WC round over after sweeps in all 4 series
Adolis García and Evan Carter homered, and the Texas Rangers beat the punchless Tampa Bay Rays 7-1 Wednesday to finish a twogame AL Wild Card Series sweep.
García and Carter connected against 16-game winner Zach Eflin, who was unable to save Tampa Bay’s season. Nathan Eovaldi also delivered for the Rangers, pitching 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball.
Texas advanced to a Division Series at AL East champion Baltimore starting Saturday. The Rays’ scoreless streak reached 33 innings, one shy of the postseason record held by the 1966-74 Los Angeles Dodgers, before Curtis Mead’s RBI single in the seventh.
Texas won a postseason series for the first time since 2011, when the Rangers reached the World Series before losing to St. Louis.
“It’s all about bouncing back, dealing with the tough times. You know you’re going to have them,” manager Bruce Bochy said.
“What’s important is how you handle it, and thse guys have handled it so well,” Bochy added. “I think we were counted out earlier in the season or late August ... but what a job they did to bounce back and to be in this position.”
After securing the AL’s second wild card, Tampa Bay lost its seventh straight postseason game. In getting swept in consecutive Wild Card Series, the Rays scored two runs over four games while hitting .161. PHILLIES 7. MARLINS 1 » Bryson Stott crushed the
second grand slam in Philadelphia Phillies postseason history and Aaron Nola tossed seven shutout innings that led to a win and a two-game sweep over the Miami Marlins in their NL Wild Card Series.
J.T. Realmuto also homered as the Phillies advanced
to another bestof-five NL Division Series against Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson and the Braves. Game 1 is Saturday in Atlanta.
The NL champion Phillies finished third last season in the NL East at 87-75, a full 14 games behind
the 101-win Braves, only to beat them in four games in the NLDS. The Braves were even better this season with 104 wins and a sixth straight NL East crown — clinched last month in Philadelphia — while the Phillies again earned a wild card with 90 wins.
TWINS 2, BLUE JAYS 0 » Carlos Correa contributed an RBI single and a quicktwitch tag off a pickoff throw from Sonny Gray, and the Twins swept the Blue Jays in their AL Wild Card Series.
The Twins advanced — for the first time in 21 years — to play the defending World Series champion Astros. Game 1 of the bestof-five AL Division Series is in Houston on Saturday.
It’s familiar territory for Correa, who played for Houston for seven seasons before signing with Minnesota
in free agency.
The Blue Jays, who lost their seventh straight game in the playoffs since the AL Championship Series in 2016, left nine runners on base after stranding nine men in Game 1. Matt Chapman had a liner go just foul before grounding into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the sixth.
Gray struck out six in five innings in his first career win in the playoffs.
The Blue Jays had runners on second and third in the fifth when Gray picked off Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at second, ending the inning. Gray whipped around and threw to the shortstop Correa, who grabbed the ball and grazed Guerrero’s chest with his glove a split-second before Guerrero’s hand hit the base. D’BACKS 5, BREWERS 2 » Zac Gallen settled down after a shaky start and Arizona’s bullpen stepped up at the very end, helping the Diamondbacks sweep their NL Wild Card Series against Milwaukee in Game 2.
Just two years after suffering through a 110-loss season, Arizona moved into the franchise’s first NL Division Series since 2017. The Diamondbacks will take on the NL West champion Dodgers in the opener of their best-of-five series on Saturday in Los Angeles.
Ketel Marte put Arizona ahead for good with a two-run single during a four-run rally in the sixth inning as Milwaukee right-hander Freddy Peralta faded after a strong start. Gallen allowed two runs in the first, and then sailed through the rest of his six innings.