Rockies lead the NL West

DENVER — After getting swept in Los Angeles, Colorado dropped 2½ games behind the Dodgers and had an off day before three games in Arizona. The Rockies held a team meeting.

“You’ve got two options: You can sit at your locker and cry about it, or you can flush it out and show up the next day, continue to win games,’” outfielder Carlos Gonzalez recalled.

Colorado hasn’t lost since.

David Dahl homered for the fourth consecutive game, and the Rockies opened a one-game NL West lead with a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday that extended their winning streak to seven.

Trevor Story and Gerardo Parra also went deep for the Rockies (89-70), who matched their longest winning streak this season. Dahl hit a run-scoring triple and finished the four-game sweep with eight hits and 11 RBI.

Seeking its first division title, Colorado closes at home with three games against Washington and already is assured its winningest season since going 92-70 in 2009.

“We’re on a roll right now and put ourselves back in the race,” Gonzalez said.

The second-place Dodgers (88-71) also are one game ahead of St. Louis (8772) for the second National League wild-card berth and finish with a three-game series at San Francisco.

Jose Bautista and Carlos Santana homered for the Phillies, outscored 39-7 in the series. Philadelphia (78-81), which struck out 14 times for the second day in a row, has lost a season-high eight consecutive and has gone 15-33 since moving a season-high 15 games over

.500 on Aug. 5. The Phillies are assured their seventh consecutive season without a winning record, their most since 1994-2000.

“I do not think that our team has quit on the season or quit in general,” Manager Gabe Kapler said. “Today was pretty good evidence that we still have some fight in us. Had baserunners late. Looked like it was going to be a game that might get out of hand early. We never allowed it to get out of hand.”

Scott Oberg (8-1) pitched 11/3 hitless innings in relief of Antonio Senzatela, who allowed 1 run and 5 hits in 42/3 innings. Oberg relieved with two on in the fifth and struck out Carlos Santana, then fanned two in a perfect sixth.

Wade Davis gave up Carlos Hernandez’s leadoff single in the ninth, struck out J.P. Crawford and Roman Quinn, then retired Rhys Hoskins on a popup for his NL-leading 42nd

save in 48 chances.

Jake Arrieta (10-11) gave up 3 runs and 6 hits in 6 innings. He had a 3.96 ERA, his highest since 2013, in his first season with the Phillies after agreeing to a $75 million, three-year contract on March 12, a month into spring training.

“Everyone will talk about this season as a failure, but I don’t look at it that way,” Arrieta said. “It’s unfortunate the way we’ve played the last couple of months. But if you view it as a failure, how does that bode well for us moving forward if we just look at it as we all failed? I think this was a success for us in a lot of areas and in some other areas not as much.

“Moving forward, we know we don’t want to continue to feel like this again. We know that we want to continue to play into October and we didn’t make that happen.”

Dahl hit his 14th home run in the first and Story hit his 35th in a two-run second that also included a run-scoring wild pitch that followed Andrew Knapp’s passed ball.

Bautista homered in the third, but the Rockies opened a 5-1 lead in the seventh when Parra homered as a pinch hitter and Dahl tripled.

“I think the ball actually might have hit me in the chest if I took it,” Dahl said of the pitch from reliever Tommy Hunter. “Fortunate enough to find some barrel and get the runner in.”

Dahl tied teammate Nolan Arenado with home runs in four consecutive games. Arenado also did it from June 19-22.

Santana hit a two-run home run in the eighth off Adam Ottavino, who walked Dylan Cozens and

struck out his next three batters.

Davis set a franchise record for saves in a season, surpassing Greg Holland (2017) and Jose Jimenez (2002).

METS 4, BRAVES 1 Julio Teheran looked sharp in his last audition to become part of the Braves’ playoff rotation, pitching two-hit ball for six innings in Atlanta’s loss to host New York. Jason Vargas (7-9) tossed seven shutout innings in his best start of the season for the Mets. He helped New York blank the Braves for the second day in a row. Teheran (9-9) allowed 1 run, struck out 5 and walked 2, exiting with a 1-0 deficit. His final regular-season start came exactly a week before the Braves are set to begin the postseason.

CUBS 3, PIRATES 0 Jon Lester combined with three relievers on a four-hitter, David Bote hit an early two-run triple and Chicago beat visiting Pittsburgh to open a one-game NL Central lead over Milwaukee. A day after the Cubs and Brewers assured themselves of no worse than wild-card berths, Lester (18-6) escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and allowed 3 hits and 4 walks over 6 innings. He improved to 6-1 with a 1.71 ERA in his last 8 starts.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

YANKEES 12, RAYS 1 CC Sabathia got his 246th victory and moved New York closer to hosting next week’s American League wild-card game with a rout of host Tampa Bay. Sabathia

was ejected in the sixth inning for hitting Jesus Sucre on the leg in retaliation for Tampa Bay reliever Andrew Kittredge throwing an inside pitch at Austin Romine. Making his final regular-season start, Sabathia had thrown 55 pitches and the five innings raised his season total to 153 innings — two shy of a $500,000 performance bonus in his contract for reaching 155 innings. TWINS 9, TIGERS 3 Willians Astudillo had a career-high 4 RBI, Tyler Austin added 3 and Minnesota beat visiting Detroit. Astudillo, playing in his 26th big league game, capped Minnesota’s five-run third inning when his two-out single drove in a pair of runs to give the Twins the lead. He also added a two-run double in the fifth.

ROYALS 2, INDIANS 1 (10) Salvador Perez slashed a two-out RBI single in the 10th inning to give host Kansas City a victory over Cleveland. Neil Ramirez (0-3) retired the first two hitters in the 10th before he walked Aldaberto Mondesi, who stole second and third to reach 30 steals on the season. Alex Gordon also walked before Perez hit Ramirez’s first pitch into left field to score Mondesi for the walk-off victory. Mondesi also homered for the Royals. RANGERS 2, MARINERS 0 First baseman Ronald Guzman broke a tie with an RBI single in the seventh inning, and Texas snapped a three-game losing streak with a victory over host Seattle. Guzman hammered reliever Zach Duke’s sinking fastball into the right-center gap, scoring Ryan Rua, who reached base on a one-out double.