Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Stumble by Cardinals earns Brewers a berth
BREWERS 2, CARDINALS 1
ST. LOUIS — The Milwaukee Brewers clinched their first playoff spot since 2011 by ensuring at least a spot in the National League wild-card game, helped Wednesday night when a rookie St. Louis pinch-runner suddenly fell on his way to the plate in a 2-1 victory over the contending Cardinals.
Jhoulys Chacin pitched five shutout innings and Travis Shaw hit a pair of RBI singles as the Brewers completed a three-game sweep.
The Brewers (92-67) began the night a half-game behind the Chicago Cubs for first place in the NL Central and 3½ games ahead of Colorado for the top wild-card slot.
Milwaukee advanced to the NL Championship Series in 2011 before being eliminated in six games by the eventual World Series champion Cardinals.
St. Louis (87-72) entered a halfgame behind the Rockies for the final wild-card berth.
The Cardinals missed a big chance to tie it in the eighth inning. Matt Carpenter walked and was lifted for pinch-runner Adolis Garcia. Jose Martinez then hit a slow roller to third baseman Mike Moustakas, who threw wildly to first.
Garcia was waved home but fell halfway to the plate, allowing second
baseman Hernan Perez to easily throw him out to end the inning.
Chacin (15-8), who had lost his last three decisions, gave up 1 run on 1 hit over 5 innings. He needed a season-low 60 pitches and faced three batters over the minimum.
Xavier Cedeno, Corbin Burnes, Josh Hader and Jeremy Jeffress combined for four shutout innings as the Brewers held the Cardinals to a season-low two hits. Jeffress earned his 13th save in 18 chances.
Shaw’s single scored Christian Yelich, who walked all five times he came to the plate, and gave the Brewers a 1-0 lead in the third.
Shaw broke a 1-1 tie with an RBI single off Dakota Hudson in the fifth, again scoring Yelich, to make it 2-1. Jedd Gyorko’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the fourth made it 1-1. NATIONALS 9, MARLINS 3, 7 INNINGS More than 3½ hours before the start of what many expect to be his last game at Nationals Park as a member of the Washington Nationals, Bryce Harper stood at his locker and let his eyes linger on that familiar white jersey with the curly red “W’’ on the front and his last name on the back. Then Harper, who can become a free agent at season’s end, put on his full uniform, right down to the stirrups — the only player ready that far ahead of Washington’s 9-3 victory in its home finale against the Miami Marlins, which was stopped Wednesday after seven innings because of rain. The storm arrived, naturally, as Harper stood in the on-deck circle while the last out of the seventh was recorded. “I knew I wanted to get here and put the ‘uni’ on right away, and just cherish that moment, if it’s going to be the last time or not,” the outfielder said beforehand. “I can’t really stand here and say it’s going to be ‘farewell’ or anything like that, because nobody knows. Nobody knows what this offseason holds.” He was greeted by fans’ signs, standing ovations and chants of “Let’s go, Harper!” for each at-bat while going 0 for 4 with a pair of strikeouts. The Nationals — 81-78 and, like the Marlins, missing the playoffs — close the season with a three-game series at Colorado. “This is my home. This is my city,” said Harper, the only NL player with 100 RBIs, 100 runs and 100 walks in 2018. “Being able to come here — of course I root for the Golden Knights and I root for Duke and I root for the Cowboys and things like that — but I’m a Washington National.” METS 3, BRAVES 0
Jacob deGrom was dominant in what likely was his final pitch for
the NL Cy Young Award, throwing eight stellar innings and leaving with a major league-best 1.70 ERA as the New York Mets blanked the Atlanta Braves 3-0 Thursday night. DeGrom (10-9) made his final regular-season start, striking out 10 and allowing just two singles against the NL East champions. He retired the final 20 hitters after allowing a single to Johan Camargo. DeGrom gave up no more than three runs in his last 29 starts to extend his own single-season record. The All-Star ace also matched the overall mark set by Jake Arrieta in 2015-16. The Braves (89-69) had a six-game winning streak snapped. They began the day two games behind the Cubs for the best record in the NL. DeGrom recorded his 11th double-digit strikeout game this season and 32nd of his career. Most of his strikeouts came on sliders in the low-90s mph and his velocity was in the high 90s on his fastball throughout the night. AMERICAN LEAGUE BLUE JAYS 3, ASTROS 1
The Toronto Blue Jays gave outgoing manager John Gibbons a winning home sendoff Wednesday with a 3-1 win over the Houston Astros, who broke out the bubbly anyway. The World Series champion Astros actually clinched another AL West title when Oakland lost in extra innings at Seattle well past midnight Tuesday. Several of the Astros partied at a hotel meeting room, but they held a more traditional clubhouse celebration — complete with rain jackets and goggles — despite this loss. Houston opens their best-of-five Division Series matchup against Cleveland at home on Oct. 5. Before the game, general manager Ross Atkins announced that Gibbons will not return next season. The 56-year-old Gibbons has one season left on a two-year contract extension he received in April 2017. After getting the final out, Blue Jays closer Ken Giles gave the ball to
Gibbons and the Rogers Centre crowd of 22,828 rose for a standing ovation. Gibbons was in the midst of a postgame interview when outfielder Kevin Pillar came out and doused his manager with a cooler. Randal Grichuk hit a two-run homer and rookie Reese McGuire added a solo shot as the Blue Jays won with only three hits. Grichuk connected off right-hander Chris Devenski in the first, his career-best 25th home run. McGuire led off the fifth with a blast to right, the first of his big league career. RED SOX 19, 3, ORIOLES 3, 10
Chris Sale struck out eight over 42/3 innings in his final tuneup for an expected start in the AL Division Series opener before the Baltimore Orioles salvaged a split of Wednesday’s day-night doubleheader with a 10-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Boston won the opener 19-3, dealing the Orioles a franchise-record 112th loss. The Red Sox were 16-3 against Baltimore this year. A major league-best 107-52, Boston opens the Division Series at home Oct. 5 against the New York Yankees or Oakland. Sale left after giving up Adam Jones’ go-ahead, RBI double that made it 3-2 in the fifth. He threw 92 pitches, allowing three runs and four hits. In the opener, J.D. Martinez had three of Boston’s season-high 22 hits, including a three-run homer that brought his major league-leading RBIs total to 127. The Orioles (46-112) broke the franchise loss mark set by the 1939 St. Louis Browns went 43-111. The Red Sox had five homers and nine doubles and matched their biggest scoring output this season. The 14 extra-base hits were the most in the majors this year and the most for Boston since 1950. In the makeup of Tuesday’s rainout, David Price (16-7) settled down after an early stumble in his final start before the playoffs. He allowed three runs — all in the second inning — six hits and three walks, striking out six before leaving with a 10-3 lead after five. RAYS 8, YANKEES 7
Masahiro Tanaka gave up four runs and six hits over four-plus innings in his final start before the playoffs in the New York Yankees’ 8-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night. New York started play with a 2 ½-game lead over Oakland to host next Wednesday’s AL wild-card game and has the tiebreaker. The Athletics played at Seattle later Wednesday night. Yankees manager Aaron Boone hasn’t decided if Tanaka, JA Happ or Luis Severino will start against Oakland. A four-run, ninth-inning rally by the Yankees came up just short against Sergio Romo, who got the final four outs for his 24th save. Tanaka (12-6) was coming off a four-inning start last Thursday in which he allowed five runs and eight hits as the Yankees lost 11-6 to Boston. After falling behind by three, the Rays went up 4-3 on Tommy Pham’s third-inning solo homer off Tanaka. Pham extended his career-best, on-base streak to 28 games, the longest active run in the AL. He has a hit in 27 of them. Reliever Yonny Chirinos (5-5) went four scoreless innings and worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fifth by getting a double-play grounder from Stanton.
TWINS 11, TIGERS 4 Johnny Field homered twice, Jorge Polanco hit a bases-loaded triple and the Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 11-4 on Wednesday night. Tyler Austin also homered and Willians Astudillo had three hits for the Twins. Christin Stewart tripled and drove in two runs for the Tigers. Tyler Duffey (2-2) earned the win with two scoreless innings in relief of starter Jake Odorizzi. Detroit starter Matthew Boyd (9-13) gave up six runs in 32/3 innings. Field, a rookie outfielder claimed off waivers on July 24, gave the Twins a 6-4 lead with his second home run of the day. INTERLEAGUE ROYALS 6, REDS 1
Rookie Heath Fillmyer struck out a career-high nine, Adalberto Mondesi tripled, stole two bases and scored twice, and the Kansas City Royals wrapped up their 2018 road schedule with a 6-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night. Whit Merrifield, who went into the game tied for the American League lead in hits and leading in stolen bases, extended his season-high hitting streak to 16 games with a third-inning single. He also stole two bases. Alex Gordon tacked on a solo home run to help Kansas City to a third straight win and fourth in its last five games. The only run Fillmyer allowed was Jose Peraza’s 14th homer in the first inning. Fillmyer (4-2) retired 11 straight batters in one stretch against a Cincinnati team that has scored three or fewer runs in 13 of its last 14 games.