MLB Playoff Push: Mets delay Phillies' playoff clinch with win

Another day of baseball in September and two more teams have guaranteed they'll be playing in October.

On Thursday, both the National League's Los Angeles Dodgers and American League's Cleveland Guardians clinched their spots in the post-season, joining the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers, who did so the day before.

The Philadelphia Phillies could have clinched a playoff berth with a win over the New York Mets, but were ultimately delayed. The Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks maintained their positions in the National League's wild-card race while the Atlanta Braves, despite thrashing the Reds, remained two games back of the last wild-card spot.

In the American League, the surging Detroit Tigers took over the third wild-card spot after their fourth straight win, combined with a costly Minnesota Twins loss.

Here's a roundup of all MLB games from Thursday.

METS 10, PHILLIES 6

NEW YORK — Mark Vientos, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Alvarez homered off Taijuan Walker, and New York scored 10 runs in three straight games for the first time in their 63-year history with a victory over Philadelphia.

Philadelphia, which leads the NL East by six games over second-place New York, failed in its second attempt to clinch after losing Wednesday at Milwaukee. The Phillies would clinch a playoff berth with one win over the Mets during the four-game series and would clinch their first division title since 2011 with two victories over the Mets this week.

New York won its fourth straight game and for the 16th time in its last 20, maintaining a two-game lead over Atlanta for the NL’s final wild-card position.

Rookie Luisangel Acuña, a brother of Atlanta star Ronald Acuña Jr., drove in the 10th run with an RBI triple in the seventh off José Alvarado. The Mets were coming off 10-1 and 10-0 routs of Washington and are 61-33 following a 24-35 start.

Mets star shortstop Francisco Lindor missed his fourth straight game because of a sore back.

DODGERS 20, MARLINS 4

MIAMI — Shohei Ohtani became the first player in major league history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season when he homered three times and stole two bases to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a playoff-clinching 20-4 rout of the Miami Marlins on Thursday.

Ohtani also became the first player with three homers and two steals in a game. He doubled twice, had a career-best six hits and set a Dodgers record with 10 RBIs. His 51 homers this season broke Shawn Green’s franchise record of 49, set in 2001.

The Japanese star began the day two homers and one steal shy of the 50-50 mark. Ohtani doubled to lead off the game and then swiped third to get to 50 steals. He stole his 51st base in the second inning.

Ohtani homered in the sixth off reliever George Soriano, a 438-foot drive to the second deck in right-centre. His 49th homer put the Dodgers ahead 9-3. His turn came again in the seventh and Ohtani connected with his historic blast, an opposite-field shot over the left-field wall against Mike Baumann.

Ohtani was mobbed by his Dodgers teammates when he reached the dugout. The crowd of 15,548 continued cheering until Ohtani emerged from the dugout for a curtain call.

ORIOLES 5, GIANTS 3

BALTIMORE — Anthony Santander hit a game-winning home run — his 42nd of the season — and Baltimore edged closer to the postseason with a victory over San Francisco.

Santander’s two-run shot off Ryan Walker (9-4) in the bottom of the ninth came after Casey Schmitt’s game-tying single off Seranthony Domínguez in the top half.

It landed just a few feet over the ground crew shed in right-centre to end an afternoon that began with Baltimore having lost three in a row and eight of 10 to start five games behind New York in the AL East and 2.5 up on Kansas City for the top wild card place.

GUARDIANS 3, TWINS 2, 10 INNINGS

CLEVELAND — Andrés Giménez singled home José Ramírez from second base in the 10th inning as Cleveland clinched a playoff berth in dramatic, fitting fashion, beating Minnesota.

With Ramírez on second as the automatic runner, Minnesota reliever Caleb Thielbar (2-4) struck out Josh Naylor and the Twins walked Lane Thomas intentionally to face Giménez.

Cleveland’s second baseman then hit a 3-2 pitch into right to easily score Ramírez.

As the All-Star third baseman rounded third, Cleveland’s dugout emptied onto the field in celebration as the Guardians posted their MLB-leading 42nd comeback win and second straight in extra innings.

BRAVES 15, REDS 3

CINCINNATI — Matt Olson hit two of Atlanta’s six home runs, Chris Sale coasted to his major league-leading 18th win and the Braves beat Cincinnati.

The Braves pulled within 1 1/2 games of the Mets for the final NL wild-card spot, with New York playing later Thursday.

Along with his career-best win total, Sale (18-3) also leads the majors in ERA (2.38) and strikeouts (225).

Sale pitched five innings, allowing two runs and five hits with two walks and six strikeouts. It was the 18th consecutive game in which he allowed two runs or fewer. 

BLUE JAYS 4, RANGERS 0

ARLINGTON, Texas — Kevin Gausman pitched five no-hit innings before exiting with lower back tightness, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit two solo homers after that and Toronto beat Texas to avoid a series sweep.

Texas managed only two singles against Gausman and four relievers.

Gausman (13-11) struck out six and the only runner he allowed was on a walk in the fifth. The 33-year-old right-hander threw 38 of his 58 pitches for strikes before Dillon Tate struck out two of the three batters he faced in a perfect sixth.

Génesis Cabrera then took over in the seventh, and Josh Smith lined the first pitch sharply into right-centre for a hit, though he was thrown out trying to stretch it for a double.

Guerrero has 30 homers after going deep in the seventh and ninth innings. His first multi-homer game this season was the 10th in his career.

MARINERS 3, YANKEES 2

SEATTLE — Logan Gilbert allowed two runs pitching into the sixth inning and reached the 200-strikeout mark for the season, J.P. Crawford had a key two-out RBI single as part of Seattle’s three-run first inning, and the Mariners beat New York.

Seattle salvaged the final game of the series and stayed on the fringes of the playoff race, pulling within two games of Minnesota and Detroit for the final wild-card spot in the American League ahead of a six-game road trip to Texas and Houston.

A day after clinching a postseason berth, the Yankees had their lead in the AL East trimmed to four games after Baltimore’s victory. They also received a major scare from star outfielder Juan Soto in the seventh inning.

Soto slid into the short wall in foul territory down the right-field line while making a highlight reel catch. After a lengthy visit from manager Aaron Boone, athletic trainers and seemingly every one of his teammates, Soto remained in the game and was shaking out his left leg.

The play was initially ruled a foul ball, but was overturned to a catch on replay.

RAYS 2, RED SOX 0

ST. PETERSBURG. Fla. — Zack Littell allowed one hit over seven innings and Tampa Bay beat Bostont.

Littell (8-9), who made his team-leading 28th start in his first full season as starter, struck out seven and did not issue a walk. After Edwin Uceta pitched a perfect eighth, Garrett Cleavinger worked a 1-2-3 ninth to get his sixth save in seven chances.

Nick Sogard’s two-out single in the third was Boston’s only hit of the game.

Boston starts a three-game series at Fenway Park against Minnesota on Friday, trailing the Twins and Detroit by four games for the final AL wild card. The Red Sox would also need to jump over Seattle. The Rays are five games out of the third wild-card position.

PIRATES 3, CARDINALS 2

ST. LOUIS — Yasmani Grandal homered, Nick Gonzales drove in the winning run with a single in the eighth inning, and Pittsburgh beat St. Louis to snap a three-game losing streak.

Pirates starter Luis Ortiz allowed two runs on five hits and had seven strikeouts in six innings. Carmen Mlodzinski (4-5) and Dennis Santana each tossed a scoreless inning, and Aroldis Chapman pitched the ninth to earn his 10th save in 15 chances.

Cardinals starter Erick Fedde allowed one run on four hits and struck out three.

Gonzales singled up the middle off Ryan Fernandez who entered the game after JoJo Romero (7-3) walked pinch-hitter Connor Joe with two outs in the top of the eighth.

DIAMONDBACKS 5, BREWERS 1

MILWAUKEE — Brandon Pfaadt tied an Arizona franchise record by striking out seven straight batters to highlight his dominating performance as the Diamondbacks boosted their playoff hopes by beating Milwaukee.

The Diamondbacks remain tied for second place in the NL wild-card standings with the New York Mets, who beat the Philadelphia Phillies 10-6 on Thursday. They’re both two games ahead of the Atlanta Braves.

Milwaukee was playing one night after clinching its third NL Central title in four years.

Pfaadt (10-9) collected a career-high 12 strikeouts while allowing just one run and two hits in seven innings. It was a remarkable turnaround for Pfaadt, who had given up eight runs over 1 2/3 innings in a 15-8 loss to the Brewers just five nights earlier.

CUBS 7, NATIONALS 6

CHICAGO — Seiya Suzuki homered, Cody Bellinger drove in three runs and Chicago topped Washington to stave off elimination from the postseason.

Joey Gallo hit a three-run home run for Washington, which has dropped four straight.

The Cubs trailed 6-5 after Gallo’s shot in the sixth off reliever Drew Smyly but took the lead for good with a two-run seventh. Bellinger singled in the tying run and Isaac Paredes came up next to tag reliever Robert Garcia (3-6) with an RBI groundout.

Dansby Swanson added three hits and scored four times for Chicago, which remained seven games out of the final NL wild-card berth with nine to play after New York and Arizona won earlier Thursday.

ASTROS 3, ANGELS 1

HOUSTON — Jon Singleton’s tie-breaking two-run double with two outs in the eighth inning lifted Houston to a win over Los Angeles.

The game was tied 1-1 when Ryan Miller (0-1) walked Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker to start the eighth. A fielder’s-choice grounder by Yainer Diaz sent Alvarez to third.

Jeremy Peña grounded out on a ball that rolled just in front of the batter’s box before the Angels intentionally walked Victor Caratini to load the bases.

Singleton then smacked his two-strike double, a line drive to center field to score Alvarez and Diaz.

Houston’s magic number to clinch the AL West dropped to five.