Freeman, Braves win marathon vs. Reds
Freddie Freeman singled home the winning run in the 13th inning, finally ending the longest scoreless duel in postseason history as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Cincinnati Reds 1- 0 in the opener of their NL wild-card series on Wednesday.
What began as a pitching showdown between between Cy Young contenders Trevor Bauer of the Reds and Atlanta’s Max Fried devolved into a strikeout contest.
The teams combined for a postseason record 37 strikeouts — 21 by the Braves. After a couple of hits in the 13th against Archie Bradley, Freeman drove one into center field off Amir Garrett with one out to end it.
Marlins 5, Cubs 1
Corey Dickerson hit a three-run homer off a fading Kyle Hendricks in the seventh inning, and the Miami Mar
lins beat the Chicago Cubs 5-1 on Wednesday in Game 1 of their NL wild-card series.
Jesús Aguilar also homered and Sandy Alcantara pitched three-hit ball into the seventh for Miami.
Alcantara (1- 0) struck out four and walked three in 6 2/3 innings in his first career playoff start.
Chicago got its only run on Ian Happ’s two-out drive in the fifth for his first postseason homer.
A’s 5, White Sox 3
Marcus Semien and Khris Davis homered early and the Oakland Athletics held off José Abreu and the Chicago White Sox in the late innings for a 5-3 win Wednesday that sent their AL playoff series to a deciding Game 3.
A’s reliever Jake Diekman walked home a run in the ninth, then retired Abreu on a sharp grounder to end it and even the best-of-three wild-card matchup at 1- all.
Chris Bassitt allowed one run on six hits in seven-plus innings during an impressive postseason debut as the AL West champion A’s snapped a six-game postseason losing streak dating to 2013.
Astros 3, Twins 1
Carlos Correa hit a two- out, tiebreaking home run in the seventh
inning for the Houston Astros, who produced another stifling pitching performance and swept Minnesota with a 3-1 victory Wednesday that sent the Twins to a record 18th straight postseason loss.
Kyle Tucker hit two RBI singles
for the Astros and made a key throw from left field for the inningending out in the fifth.
Rookie Cristian Javier worked three hitless innings in relief for the victory in his postseason debut and Ryan Pressly pitched a perfect ninth against his former team.