Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Aaron Hicks hurts hamstring as Yankees beat Rays
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Aaron Hicks injured his left hamstring running up the first-base line in the Yankees’ 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night, another concern for New York heading into next week’s AL wild-card game.
Hicks’ 11th-inning double on Saturday drove Didi Gregorius with the run that clinched a postseason berth, and on Sunday the Yankees learned Sunday that Gregorius had torn cartilage in his right wrist during his headfirst slide across the plate.
Hicks, who had fouled a pitch off his left ankle just before the double, left Monday’s game with left hamstring tightness. He appeared to get hurt in the third inning while running to first base on a grounder to shortstop, successfully beating a relay throw and avoiding a double play. He was replaced by Brett Gardner in the middle of the fourth.
New York’s win eliminated the Rays and ensured a postseason berth for Oakland, which is likely to be the wild-card opponent but also is still alive in the AL West race. The Yankees began the night 1½ games ahead of the Athletic for home-field advantage. At 96-60, New York is assured of its best record since going 97-65 in 2011.
Gardner had a go-ahead single off Ryan Yarbrough (15-6) in a tworun fifth inning, and the 35-year-old made a running, leaping catch at the center-field wall in the sixth on Brandon Lowe’s two-out drive with runners on first and third. Pitcher David Robertson threw both his arms skyward after seeing the grab.
Catcher Gary Sanchez also is of concern to the Yankees. He had two more passed balls to raise his major league-leading total to 17 in just 72 games behind the plate. He had 16 last year, tied for most in the majors.
New York used eight pitchers and gave its starters extra rest ahead of the postseason, and the Rays managed just two hits — both off Sonny Gray (11-9). Reliever Jonathan Holder started and threw two innings, as did Grey. Zach Britton worked ninth for his seventh save.
Andrew McCutchen homered in the third, but Tommy Pham doubled
in the fourth, advanced on a passed ball and scored on Brandon Lowe’s double-play grounder.
Giancarlo Stanton had a run-scoring double in the fifth off Ryan Yarbrough (15-6) and is hitting .149 (11 for 74) with 10 RBIs in September. Aaron Judge hit a run-scoring double in the seventh, his second RBI since coming off the disabled list after recuperating from a broken wrist.
AMERICAN LEAGUE NATIONALS 7, MARLINS 3
Anthony Rendon homered and drove four runs, Bryce Harper reached 100 RBIs in a season for the first time and the Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins 7-3 on Monday night.
Juan Soto and Matt Wieters also homered for Washington, which broke it open with four runs on three pitches in the fourth inning. Harper started the big inning, driving in his 100th run with a sacrifice fly that scored Adam Eaton and put Washington ahead 3-1. Harper, a pending free agent who may be playing his final home series at Nationals Park, got a standing ovation from the sparse, rain-soaked crowd. His previous high was 99 RBIs in 2015, when he won the NL MVP Award.
Rendon and Soto then homered back-to-back on the next two pitches from Sandy Alcantara (2-2). Rendon lofted a two-run shot, his 23rd, down the left-field line, and then Soto lined one into the visitors’ bullpen in left-center to make it 6-1. Rendon extended his on-base streak to 32 games, the longest active streak in the majors.
RED SOX 6, ORIOLES 2 The Boston Red Sox broke a 106 year-old franchise record with their 106th victory on Monday night, clinching home-field advantage through the postseason by beating the Baltimore Orioles 6-2 thanks to a pair of hits from major league batting leader Mookie Betts.
Nathan Eovaldi struck out 10 hapless Orioles batters to assure the Red Sox of the best record in baseball this season and home-field advantage through the World Series, if they make it that far. For now, they know they will open the Division Series at Fenway Park on Oct. 5 against the winner of the AL wild-card game between the New York Yankees and mostly likely Oakland. The 1912 Red Sox won 105 games in their first season at Fenway Park.
The Orioles (45-111) became the sixth AL team and the first since the 2003 Tigers to lose 111 games, falling 60½ games behind Boston (10651) in the division. It’s the first time since 1939 that teams separated by 60 wins in the standings have played each other.
Boston scored four in the second inning, getting back-to-back doubles from Steve Pearce and Brock Holt, an RBI single from Christian Vazquez and Betts’ two-run homer over the Green Monster. It was the 32nd homer of the season for Betts, a new career high.
Betts also singled and scored in Boston’s tworun fourth, moving him into the major-league lead with 125 runs scored. In his last three games, he is 10 for 16 with three homers and four doubles, and he leads teammate J.D. Martinez (.328) in the AL batting race.
ASTROS 5, BLUE JAYS 3
Brian McCann and Josh Reddick hit back-toback home runs, and the Houston Astros beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-3 on Monday night to move one step closer to their second straight AL West title.
The defending World Series champions began the day with a magic number of three over Oakland to clinch the division — which would set up a best-of-five postseason matchup against AL Central champion Cleveland. The Athletics, who played later in Seattle, clinched at least a wild-card playoff spot when Tampa Bay lost 4-1 to the New York Yankees.
Dallas Keuchel (12-11) allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings for his first win since Sept. 3 against Minnesota.
Five relievers followed before former Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna came on to a chorus of boos in the ninth, his first appearance in Toronto since being arrested for assault in May. Osuna, who has 19 saves in 20 opportunities, was traded to the Astros on July 30. Many in the crowd of 23,463 jeered each of Osuna’s pitches.
In the first big league meeting between brothers Yuli Gurriel and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Houston’s Yuli opened the scoring with an RBI single in the first.
Younger brother Lourdes grounded into a double play in the bottom of the inning, then exited the game because of a sore left hamstring. Yangervis Solarte came on to play third, with Aledmys Diaz moving to shortstop.
McCann belted a second-deck drive off Blue Jays right-hander Marco Estrada to begin the second, his sixth homer of the season and first since returning from the disabled list Sept. 1 after missing two months because of a right knee injury.
Four pitches later, Reddick homered, his 16th. It was the sixth time this season the Astros have gone back-to-back.
Alex Bregman made it 4-0 with an RBI double in the third, but the Blue Jays answered with Kevin Pillar’s two-run homer in the fourth, his 15th. Solarte made it 4-3 with an RBI single in the fifth after a throwing error by third baseman J.D. Davis. Toronto loaded the bases with nobody out but Keuchel ended his outing by striking out Justin Smoak, getting Randal Grichuk to ground into a fielder’s choice and then fanning Pillar.