AROUND THE HORN
Rays: Brandon Lowe hit three home runs and the Rays rolled to a 12-2 blowout of the Yankees on Saturday that prevented New York from clinching a playoff spot. With a chance to pitch his team into the postseason, Yankees starter Jordan Montgomery instead was rocked for a careerworst seven earned runs in2 innings. He gave up a pair of three-run homers to Lowe, who also went deep in the seventh against Michael King. Even with the embarrassing defeat before a booing home crowd of 41,648, the streaky Yankees can still punch their AL wild-card ticket Sunday with a victory in the scheduled regular-season finale against the Rays.
Blue Jays: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 47th home run and the Blue Jays pushed their AL wild-card chase to the final day of the regular season by thumping the Orioles 10-1 Saturday. The Blue Jays launched five homers while Alek Manoah allowed one hit over seven innings to help Toronto close within one game of the wild card-leading Yankees. Toronto began the day tied with Seattle, one game behind Boston for the second wild-card spot.
Yankees: DJ LeMahieu has a sports hernia that will require offseason surgery, but the Yankees’ leadoff hitter will attempt to play through the injury in October. The major league batting champion last year, LeMahieu was out of the starting lineup again Saturday in a critical game against the Rays. LeMahieu exited Thursday night’s victory in Toronto, received a cortisone injection Friday and was unavailable for the Yankees’ 4-3 loss to the Rays. The team had been calling the injury right hip and groin soreness, but after LeMahieu was examined by doctors Friday, manager Aaron Boone said Saturday morning the Gold Glove infielder “essentially has a sports hernia” that he’ll need to take care of after the season.
Rockies: The Rockies made Bill Schmidt their permanent general manager on Saturday, promoting him from the interim GM spot he’d held since May. The Rockies were 74-85 when they made the announcement before playing at Arizona. “After five months, it became increasingly clear that Bill was the right person to lead this franchise forward,” team president and chief operating officer Greg Feasel said. “He came into a challenging situation and quickly impacted the play on and off the field.” Padres: The Giants missed a chance to clinch the NL West on their own field, falling to the Padres 3-2 when Jake Cronenworth hit an RBI double in the 10th inning Saturday. A sellout crowd of 40,760 was ready to celebrate San Francisco’s first division crown since 2012, but the Padres spoiled the party, sending the raucous group to the exits in a state of disbelief.
Red Sox: Christian Vázquez tripled home the tiebreaking run in the ninth inning and the Red Sox moved to the brink of a postseason berth with a 5-3 win over the Nationals on Saturday. Boston is tied with the Yankees for the top AL wild card entering the final day of the regular season. The Red Sox will send ace Chris Sale to the mound Sunday needing a victory to punch a playoff ticket. If they win, they’ll host Tuesday’s wild-card game regardless of New York’s outcome because Boston won the season series 10-9. If the Red Sox lose Sunday, they will still be assured entry into a tiebreaker game.