Giants fall, 5-4, to Rockies, stumble in NL wild-card pursuit
SAN FRANCISCO — Raimel Tapia hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the 11th inning, and the Colorado Rockies rallied to keep contending San Francisco from gaining ground in the NL wild-card race by beating the Giants 5-4 on Thursday.
Jairo Díaz earned his fourth save by getting Austin Slater to ground into a game-ending double play. Several cheering Rockies jumped over the dugout rail celebrating.
The Giants (28-28), winners of three of their last five, dropped behind idle Cincinnati for the first NL wild card. The Reds (29-28) visit Minnesota over the final weekend as the playoff-bound Padres come to San Francisco.
Trevor Cahill (1-2) took the loss after San Francisco had a chance in the 10th.
Brandon Belt — who homered in the eighth inning to tie the game on his 1,000th career hit — and Brandon Crawford were intentionally walked by Daniel Bard (4-2). Shortstop Trevor Story fielded Evan Longoria’s grounder and threw Alex Dickerson out at home as San Francisco couldn’t capitalize.
Pirates 7, Cubs 0
PITTSBURGH — Chad Kuhl pitched seven sharp innings and Colin Moran and Bryan Reynolds had home runs among their three hits each in Pittsburgh’s victory over slumping Chicago.
Kuhl (2-3) retired his first nine batters and had a no-hitter until Anthony Rizzo doubled to the wall in right-center with one out in the sixth inning.
The Cubs, who clinched a postseason berth Tuesday, are stumbling toward the playoffs with five losses in six games. They have scored two or fewer runs in each of the five defeats. Chicago’s number for clinching the NL Central remained two. The Cubs’ only other hit was Jason Kipnis’ double in the seventh.
Moran connected in the first inning to open the scoring and Reynolds homered in the second off Alec Mills (5-5). The Pirates got a third solo homer in the third inning from Adam Frazier to move in front 3-0 and Josh Bell hit a two-run blast in the fifth off Kyle Ryan that pushed the lead to 6-0.
Mets 3, Nats 2
WASHINGTON — Robinson Chirinos homered and drove in three runs, and the New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals 3-2 on Thursday night to keep their flickering postseason hopes alive.
The Mets (26-31) moved within 2 1/2 games of Miami (28-28) for second place in the NL East and within 2 1/2 games of San Francisco (2828) for the NL’s second wild card spot.
David Peterson (6-2) closed his rookie season with his longest outing, going seven innings and allowing four hits and one run while striking out four. He leads New York in victories with two more than ace Jacob deGrom. Peterson is in line to become the sixth rookie ever to lead the Mets in victories and the first since Dillon Gee in 2011.
Justin Wilson worked the eighth, and Edwin Diaz gave up a two-out, RBI single to
Yadiel Hernandez in the ninth but escaped further trouble for his sixth save.
Chirinos, acquired from Texas on Aug. 31, began the day hitting .149 with no homers and four RBIs in 67 at-bats between his two stops this season. But he belted a tworun homer off Washington starter Patrick Corbin (2-7) in the fifth, then legged out a two-out, RBI infield single an inning later to give the Mets a 3-1 lead.
Corbin threw a season-high 113 pitches over seven innings, yielding 10 hits and three runs while striking out three. Corbin was 0-5 with a 5.64 ERA in five September starts but did go at least six innings in each of his last three outings for the Nationals, who were eliminated from the playoffs Wednesday.
Indians 5, White Sox 4
CLEVELAND — José Ramírez delivered a go-ahead, two-run double in the seventh inning and the Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox 5-4 Thursday night for a fourgame sweep in a matchup of playoff-bound teams.
The victory pulled the Indians within one game of Chicago for the fourth seed and home-field advantage in the first round of the postseason. Idle Minnesota leads the White Sox by one game in the AL Central with three to play.
The Indians have won five straight and the White Sox have lost a season-high five in a row.
Chicago scored three times in the top of the seventh to take a 4-1 lead, but the Indians answered with four in the bottom half. Ramírez’s two-out double to center off Carlos Rodón (0-2) drove in César Hernández and Delino DeShields.
On Tuesday night, Ramírez hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 10th inning to give Cleveland a 5-3 win over White Sox that clinched a playoff spot.
The AL MVP candidate went 2 for 3 in the series finale and is hitting .485 with eight homers and 20 RBIs over his last 13 games.
Cam Hill (2-0) worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the win and Brad Hand pitched the ninth for his AL-high 15th save in 15 chances.
Blue Jays 4, Yankees 1
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Hyun Jin Ryu pitched seven shutout innings and the Toronto Blue Jays clinched their first postseason spot since 2016, beating the Yankees 4-1 Thursday night and further damaging New York’s chances of hosting a first-round playoff series.
New York lost for the fourth time in five games and remained two games behind the slumping White Sox for the fourth seed. Chicago lost 5-4 at Cleveland, its fifth straight defeat.
Toronto secured at least an AL wild-card spot and ensured its eighth trip overall to the postseason.
Blue Jays players embraced on the diamond at their temporary home of Sahlen Field in Buffalo after Rafael Dolis struck out Aaron Hicks to end it.
The Blue Jays trail the Yankees by two games for second place in the AL East.
Both teams have three games remaining. Toronto hosts Baltimore in Buffalo while the Yankees host the Marlins.
New York failed to hit a homer for the fourth straight game, matching its longest streak since June 2016. It’s the first time the Yankees have failed to homer in a fourgame series since doing so at Texas in July 2013.
New York loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth, but pinch-hitter Gary Sánchez flied out to deep center, where Randal Grichuk made a leaping catch at the wall.