Astros sweep as Twins lose 18th straight in playoffs
MINNEAPOLIS — Shaken up by a scandal before the virus outbreak shrunk the season, the Houston Astros barely played well enough to reach the playoffs — with the rest of baseball actively rooting against them.
Well, they’re not ready to leave yet.
Carlos Correa hit a twoout, tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning for the Astros, who produced another stifling pitching performance and swept Minnesota over two games with a 3-1 victory Wednesday that sent the Twins to a record 18th straight postseason loss.
“I know a lot of people are mad. I know a lot of people don’t want to see us here,” Correa said. “But what are they going to say now?”
Nine months after Houston’s rules-breaking, signstealing system was revealed, the Astros advanced to the Division Series in Los Angeles. As the sixth seed, they’ll face the Oakland Athletics or Chicago White Sox in a best-of-five matchup starting Monday at Dodger Stadium.
The Twins are 0-18 in the playoffs since winning Game 1 of their Division Series at the New York Yankees on Oct. 5, 2004, a total of seven rounds lost. Since that date, the Astros are 43-35 in postseason play, winning 10 of 15 rounds with three trips to the World Series.
RAYS 8, BLUE JAYS 2
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Hunter Renfroe hit a grand slam and the topseeded Tampa Bay Rays won a postseason series for the first time in 12 years, overpowering the young Toronto Blue Jays to finish a two-game sweep of their AL wild-card matchup.
Renfroe launched the first playoff grand slam in franchise history during a six-run second inning. Tyler Glasnow kept Tampa Bay ahead from there, allowing two runs — on a pair of homers by Danny Jansen — in six innings.
Mike Zunino hit a tworun homer off Blue Jays ace Hyun Jin Ryu during Tampa Bay’s big inning. Manuel Margot and Randy Arozarena also drove in runs as the Rays advanced to the AL Division series against either the New York Yankees or Cleveland Indians.
A’S 5, WHITE SOX 3
OAKLAND, Calif. —
Marcus Semien and Khris Davis homered early and the Oakland Athletics held off Jose Abreu and the Chicago White Sox in the late innings to send their AL playoff series to a deciding Game 3.
A’s reliever Jake Diekman walked home a run in the ninth, then retired the bighitting Abreu on a sharp grounder to end it and even the best-of-three wild-card matchup at 1-all.
BRAVES 1, REDS 0 (13)
ATLANTA — The scoreless innings kept piling up, along with the strikeouts. The shadows began to creep across the infield, and when the lights came on in a mostly empty stadium for a postseason game that began a little past noon, it seemed like this might go on forever.
Finally, Freddie Freeman had seen enough.
The MVP candidate who warded off a frightening bout with the coronavirus at the beginning of this most unusual season fittingly delivered the winning hit in the 13th inning, ending the longest scoreless duel in postseason history as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Cincinnati Reds in the opener of their NL wild-card series.
“That was a very stressful 41⁄ hours,” Freeman
2 said with a chuckle.
MARLINS 5, CUBS 1
CHICAGO — Corey Dickerson hit a three-run homer off a fading Kyle Hendricks in the seventh inning, and the Miami Marlins beat the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of their NL wildcard series.
Jesus Aguilar also homered and Sandy Alcantara pitched three-hit ball into the seventh as Miami conjured up memories of past playoff magic in the franchise’s first postseason game since it won the World Series in 2003. The Marlins, who rallied past the Cubs in a memorable NLCS that year, have never lost a playoff series.
CARDINALS 7, PADRES 4
SAN DIEGO — Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run home run during a fourrun first inning, St. Louis’ bullpen held strong after starter Kwang Hyun Kim stumbled in his playoff debut and the Cardinals ruined the San Diego Padres’ long-awaited return to the playoffs in the opener of their NL wild-card series.