MLB

Guerrero and Bichette star as streaking Blue Jays sweep Yankees, Braves edge Nats in walk-off slugfest

By Sports Desk September 10, 2021

The Toronto Blue Jays continued their red-hot form with an eighth consecutive win after taking down the slumping New York Yankees 6-4 in MLB.

The Blue Jays (77-62) boosted their Wild Card chances with another victory, sweeping American League (AL) East rivals the Yankees (78-62) on Thursday.

Toronto are now within a half-game of the Yankees – who have lost six straight games – for the final AL Wild Card spot.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. landed a solo home run in the ninth inning, bringing up his 100th RBI for the season.

The Blue Jays All-Star finished the four-game series with three homers, marking the eighth time this year he has hit three or more homers in a series. According to Stats Perform, it is the most by any player in a season in AL history and second most in MLB history, behind Giancarlo Stanton (nine times in 2017).

Guerrero Jr.'s run of homers has seen him close within one of two-way Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani, who tops the list for most home runs this season.

Toronto's Bo Bichette starred with three hits including two RBI, while he homered from the ninth pitch of the game when leading off.

Blue Jays ace Jose Berrios had eight strikeouts, with his game only blemished by Anthony Rizzo's moon shot.

 

Pederson walks it off for Braves

Joc Pederson's single completed a 7-6 walk-off win for the Atlanta Braves over the Washington Nationals. With bases loaded, Pederson hit a single to left field to get Ozzie Albies home in a game where five homers were scored.

Nicky Lopez starred for the Kansas City Royals as they won 6-0 against the Baltimore Orioles, hitting an early home run and driving in Hunter Dozier in the eighth, going three-for-five.

The St Louis Cardinals made up ground in the Wild Card race with a 2-1 win over World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers, where Tyler O'Neill hit a tie-breaking home run.

 

Phillies let it slip late

The Philadelphia Phillies led 2-1 heading into the ninth inning but allowed three Colorado Rockies runs to lose 4-3, denting their Wild Card aspirations. With two out, closer Ian Kennedy's breaking ball was clubbed for a two-run homer by Ryan McMahon. Sam Hilliard backed that up with a towering moon shot off Kennedy and the Phillies could not reel that in.

 

Manaea fans nine for A's

Oakland Athletics left-handed Sean Manaea struck out nine over seven innings of one-run ball as the A's beat the Chicago White Sox 3-1. Manaea may be deputy to Frankie Montas but he looms as a capable co-anchor. The A's are now 76-64 and second in the AL West.

 

Thursday's results 

St Louis Cardinals 2-1 Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland Athletics 3-1 Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians 4-1 Minnesota Twins
Miami Marlins 3-2 New York Mets
Colorado Rockies 4-3 Philadelphia Phillies
Kansas City Royals 6-0 Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays 6-4 New York Yankees
Atlanta Braves 7-6 Washington Nationals

 

Yankees at Mets

A crucial Subway Series between the Yankees and New York Mets (70-71) gets underway on Friday. Jordan Montgomery starts for the Yankees, while city rivals the Mets send Tylor Megill to the mound.

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    Chris Sale pitched six strong innings to become the first 17-game winner in the majors and Matt Olson drove in four runs to lead the Atlanta Braves to a 10-1 rout of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night.

    Sale (17-3), who hasn't been charged with a loss since June 27, became the first player in Braves franchise history to allow no more than two earned runs in 17 straight starts, passing Hall of Famer Greg Maddux's previous record of 16 starts. He also surpassed Padres starter Dylan Cease for most strikeouts in the NL this season with 219.

    Atlanta is now a season-high 14 games over .500 and pulled even with the Mets for the final NL wild-card spot. New York lost to the Phillies 6-4 on Saturday night.

    Shohei Ohtani went 0 for 2 with a walk and has stalled in his quest to be the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season, going 0 for 6 in his last two games since hitting his major league-best 47th home run on Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs.

    Atlanta scored six runs in the sixth inning, which featured Olson's bases-loaded double and RBIs from Whit Merrifield and Michael Harris II.

     

    Harper’s blasts rally Phillies

    Bryce Harper homered twice, Cal Stevenson hit a two-run, go-ahead double in the seventh and made a run-saving, highlight-reel catch in the eighth and the Philadelphia Phillies rallied to cool off the New York Mets with a 6-4 victory.

    J.T. Realmuto added an RBI double for the Phillies, who have won 10 of 13 and lead the Mets by eight games in the division. The teams will wrap up the three-game series on Sunday afternoon before the Mets host the Phillies for four games from Sept. 19-22.

    Starling Marte singled, tripled and drove in three runs and Luisangel Acuña had a pair of singles in his major-league debut for the Mets, who lost for just the third time in the last 15 games. New York dropped into a tie with Atlanta for the final wild card spot in the National League.

    With the Phillies trailing 4-0, Harper launched the first of his two drives off starter Luis Severino with one out in the fourth, a 397-foot opposite-field drive off an 85-mph changeup. He pulled Philadelphia within 4-3 in the sixth with a two-run shot off an 87-mph slider that came on a 3-2 count. The two-time NL MVP, who hadn't homered since Aug. 9, has 28 home runs on the year.

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    Adames stars as Brewers outslug Diamondbacks

    Willy Adames hit a grand slam as part of a two-homer night, Garrett Mitchell added a two-run homer and the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 15-8.

    Milwaukee's magic number to win the NL Central is down to 3.

    Arizona still has sole possession of the second NL wild-card spot, but is just one game ahead of the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets with 14 games to play.

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    Milwaukee scored seven runs in the second inning, all with two outs.

    Brandon Pfaadt retired the first two batters of the second before the next seven batters reached base. Turang and Jackson Chourio hit back-to-back RBI singles, Contreras walked to load the bases, Garrett Mitchell walked to force in a run and then Adames launched a sweeper into the left field seats for an 8-0 lead.

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    Gunnar Henderson tripled with two outs in the ninth inning to break up the Tigers’ combined no-hit bid and Detroit held on for a 1-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night.

    Beau Brieske and Brant Hurter combined to retire Baltimore’s first 21 batters before Adley Rutschman’s eight-pitch walk leading off the eighth.

    Brenan Hanifee retired the next three batters and Tyler Holton relieved to start the ninth.

    Emmanuel Rivera flied out and pinch-hitter Coby Mayo took a called third strike before Henderson pulled a first-pitch sweeper into the right-field corner for the Orioles’ second baserunner.

    Henderson became just the second batter to end a no-hit bid with a two-out triple in the ninth, joining the St. Louis Cardinals' Bernard Gilkey against the Chicago Cubs' Frank Castillo on Sept. 25, 1995.

    Holton then struck out Anthony Santander to remain perfect in eight save chances.

    Kerry Carpenter homered on the third pitch of the game from Zach Eflin, who allowed five hits in 6 2/3 innings.

    The Tigers have won five of six to pull within 2 ½ games of Minnesota for the final AL wild card.

    Brieske was planned to start as an opener and retired four batters while throwing 11 of 16 pitches for strikes.

    Hurter struck out eight in 5 2/3 innings while throwing 53 of 71 pitches for strikes. He started 17 of 18 batters with strikes, including his first 14.

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    Judge ends homer drought with slam

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    The star slugger had gone 16 games and 75 plate appearances without a longball before launching a clutch drive into the lower left-field seats off reliever Cam Booser in the seventh inning to give the AL East leaders a 5-4 advantage.

    Judge's eighth career slam and second this season sent the Yankee Stadium crowd of 45,292 into a frenzy, and he came out of the dugout for a curtain call.

    It was the 52nd homer of the season for Judge, who also leads the majors with 130 RBIs. He hadn't gone deep since Aug. 25, when he homered twice against Colorado.

    New York moved three games ahead of Baltimore for the AL East lead, its largest cushion since it led by 3 ½ games before a June 15 defeat at Boston that started a 4-14 slide.

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    Mets use homers to rout Phillies

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    Alvarez and Nimmo homered in a three-run fifth inning off Aaron Nola, Alvarez's second three-run homer in a span of three at-bats.

    Bader homered in the eighth against Tyler Gilbert and Pete Alonso went deep in the ninth off infielder Kody Clemens. It was the first big league homer allowed in 12 career pitching appearances by Clemens. His father, seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, gave up 363 in 24 seasons.

    New York All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor had an RBI double and left in the middle of the seventh because of lower back soreness. Manager Carlos Mendoza said it was precautionary and Lindor likely would've stayed in the game had the score been closer.

    Philadelphia leads the NL East by seven games over New York, which remained one game ahead of Atlanta for the last wild card. The series opener began a stretch of seven games in 10 days between the rivals.

     

  • MLB: Soto's walk-off hit in 10th lifts Yankees over Red Sox MLB: Soto's walk-off hit in 10th lifts Yankees over Red Sox

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    With pinch-runner Jon Berti on second as the automatic runner, Soto grounded a single against Josh Winckowski just past the glove of diving shortstop Trevor Story, and Berti slid home ahead of center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela’s throw to give the Yankees back-to-back walk-off wins for the first time in three years.

    Judge, who leads the major leagues with 51 homers and 126 RBIs, went 1 for 4 with a single and is batting .207 (12 for 58) with 21 strikeouts since Aug. 26.

    Gleyber Torres homered off Cooper Criswell leading off the first and Danny Jansen went deep against Nestor Cortes starting the fifth.

    New York (85-62) won for the fifth time in seven games and opened a two-game AL East lead over Baltimore (83-64), the Yankees’ largest since before play on Aug. 27. The Yankees have won seven straight series openers.

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    Rangers rally past Mariners in Rocker’s debut

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    Heyward, Singleton lead Astros over Athletics

    Jason Heyward hit a two-run homer early and Jon Singleton had three hits, capped by a tiebreaking RBI single in Houston’s four-run eighth inning, and the Astros got a 6-3 win over the Oakland Athletics.

    After Brent Rooker homered off Ryan Pressly with one out in the eighth to tie it at 2, Yainer Diaz and Kyle Tucker hit consecutive singles with one out in the bottom of the inning to chase T.J. McFarland and bring on Grant Holman. There were two outs in the inning when Singleton’s single to center field scored Diaz to put the Astros on top.

    Jake Meyers followed with a run-scoring double before the Athletics intentionally walked Heyward to load the bases. Mauricio Dubón singled on a ground ball to left field to score two more, pushing the lead to 6-2.

    Houston’s Framber Valdez allowed five hits and a run with six strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings to help the Astros avoid a three-game sweep and snap a three-game skid.

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