SUTER, BRAUN HELP BREWERS BEAT BUCS TO GAIN IN PLAYOFF RACE
PITTSBURGH» Brent Suter pitched five efficient innings, Ryan Braun homered and the Brewers beat the Pirates 3-0 on Monday night to gain ground in the NL playoff chase.
Milwaukee pulled within 3½ games of the Cubs in the NL Central and two games behind the Rockies for the final NL wild card. Chicago and Colorado were both off Monday.
Suter (3-2) allowed five hits and struck out four, throwing just 64 pitches before handing off to the bullpen. Four relievers split the final four innings, with Corey Knebel pitching the ninth for his 36th save in 41 tries.
Braun’s solo shot, his 17th of the season, came in the fourth inning off starter Jameson Taillon (7-7). In the sixth inning, former Pirates infielder Neil Walker added on with an RBI single that ended Taillon’s night.
MONDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
Aaron Altherr hit a grand slam, the first ever given up by Clayton Kershaw, to lead the Phillies past the Dodgers and their ace, 4-3. Chris Taylor and Justin Turner led off the game with consecutive homers and Curtis Granderson also went deep for the Dodgers, who opened play with a magic number of four to clinch the NL West. The Phillies have been a thorn in the side of Kerhshaw (17-4). The Dodgers’ ace left-hander dropped to 3-5 in his career versus Philadelphia, one of just three teams he has a losing record against. The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner was cruising until the sixth, when he allowed a bloop single by Freddy Galvis between a pair of walks to load the bases for Altherr. The Phillies outfielder crushed Kershaw’s 1-1 breaking ball 418 feet to left to give Philadelphia a 4-2 advantage. … Aaron Judge hit his 44th home run, Aroldis Chapman pitched out of big trouble in the eighth inning and the Yankees edged the Twins 2-1 to increase their AL wild-card lead. Todd Frazier hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the sixth, and Jaime Garcia gave the Yankees a splendid performance against the team that traded him this year after only one start. … Andrew Benintendi hit a two-run single in the 11th inning, Mookie Betts had four RBIs and the Red Sox beat the Orioles 10-8 for their ninth win in 12 games. Xander Bogaerts homered and scored three runs for the Red Sox, who maintained their three-game lead over the secondplace Yankees in the AL East and reduced their magic number for clinching a playoff berth to four games. Boston erased a fiverun deficit with a six-run fifth inning and needed 10 pitchers to beat an Orioles team that now has lost 10 of 12. … Giancarlo Stanton hit his 55th homer — and his first in nine days — while driving in four runs to help the Marlins beat the Mets 13-1. Batting third for the first time this year, Stanton hit a three-run line drive into the home run sculpture at Marlins Park in the fourth inning against Matt Harvey (5-6). With that, the MLB home run leader ended a drought of 29 at-bats without one. … Matt Olson homered, Jed Lowrie drove in three runs and the Athletics beat the Tigers 8-3. Tigers reliever Jeff Ferrell left the game in the eighth inning after getting hit in the head with a line drive off the bat off Ryon Healy. The hit was measured at 102.6 mph by StatCast and hit Ferrell in the right side of the head. He never went down, but jogged immediately toward the Detroit dugout and was escorted to the clubhouse.