DIVISIONAL SERIES ROUNDUP
Braves 2, Marlins 0
HOUSTON – Rookie Ian Anderson pitched like a poised veteran, right fielder Nick Markakis made a nifty defensive play late and the Atlanta Braves threw another playoff shutout, beating the Miami Marlins 2-0 Wednesday for a 2-0 lead in the NL Division Series.
The Braves have pitched three shutouts in four games this postseason. Travis d’Arnaud and Dansby Swanson each homered, putting Atlanta one win away from a sweep in the best-of-five matchup.
The 22-year-old Anderson scattered three hits and struck out eight over 52⁄ innings.
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The lanky right-hander who made his major league debut in late August added to his impressive outing last week in the wild-card series when he fanned nine in six scoreless frames against Cincinnati.
Athletics 9, Astros 7
LOS ANGELES – Chad Pinder tied the score with a three-run homer in the seventh inning, Sean Murphy hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth and the Oakland Athletics rallied past the Houston Astros 9-7 on Wednesday to avoid elimination in their AL Division Series.
Houston leads the best-of-five series 2-1 and can advance to its fourth straight AL Championship Series with a victory in Game 4 on Thursday.
The Astros wasted leads of 2-1 and 7-4, and the Athletics bounced back after giving up advantages of 1-0 and 4-2.
Houston led 7-4 when Marcus Semien and Tommy La Stella had back-to-back singles off Josh James starting the seventh. Pinder hit a first-pitch slider to the opposite field for Oakland’s fifth homer, a drive chased by right fielder Kyle Tucker until he ran out of room at the short wall.
Tuesday’s games
Rays 7, Yankees 5
SAN DIEGO – Randy Arozarena, Mike Zunino, Manuel Margot and Austin Meadows hit home runs, and Tyler Glasnow struck out
10 to set a postseason record for the Tampa Bay Rays, who beat the New York Yankees 7-5 Tuesday night to even their AL Division Series at one game apiece.
The Rays had enough pop to overcome a huge game by Giancarlo Stanton, who had two home runs and four RBIs. His impressive power display included a 458-foot, three-run homer that landed under the giant video board in left field at Petco Park.
Dodgers 5, Padres 1
ARLINGTON, Texas – It was a walk in the new park for the Los Angeles Dodgers to start the NL Division Series.
The Dodgers had already drawn nine walks before Mookie Betts got their first hit with one out in the sixth inning, and they went ahead to stay on Corey Seager’s sacrifice fly right after that in a 5-1 win over the NL West rival San Diego Padres in the opener of the best-of-five series Tuesday night.