Dodgers clinch playoff berth with 10-6 win against Giants
Cubs lose 2-1 to Cards as NL Central race goes to final day
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 30, (AP): The Los Angeles Dodgers clinched baseball’s final playoff berth and gave themselves a chance to still win the NL West, getting a go-ahead triple from Manny Machado in the eighth inning Saturday and beating the San Francisco Giants 10-6.
The defending NL champions locked up their sixth straight trip to the postseason, assuring at least a spot in the wild-card game. The Dodgers joined Colorado, Atlanta, the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee in the NL playoff field.
Los Angeles began the day one game behind Colorado for the division lead, and the Rockies hosted Washington later in the day. The regular season is scheduled to end Sunday – if Los Angeles and Colorado finish even, there will be a one-game tiebreaker for the West title Monday at Dodger Stadium.
Alex Wood (9-7) pitched the seventh for the win and Kenley Jansen closed it out.
Cardinals 2, Cubs 1 In Chicago, the Cubs wasted a solid performance by Cole Hamels, sending the NL Central race to the final day of the season.
The Cubs would have wrapped up their third straight division championship with a victory and a loss by the Brewers to Detroit on Saturday night. Chicago and Milwaukee would meet in a tiebreaker at Wrigley Field on Monday if they wind up with identical records, with the loser then playing in a wild-card game at home on Tuesday.
The Cardinals kept alive their chance for a wild card, but were eliminated by the Dodgers’ 10-6 victory at San Francisco. Miles Mikolas (18-4) pitched eight effective innings in his fifth straight win, and Carlos Martinez worked a perfect ninth for his fifth save in five chances.
Nationals 12, Rockies 2 In Denver, the Colorado Rockies dropped into a tie with Los Angeles for the NL West lead with only one game left, routed by Stephen Strasburg, Juan Soto and the Nationals.
Hoping to hold their one-game edge, the Rockies instead saw their winning streak end at eight. The Dodgers were 10-6 winners in San Francisco earlier to ensure the race will go down to the wire.
With game No. 162 on deck, the Rockies (90-71) are attempting to accomplish something they’ve never done since entering the league in 1993: capture a division title.
Yankees 8, Red Sox 5 In Boston, Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton connected as the Yankees broke the major league record for home runs in a season and reached 100 wins.
Torres’ two-run drive in the fourth was the Yankees’ 265th of the year and moved them past the 1997 Seattle Mariners. Stanton pushed the record to 266 in the seventh with his 38th homer, a solo homer to left field.
A fan sitting in the seats above the Green Monster threw the souvenir back, and the ball bounced into Stanton as he rounded second base. Astros 4, Orioles 3, Game 1 Astros 5, Orioles 2, Game 2 In Baltimore, Justin Verlander struck out 10 in six scoreless innings, helping the Astros take the opener of a doubleheader.
Houston shortstop Carlos Correa homered and hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the ninth inning. Will Harris (5-3) worked the eighth and Hector Rondon got three outs for his 15th save.
Verlander allowed three hits and walked one. His next outing will come in the postseason, which begins for Houston on Friday against Cleveland.
Rays 4, Blue Jays 3 In St Petersburg, Florida, C.J. Cron and Austin Meadows homered, powering Tampa Bay to the win.
Rays left-hander Blake Snell struck out 10 in five innings, but failed to win his 10th straight start. He was charged with a run and three hits.
Diego Castillo (4-2) got the win with two innings of relief. Sergio Romo pitched the ninth for his 25th save despite giving up a pinch-hit homer to Reese McGuire.
Reds 3, Pirates 0 In Cincinnati, Michael Lorenzen singled home a run and got his first victory as a starter since 2015, helping Cincinnati snap its seven-game losing streak against Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh has dominated the Ohio River rivalry, going 13-5 this season. The seven-game winning streak was the Pirates’ longest against the Reds since 1991.
The Reds let Lorenzen (4-2) make three starts to finish the season after 42 relief appearances.
Brewers 6, Tigers 5 In Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Brewers moved into a tie for first place in the NL Central with one game remaining in the regular season, getting two homers from MVP candidate Christian Yelich to beat Detroit and draw even with the Chicago Cubs.
Yelich turned on an 0-1 pitch from
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left-hander Daniel Stumpf (1-5) and lined it into the second deck in right to break a 5-all tie in the seventh inning. The left-handed slugger also hit a tworun homer in the third inning of the Brewers’ sixth straight win.
Phillies 3, Braves 0 In Philadelphia, Aaron Nola pitched seven shutout innings and Cesar Hernandez had a two-run single in the seventh inning to help the Philadelphia Phillies snap a nine-game losing streak.
Nola (17-6) was stellar in his final start of the season, allowing two hits and striking out eight with four walks. The right-hander ended 2018 with a 2.37 ERA and 224 strikeouts in 2121/3 innings.
He likely will fall short of a NL Cy Young award after stumbling a bit in September.
Twins 8, White Sox 3 In Minneapolis, Joe Mauer reached base three times and Kyle Gibson capped a season of improvement with six quality innings as Minnesota matched a season high with its fifth straight win.
Mauer had two hits and scored twice in what could be his final homestand after a 15-year career in Minnesota. Mauer has said he’ll contemplate retirement once the season is over, but he’s showing he can still swing the bat with a strong September.
Mauer, who entered the day with a major league-leading .410 average with runners in scoring position, drove in a run with a single as part of a sixrun second inning. He is hitting .365 with eight RBIs in his last 16 games.
Royals 9, Indians 4
In Kansas City, Adalberto Mondesi hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer to lift Kansas City.
Corey Kluber gave up three runs and seven hits in five innings in his final regular season start for Cleveland while working on a short pitch count ahead of the playoffs.
Indians catcher Yan Gomes left the game in the bottom of the third with an injured right hand after he was hit by Alex Gordon’s bat on a backswing as he attempted to throw out would-be base-stealer Mondesi.
Diamondbacks 5, Padres 4 In San Diego, rookie Ildemaro Vargas hit his first home run, got his first stolen base and drove in three runs to lead Arizona.
Vargas hit an RBI single in the first inning and a two-run homer in the fourth, both off rookie Jacob Nix (2-5).
Vargas’ homer staked Zack Godley to a 4-0 lead and the Diamondbacks held on to give the right-hander his career-high 15th win.
Mets 1, Marlins 1, 13 Innings In New York, much like the last few years of his truncated career, David Wright’s finale was no fairytale at the plate.
Wright left to a long standing ovation before a sellout crowd at Citi Field in his farewell game for the Mets.
The team captain went 0 for 1 with a walk against the Marlins.
Mariners 4, Rangers 1 In Seattle, Dee Gordon drove in the go-ahead run with a triple in the seventh inning, and James Paxton struck out nine to go over 200 for the season to lead the Mariners.
Paxton came into the day with 199 strikeouts and wasted no time becoming the sixth pitcher in team history to reach 200, striking out leadoff batter Jurickson Profar.
It was one of nine strikeouts in the game for Paxton, who allowed one run and seven hits over six innings and didn’t give up a walk.
Athletics 5, Angels 2 In Anaheim, California, Khris Davis hit his major league-leading 48th homer and the Athletics locked up their best-winning season in 16 years.
Jed Lowrie homered and drove in two runs for the playoff-bound A’s (97-64), who hadn’t won 97 games since going 103-59 in 2002.
A majors-best 42-22 since the AllStar break, the A’s are already locked into a trip to New York on Wednesday for the AL wild card playoff game against the Yankees.