Astros win, get help from Mariners to take AL West
The Houston Astros rallied to clinch their third straight AL West title, beating the host Arizona Diamondbacks 8-1 on Sunday behind Christian Javier's six strong innings and Alex Bregman's two-run, firstinning homer.
Needing a win and a Texas loss to win the division, the Astros did their part by jumping on Kyle Nelson (7-4) from the first pitch. Houston had a 5-0 lead after two innings and Javier (105) held an Arizona lineup mostly devoid of everyday players to three hits.
Kyle Tucker had a sacrifice fly to finish with 112 RBIs, most in the AL and third in the majors.
José Abreu added a tworun homer in the seventh as Houston clinched its sixth AL West title in seven years after the Rangers lost to Seattle.
Houston and Texas both finished with 90-72 records, but the Astros claimed the division title by winning the season series 9- 4.
The defending World Series champion Astros' fourth straight victory to close the regular season gave manager Dusty Baker his 13th season with at least 90 wins.
The Diamondbacks backed into the playoffs, scoring two runs in three games against the Astros to close the regular season on a four-game losing streak. Arizona finished 84-78 after going 74-88 last season and losing 110 games the year before.
MARINERS 1, RANGERS 0 ❯❯ George Kirby allowed three hits in six innings, and Seattle blanked visiting Texas.
A day after clinching the ninth postseason berth in franchise history, Texas only needed a win over the Mariners to wrap up the AL West.
But the Rangers couldn't solve Kirby, who closed the regular season with 12 scoreless innings over his final two starts against Houston and Texas. Evan Carter's two-out double in the third inning was the first hit for the Rangers, but he was the only runner to reach second base.
Kirby (13-10) struck out seven and needed just 75 pitches to get through six innings.
The Rangers' Dane Dunning (12-7) ran into trouble in the fourth with back-toback singles by Eugenio Suárez and Jarred Kelenic and a walk to Ty France loading the bases. Suárez scored on Dominic Canzone's groundout. PIRATES 3, MARLINS 0 ❯❯
Miguel Andujar hit a tiebreaking double in the eighth inning and host Pittsburgh defeated playoff-bound Miami.
The Marlins needed to win to assure themselves of gaining the second National League wild card and the fifth seed in the NL playoffs over Arizona. But the Diamondbacks' loss gave Miami the fifth seed and a matchup at Philadelphia. NATIONALS 10, BRAVES 9 ❯❯
Marcell Ozuna went deep twice and Atlanta tied the major league season record of 307 home runs but lost its regular- season finale to visiting Washington as Jacob Young drove in two runs with a go-ahead single in the ninth.
Ozuna hit a three-run blast in the third and then reached 40 for the season with a ninth-inning drive off Kyle Finnegan. Atlanta matched the season record set by the 2019 Minnesota Twins. The Braves set a major league record with a .501 slugging percentage.
Former major league pitcher Wakefield dies
Tim Wakefield, the knuckleballing workhorse of the Red Sox pitching staff who helped Boston win its curse-busting World Series title in 2004, has died. He was 57.
The Red Sox announced his death in a statement Sunday that detailed not only his baseball statistics but a career full of charitable endeavors. Wakefield had brain cancer, according to ex-teammate Curt Schilling, who outed the illness on a podcast last week — drawing an outpouring of support for Wakefield.
“It's one thing to be an outstanding athlete; it's another to be an extraordinary human being. Tim was both,” Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner said in the statement.
Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates as a first baseman who set home run records in college, Wakefield converted to pitcher after mastering the knuckleball in the minor leagues. Relying on the old-timey pitch that had largely fallen into disuse, he went on to win 200 major league games, including 186 with the Red Sox — behind only Cy Young and Roger Clemens in franchise history.
In 2004, with the Red Sox season at risk against the Yankees in the ALCS, Wakefield got nine outs in extra innings of Game 5, setting up David Ortiz to win it in the 14th. The Red Sox went on to complete their comeback from a three-games-to-none deficit and then sweep St. Louis in the World Series to claim their first title in 86 years.
The Red Sox, and Wakefield, won it all again in 2007.
“I can't describe what you mean to me and my family,” Ortiz posted on social media. “My heart is broken right now because l will never be able to replace a brother and a friend like you. Rest and peace my brother.”
Wakefield was 11-3 when he made his only All-Star Game in 2009. He was the oldest player in baseball at 45 when he earned his 200th win in September 2011.
He announced his retirement the following spring training, seven wins short of breaking the franchise record for wins held by Clemens and Young.
An eighth-round Pittsburgh draft pick in 1988, Wakefield got his callup midway through the 1992 season and went 8-1, finishing third in the NL rookie of the year voting.
He added two complete games in the NLCS — one in Game 6 to keep Pittsburgh alive. He was voted MVP of the Series late in Game 7, before the Atlanta Braves rallied to win on Francisco Cabrera's single with two out in the bottom of the ninth.
After two years with Pittsburgh, Wakef ield joined the Red Sox as a free agent in 1995 and spent the final 17 seasons of his career in Boston.
Showalter out as manager of Mets
For the fifth time in six years, the New York Mets are in the market for a new manager.
Buck Showalter was fired Sunday after a disappointing season in which baseball's highest- spending team tumbled from contention by midsummer.
The 67-year- old Showalter said before Sunday's game against Philadelphia that he will not return next year, and a few minutes later the fourthplace Mets announced the team had decided on the change. New York finished 74-87 and 291/2 games behind NL East champion Atlanta.
Showalter managed the Mets on Sunday at Citi Field. When he brought the lineup card to home plate, players and coaches came out of the dugout to join fans in giving him a standing ovation. Showalter saluted them on his way back to the bench, and the scoreboard displayed his image with the message: “Thank You Buck.”
Showalter took over in December 2021 and led the Mets to a 101-61 record last season, when he was voted NL Manager of the Year. New York lost to San Diego in their wild- card series, then added three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander to its pitching staff during the offseason. The Mets boosted their payroll to a record $355 million on opening day, but wound up dealing Verlander, Max Scherzer and several other veterans ahead of the Aug. 1 trade deadline.