Rays clinch AL East title
Randy Arozarena homered twice and the Tampa Bay Rays clinched their first AL East title in 10 years Wednesday night with an 8-5 victory over the New York Mets.
Joey Wendle and Brandon Lowe also went deep for the Rays to back Tyler Glasnow's six solid innings. Tampa Bay will be home at quirky Tropicana Field for a best-of-three first-round playoff series beginning next Tuesday.
It is the third division crown for the thrifty Rays, who also won the AL East in 2008 and 2010. Their inaugural season was 1998.
After missing a chance to clinch Tuesday, the Rays went into Wednesday again needing just a win or a New York Yankees loss against Toronto to lock up the division championship.
The Rays (37-20) broke a 2-all tie in the sixth on Arozarena's two-run homer off Michael Wacha and pulled away, taking care of business themselves.
With one out in the sixth, Brandon Lowe singled off Wacha (1-4). Arozarena homered to center field on the next pitch.
Lowe, who had an RBI fielder’s choice in the third, hit a two-run homer in the eighth. Willy Adames added an RBI single later in the inning and Arozarena homered again in the ninth.
Angels 5, Padres 2 — The euphoria of clinching their first playoff berth in 14 seasons three days earlier was tempered for the San Diego Padres when right-hander Mike Clevinger was suddenly pulled after only one inning of his start.
Clevinger was sent for an MRI on his right biceps while the Padres were losing to the Los Angeles Angels. If the Padres get bad news, it will be a big setback for their playoff rotation.
Diamondbacks 7, Rangers 3 — Rookie Wyatt Mathisen hit his first two career homers, fellow rookie Daulton Varsho knocked in the goahead run with a triple, and the Arizona Diamondbacks rallied for a victory over the Texas Rangers.
The Diamondbacks trailed 3-1 going into the sixth but rallied for a six-run inning off Rangers pitchers Wes Benjamin, Nick Goody and Brett Martin. Arizona sent 10 batters to the plate. Carson Kelly had a game-tying, two-run single, Varsho followed with the go-ahead triple, and then Mathisen and Tim Locastro hit backto-back homers to push the lead to 7-3.
American League
Indians 3, White Sox 2 — Shane Bieber lowered his ERA to 1.63 in his final regular-season start, the lowest in the American League since Luis Tiant’s 1.60 for Cleveland in 1968, and Jordan Luplow hit a game-ending home run that gave the Indians a win over Chicago.
Bieber, who leads the big leagues with eight wins, allowed an unearned run and two hits in five innings with 10 strikeouts. The right-hander also is first in baseball with 122 strikeouts and eight double-digit strikeout games.
Blue Jays 14, Yankees 1 — Gary Sánchez made two of his team’s season-high four errors and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the sloppy Yankees, dealing New York perhaps a fatal blow in its race for home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Danny Jansen homered twice, once off No. 3 catcher Erik Kratz in the eighth, as the Blue Jays reduced their magic number to one for clinching a wild card berth and their first postseason appearance since 2016.
Mariners 3, Astros 2 — In what was supposed to be a rebuilding season the Seattle Mariners will go into the final weekend with an outside shot at the postseason.
Nick Margevicius tossed six shutout innings, France drove in a pair of runs and the Mariners kept their slim postseason hopes alive with a win over Houston.
Seattle closed out the home portion of its schedule taking two of three from the Astros and enter the final weekend three back of Houston with four games to play for second place in the AL West. Seattle closes with four games at Oakland, while the Astros go to Texas for four games.
National League
Phillies 12, Nationals 3 — Bryce Harper showed up to Nationals Park, his old stomping grounds, about six hours before Wednesday night’s first pitch to get treatment for a bothersome back, then got a chance to stay off his feet a bit as the designated hitter instead of an outfielder.
All Harper did was smack a pair of homers to help his current club, the Philadelphia Phillies, keep their playoff hopes afloat — and push his former club, the Washington Nationals, to the brink of elimination a year after they won the World Series.
With Harper leading the way, and homers from Andrew McCutchen, Didi Gregorius and Andrew Knapp, too, the Phillies beat the Nationals.
Reds 6, Brewers 1 — Joey Votto homered for his first hit all season against Milwaukee, Trevor Bauer dominated on short rest and the Reds won a pivotal series for playoff contention, beating the Brewers.
The Reds are in position for a wild-card playoff berth after taking two of three from their NL Central rival. Cincinnati has won nine of 11, its best streak of the season, to get a shot at its first playoff appearance since a wild-card berth in 2013 under manager Dusty Baker.
Cubs 2, Pirates 1 — Adam Frazier and Ke’Bryan Hayes led off the bottom of the first inning with back-toback homers off Kyle Hendricks, giving the Pittsburgh Pirates all the offense they’d need to slip by the playoffbound Chicago Cubs.
The Cubs clinched their fifth postseason spot in six years on Tuesday night and maintain a fairly healthy lead in the NL Central with four days left in the regular season.
Braves 9, Marlins 4 — Dansby Swanson hit a three-run homer and the Atlanta Braves cruised to their third straight win over the Miami Marlins, in a game overshadowed by Max Fried’s early departure with an ankle injury.
The Braves ace was making his final regular-season start, hoping to boost his NL Cy Young Award credentials ahead of starting Game 1 in the NL playoffs next week.
But Fried lasted only one inning, tweaking an ankle while fielding a bunt down the third-base line by Starling Marte. While the lefthander didn’t appear to be hurt, he wasn’t the same pitcher after the play.