AROUND THE HORN
Jays: Marcus Semien became the fifth second baseman to hit 40 home runs in a season, and the Blue Jays moved back into a playoff position by beating the Twins 6-2 Saturday. Teoscar Hernández hit a three-run homer, and Bo Bichette had three hits and two RBIs as the Blue Jays rebounded from a 7-3 loss and improved to a big league-best 14-3 in September.
Sox: Xander Bogaerts homered and drove in four runs, carrying the AL wild card-leading Red Sox past the Orioles 9-3 Saturday for their fourth straight win. The Red Sox are one game ahead of Toronto and 1 games in front of the rival Yankees in the playoff chase. “It’s fun being able to go out there to help your team,” Bogaerts said. “We know every game is huge now.” Bobby Dalbec added a two-run double, and Hunter Renfroe and Rafael Devers each drove in a run for Boston. Bogaerts and Devers both had three hits.
Mets, Phillies: Minor league players in the Mets and Phillies farm systems are wearing teal wristbands Saturday to protest pay that they say is insufficient. At least 10 players from the Brooklyn Cyclones and Jersey Shore BlueClaws wore the wristbands — which feature the hashtag #FairBall — during their High-A game in New York. The demonstration was organized in part by Advocates for Minor Leaguers, which also handed out the wristbands to fans and distributed pamphlets detailing the financial issues faced by players. “Minor League Baseball players have been severely underpaid and silenced for decades,” players from both teams said in a joint statement released by Advocates for Minor Leaguers to The Associated Press. “Today, we are wearing #FairBall wristbands to show our solidarity with every fan and ally who is working to change that. We love the game of baseball, but it needs to evolve. It is time for every minor leaguer to be paid a living wage.”
White Sox: White Sox pitcher Mike Wright was suspended for three games and manager Tony La Russa for one on Saturday by Major League Baseball, which concluded Wright intentionally threw at the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani. Wright appealed the suspension issued by Michael Hill, the former Marlins general manager who is MLB’s senior vice president for on-field operations. The discipline will be held in abeyance until the appeal is decided by MLB special adviser John McHale Jr. Manager suspensions are served immediately, and La Russa sat out Chicago’s game at Texas on Saturday. Bench coach Miguel Cairo ran the dugout in La Russa’s absence.
Indians: Gary Sánchez failed to catch a foul popup that led to a seven-run fifth inning capped by Andrés Giménez’s threerun homer, and the Indians routed the Yankees 11-3 on Saturday afternoon to knock the Yankees right out of a playoff spot. “Definitely a play there that I’m used to making, especially this year. I thought I’ve been very good catching those flies,” Sánchez said through a translator. “I think this is the first one I missed this year but just a bad read there with the fly ball.”