Rockies put crimp in Giants’ playoff hopes
Indians score 4 in 7th to stun Chisox
SAN FRANCISCO — Raimel Tapia hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the 11th inning as the Colorado Rockies rallied to keep contending San Francisco from gaining ground in the NL wild-card race by beating the Giants 5-4 on Thursday.
Jairo Díaz earned his fourth save by getting Austin Slater to ground into a game-ending double play. Several cheering Rockies jumped over the dugout rail celebrating.
The Giants (28-28), winners of three of their last five, dropped behind idle Cincinnati for the first NL wild card. The Reds (2928) visit Minnesota over the final weekend as the playoff-bound Padres come to San Francisco.
Trevor Cahill (1-2) took the loss after San Francisco had a chance in the 10th.
Brandon Belt — who homered in the eighth inning to tie the game on his 1,000th career hit — and Brandon Crawford were intentionally walked by Daniel
Bard (4-2). Shortstop Trevor Story fielded Evan Longoria’s grounder and threw Alex Dickerson out at home as San Francisco couldn’t capitalize.
INDIANS 5, WHITE SOX 4: In Cleveland, José Ramírez delivered a go-ahead, two-run double in the seventh inning as Cleveland beat Chicago for a four-game sweep in a matchup of playoffbound teams.
The victory pulled the Indians within one game of Chicago for the fourth seed and home-field advantage in the first round of the postseason. Idle Minnesota leads the White Sox by one game in the AL Central with three to play.
The Indians have won five straight and the White Sox have lost five in a row.
ASTROS 12, RANGERS 4: In Arlington, Texas, Alex Bregman’s three extra-base hits included one of Houston’s four home runs as Houston trimmed its magic number to one for clinching the American League’s last available playoff spot with a win over Texas.
George Springer and Jose Altuve also went deep with runners on base, and like Bregman, a native of Albuquerque, finished with three hits and three RBIs. BLUE JAYS 4, YANKEES 1:
In Buffalo, N.Y., Hyun Jin Ryu pitched seven shutout innings and Toronto clinched its first postseason spot since 2016 with a win over New York.
New York lost for the fourth time in five games and remained two games behind the Chicago White Sox for the fourth seed and home field for the first round of the postseason.
Toronto secured at least an AL wild-card spot.
CARDINALS 4, BREWERS 2: In St. Louis, Yadier Molina singled twice to reach 2,000 career hits and St. Louis began a five-game series between playoff contenders by beating Milwaukee.
Rookie Dylan Carlson homered, doubled and drove in three runs as the Cardinals (28-26) kept their slim lead over Cincinnati (29-28) for second place in the NL Central.
DODGERS 5, ATHLETICS 1: In Los Angeles, Walker Buehler proved he and his fickle right index finger are playoff ready, Corey Seager homered and LA beat Oakland for their ML-Bleading 40th victory.
Buehler allowed one hit in four innings, struck out six and walked one after returning earlier in the day after missing 12 games with a blister.
PIRATES 7, CUBS 0: In Pittsburgh, Chad Kuhl pitched seven sharp innings and Colin Moran and Bryan Reynolds each homered in three-hit games as Pittsburgh beat Chicago.
METS 3, NATIONALS 2: In Washington, Robinson Chirinos homered and drove in three runs as New York beat Washington.
ORIOLES 13, RED SOX 1: In Boston, José Iglesias, Pat Valaika and Austin Hays homered to lead Baltimore past Boston.
ROYALS 8, TIGERS 7: In Kansas City, Mo., Salvador Perez hit a three-run home run as Kansas City beat Detroit.