finally conquered his abdominal strain. At the very least, he conquered Bronson Arroyo, hitting his first home run in three weeks. … Reds' left fielder Chris Dickerson, called up to replace the recently traded Adam Dunn, hit a solo home run and a double Friday and now has six major league hits, all of them for extra bases. … Matt Cain won his second straight decision (for the first time all season), striking out five and allowing only one run over seven innings. The Giants pitcher has a 1.81 ERA in his past seven starts but is only 3-2 over that stretch. … Jamie Moyer and Greg Maddux faced off in a "Battle of Elders" and earned much respect in the process. Pat Burrell homered off Maddux in the seventh inning for the game's only run while Moyer allowed three runs or fewer for the 13th consecutive outing. … Troy Tulowitzki and Brad Hawpe both homered for the Rockies, extending the team's streak of games with home runs to a season-high 10 games. … It's feast or famine for the Rangers. After scoring 17 runs in a loss to Boston earlier in the week, the team now has failed to score in all but one of its past 27 innings. Matt Garza threw a two-hit shutout for Tampa Bay. … Nick Swisher went 0-for-3 and was hit by a pitch in his return to Oakland. Teammate Carlos Quentin, who hit his 33rd home run of the season in the game, was just happy the pitch didn't hit him. Quentin had been plunked in six straight games. … Daryle Ward broke out of an 0-for-13 slump with a pinch-hit, three-run, game-winning, multiple-hyphenated-adjective home run off of Marlins Kevin Gregg.