Rays still hold out hope for playoff berth
Blake Snell is locked in on the Tampa Bay Rays’ long-shot postseason hopes, not thinking about winning the AL Cy Young Award.
Snell took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning and got his major-league-leading 19th win, leading the Rays over Cleveland 3-1 on Wednesday. Tampa Bay closed within eight games of Oakland for the second AL wild card with 17 games left. The Athletics were playing at Baltimore on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, Cleveland’s magic number to clinch a third consecutive AL Central title remained at three.
At Detroit, the Houston Astros swept a series at Comerica Park for the first time, wrapping up a three-game set with a 5-4 victory over the Tigers. The Astros have won 10 of their last 11 games and entered with a three-game lead over Oakland atop the AL West.
At San Francisco, pinch-hitter Tyler Flowers drove in the goahead run in the ninth inning and the Atlanta Braves moved closer to clinching the NL East with a 2-1 victory over the Giants. The Giants lost their 11th straight, the worst skid since the team moved to San Francisco and the longest for the franchise since 1951.
The Braves reduced their magic number for winning the division to 11 with their fifth straight win, matching their best streak of the season, and clinched their first winning record since their last division crown in 2013.
At St. Louis, the Cardinals lost 4-3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cardinals begin a key fourgame series against the Dodgers on Thursday. St. Louis leads Los Angeles by two games for the second NL wild card. The Dodgers beat the Reds 8-1 as Yasmani Grandal and Justin Turner drove in three runs each to avoid a season sweep by the last-place Reds.
Joc Pederson homered for the Dodgers, and Grandal had three hits.