Wainwright wins for Cards in geriatric matchup

NEW YORK — Adam Wainwright won his fifth consecutive start in a rare matchup of 40-year-old pitchers, and the St. Louis Cardinals blanked the New York Mets 7-0 on Monday night.

Paul Goldschmidt homered and had two RBI for the surging Cardinals, who began the day one game behind Cincinnati and San Diego for the second National League wild card.

New York entered three games behind the Reds and Padres.

Wainwright, 40, a thorn in the Mets’ side since he saved Game 7 of the 2006 NL Championship Series by striking out Carlos Beltran with the bases loaded, allowed four hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out four as he outdueled 41-year-old New York starter Rich Hill.

It was the first time starting pitchers age 40 or older opposed one another since June 18, 2015, when 40-year- old R. A. Dickey started for Toronto against the Mets and 42-year-old Bartolo Colon.

Wainwright (16-7) had just one 1-2-3 inning but worked out of trouble by stranding seven runners, including the bases loaded in the first. New York left runners in scoring position in the fifth and sixth.

Wainwright is 9-2 with a 2.02 ERA in his past 12 starts, a span in which he’s gone at least six innings every time.

Dylan Carlson laced an RBI double in the second and Goldschmidt delivered a run-scoring single in the third before homering leading off the fifth.

The Mets threatened against Alex Reyes in the eighth, when Francisco Lindor walked and Michael Conforto singled before Reyes struck out the next three batters.

Nolan Arenado, Yadier Molina, Edmundo Sosa and Harrison Bader all had RBI singles in the ninth.

Hill (6-7) allowed 3 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks with 4 strikeouts in 5 innings.

MARLINS 3, NATIONALS 0 Sandy Alcantara allowed one hit over eight innings and visiting Miami beat Washington. With two outs in the seventh, Josh Bell lined a single off the base of the right-field fence to end Alcantara’s no-hit bid. The right-hander then retired his next four batters, leaving with seven strikeouts and no walks after throwing 96 pitches. Jesus Sanchez had a first-inning RBI single and Alex Jackson doubled home two runs in the ninth. Alcantara (9-13) was perfect through five innings but Keibert Ruiz reached on second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s error to open the sixth.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

BLUE JAYS 8, RAYS 1 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his major league-leading 45th home run, Alek Manoah set a career high by pitching eight shutout innings and host Toronto beat Tampa Bay. Teoscar Hernandez had his first career fivehit game and Bo Bichette added a solo home run, his 24th, as the surging Blue Jays improved to 12-1 in September. The AL East-leading Rays lost for the fourth time in five games and are 5-7 this month after going 21-6 in August. Facing lefthander Adam Conley in the sixth, Guerrero lined a 3-1 pitch down the left-field line, breaking a tie with Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels for most home runs in the big leagues. Guerrero also eclipsed the single-season high set by his Hall of Fame father with Montreal in 2000.

YANKEES 6, TWINS 5 Aaron Judge hit a tying three-run home run off Alex Colome with two outs in the eighth inning, Gary Sanchez lined a winning single in the 10th, and New York overcame a five-run deficit to beat visiting Minnesota Twins. New York, its season spinning out of control in the past two weeks, won for just the fourth time in 16 games following a 13-game winning streak. It closed within a half-game of AL wild-card leaders Toronto and Boston with 18 games to play. ASTROS 15, RANGERS 1 Jose Siri homered twice and added a two-run single in his first big league start, Yordan Alvarez hit a pair of 400-foot home runs and AL West-leading Houston overwhelmed last-place Texas. Siri finished 4 for 5 with five RBI while scoring three times for the Astros. Alex Bregman added a two-run home run, while Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve had two-run doubles. Houston built a 9-0 lead after scoring multiple runs in each of the first three innings off three Texas pitchers. Houston starter Jake Odorizzi left with right foot soreness after coming off the mound and running to cover first base for the first out of the second inning. Cristian Javier (4-1), the first of five relievers after Odorizzi, struck out 6 with 1 walk while allowing 1 run over 22/ innings.

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