Clinch is on hold for Diamondbacks

CHICAGO — The Arizona Diamondbacks delayed clinching an NL wild card berth, losing to the White Sox 3-1 on Thursday as Andrew Vaughn and Yoán Moncada homered for Chicago.

Arizona (84-75) is in position for the second NL wild card and its first postseason appearance since 2017. The Diamondbacks entered two games ahead of the Chicago Cubs and Miami, who were tied for the third and final spot. Arizona would have clinched Thursday with both a win and a Cubs loss at Atlanta.

Each team had three hits, and Arizona went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

Tanner Banks (1-4), the second of five Chicago pitchers, threw a scoreless fifth. Bryan Shaw got three straight outs for his fourth save in five chances.

Manager Torey Lovullo said Arizona, which hosts the Astros for the season’s final weekend, will make adjustments to its starting rotation if it is able to secure a wild card spot but is only focused on clinching playoff berth until that happens.

“I don’t care where we land, where we go or who we wind up playing against," Lovullo said. “Getting to the big dance is the most important thing and then we just play our game. We have very talented players and I think we match up with anybody.”

Tigers sweep Royals: A seven-run seventh inning led Detroit to a come-from-behind 7-3 win to cap an unconventional doubleheader sweep at home of lastplace Kansas City.

Spencer Torkelson’s three-run homer capped the Tigers’ rally after the Royals jumped on rookie Sawyer Gipson-long for three early runs in his fourth major league start.

Detroit took the opener, the completion of a suspended game from Wednesday night, 8-0 thanks to Miguel Cabrera’s 511th career home run and a pair of runs scored from the retiring Tigers great, who tied Mel Ott for 25th on the career home run list..

Athletics 2, Twins 1: Rookie Ryan Noda hit a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning and Oakland held on for a road win over AL Central champion Minnesota.

Noda’s 16th homer helped the A’s hold on after the Twins had tied the game in the sixth. It was just the third win in the past 14 games for Oakland, which avoided being swept and temporarily eluded their 111th loss, which would be the most in the majors since Detroit lost 114 games in 2019.