White Sox end playoff drought
After clinching a postseason berth for the first time since 2008, the Chicago White Sox were low key during their on-field celebration.
Bigger bashes await greater achievements.
“We said we’re going to save it for when we clinch our division,” Eloy Jiménez said Thursday after his tiebreaking double capped a two-run, seventh-inning rally in a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins.
Chicago (33-17) opened a three-game lead over the second-place Twins (31-21) in the AL Central. The White Sox assured themselves of no worse than a wild-card berth.
José Abreu homered and drove in two runs and Edwin Encarnación also homered for Chicago, which won three of four in the series.
Chicago trailed 3-2 in the seventh when Abreu, who leds the major leagues with 51 RBIs, beat out an infield hit on a slow grounder to shortstop that drove in Jarrod Dyson from third base.
Jiménez, who had struck out in his three previous atbats, followed with a double that drove in pinch-runner Yolmer Sánchez.
Rays 3, Orioles 1 (1st); Rays 10, Orioles 6 (2nd) — The Tampa Bay Rays clinched a return trip to the postseason, using a strong pitching performance to beat the Baltimore Orioles in the opener of a doubleheader before cranking up the offense in a victory Thursday night that completed the sweep.
In the opener, Blake Snell and Diego Castillo combined on a three-hitter.
Needing a sweep to get into the AL playoffs for the second year in a row, the Rays got homers from Willy Adames, Hunter Renfroe and Joey Wendle before using a four-run fifth inning to take a 10-6 lead.
Yankees 10, Blue Jays 6 — The Yankees tied a major league record with five home runs in an inning and hit six overall in a win over the Toronto Blue Jays night that extended their winning streak to eight.
New York set a major league record for most home runs in a three-game span with 19 and became the first team with six or more home runs in three straight games. The Yankees (29-21) outscored Toronto 43-15 over the three games and ouhit the Blue Jays 44-28, opening a 2 1/2-game over the Toronto for second place and closing within one game of Minnesota (31-21) for a firstround playoff series at home.
Brett Gardner, DJ LeMehieu and Luke Voit homered on consecutive pitches in the fourth inning from Chase Anderson (0-2). Voit’s home run was his major league-leading 20th.
Aaron Hicks struck out, and Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres followed with home runs that gave the Yankees a 9-2 lead and chased Anderson.
Indians 10, Tigers 3 — Jose Ramirez homered twice on his 28th birthday, Shane Bieber took a shutout into the eighth inning and the Cleveland Indians snapped their eight-game losing streak with a victory over the Detroit Tigers.
Bieber (8-1) didn’t allow a run until his final hitter, Willi Castro, hit a three-run homer in the eighth. That cost the Cleveland righthander the major league ERA lead, but Bieber did become the first eight-game winner of this shortened season. He allowed four hits in 7 2/3 innings.
Bieber, a leading candidate for his first AL Cy Young Award, struck out 10 to raise his season total to 112, baseball’s top mark. He walked two.
Rangers 2, Astros 1 — Framber Valdez tied a career high with 11 strikeouts in 6 1/3 solid innings, Kyle Tucker homered and the Houston Astros beat the Texas Rangers.
Tucker gave the Astros a 2-0 lead with a two-run homer to right in the second that just made it over the wall.
Valdez (4-3) allowed one run on four hits. Valdez used his curveball consistently throughout his outing and recorded each of his 11 strikeouts on the curveball.
National League
Pirates 5, Cardinals 1 — Steven Brault pitched a two-hitter for his first career complete game, Gregory Polanco hit a three-run homer and the Pittsburgh Pirates snapped an eight-game skid with a victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Brault (1-3) had never pitched more than seven innings in his previous 43 starts.
Interleague
Angels 7, Diamondbacks 3 — Anthony Rendon hit a tworun homer and Mike Trout drove in two runs in the Los Angeles Angels’ victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
David Fletcher and Taylor Ward had three hits apiece for the Angels, who jumped to a 6-0 lead in the third inning and pounded out 14 hits on the way to their ninth win in 14 games.
Griffin Canning (1-3) finally got a win in his 10th start of the season for the Angels, throwing five innings of sixhit ball with seven strikeouts. He allowed two runs, one earned.
Giants 6, Mariners 4 — Wilmer Flores hit a goahead, two-run triple in the seventh inning of the Giants’ win that sent the Mariners their second home defeat played in San Francisco’s ballpark because of dangerous air quality in Seattle.
The series was moved to the Bay Area from Seattle because of smoke from West Coast wildfires affecting air quality. The nomadic Mariners headed to San Diego for three more “home” games at Petco Park.