The end of the season is coming faster than ever and certain teams seem to be finding their form at the absolute perfect time, while others haven’t been able to keep up the pace as this long season goes on.
In the American League, the Detroit Tigers moved into an all-important tie for the second wild-card spot after taking down the Baltimore Orioles, while the Kansas City Royals were swept and have reason to fear for their playoff aspirations.
Meanwhile, in the National League, the New York Mets edged out the Phillies and held onto their lead over the Atlanta Braves for the final wild-card spot as the NL East continues to be the division to watch down the stretch.
Here’s a roundup of all MLB games from Sunday.
TIGERS 4, ORIOLES 3
BALTIMORE — Kerry Carpenter homered twice, Parker Meadows made a home run-saving grab and surging Detroit moved into a tie for the second American League wild card with a victory over Baltimore.
Carpenter’s third multi-home run game of the season ensured the Tigers their first winning season since 2016 as Detroit (82-74) moved into a tie with Kansas City (82-74) and a half-game in front of Minnesota (81-74) for the final AL wild-card spot.
The Twins — who own the head-to-head tiebreak — could pull even with the Tigers in the second game of their doubleheader in Boston later Sunday.
The Tigers have won 11 of their last 14.
Baltimore (86-70) lost its fifth consecutive series and fell 5 1/2 games behind New York (91-64) in the AL East race with six to play but are still four games ahead of Kansas City and Detroit for the top wild-card spot.
GIANTS 2, ROYALS 0
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Blake Snell struck out nine in six strong innings and San Francisco completed a three-game series sweep with a win over Kansas City.
Kansas City was shut out for the second straight game and lost its seventh straight. The Royals dropped into a tie with Detroit (82-74) in the race for an AL wild card. Minnesota is a half-game back of Kansas City and the Tigers, pending the outcome of its second game of a doubleheader against Boston.
Snell (5-3) allowed two singles and a walk and didn’t allow a runner past first base. In his last 14 starts, he is 5-0 with a 1.23 ERA and 114 strikeouts.
Royals’ batters were 1 for 13 when Snell threw a first-pitch strike. Opponents are hitting .121 this season when the 31-year-old left-hander gets ahead in the count.
METS 2, PHILLIES 1
NEW YORK — Brandon Nimmo hit a tiebreaking, sixth-inning home run off Zack Wheeler that sailed just over the glove of leaping right fielder Nick Castellanos, and New York beat Philadelphia to prevent the Phillies from clinching the NL East at Citi Field.
New York (87-69) took three of four from the Phillies and has won 18 of its last 23 games to move a season-high 18 games over .500. The Mets passed Arizona into the second of three NL wild card slots, ahead of the Diamondbacks because they won the season series 4-3, and stayed two games ahead of the Braves (85-71). New York finishes the regular season with three games each at Atlanta and Milwaukee.
Philadelphia (92-64) needs one win in its last six games to clinch its first NL East title since 2011. The Phillies host the Chicago Cubs in a three-game series starting Monday night, then close with three games at Washington next weekend.
Nimmo led off the sixth with his 22nd homer, pulling a first-pitch fastball over the 8-foot fence.
BRAVES 5, MARLINS 4
MIAMI — Michael Harris II tripled, singled and scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning and Atlanta beat Miami.
Gio Urshela and Ozzie Albies homered while Matt Olson had two hits and an RBI for the Braves (85-71), who began Sunday two games behind the New York Mets for the third NL wild card.
Jorge Soler’s infield single with the bases loaded against Declan Cronin (3-4) in the seventh scored Harris from third and put the Braves ahead.
Miami loaded the bases with no outs against Aaron Bummer in the bottom half when Otto López and Derek Hill singled and Nick Fortes reached on a sacrifice after Bummer threw to third on an unsuccessful force-out attempt. Bummer struck out Xavier Edwards before Daysbel Hernández relieved and struck out Connor Norby and retired Jesús Sánchez on a lineout to right.
Braves closer Raisel Iglesias pitched the final two innings for his 32nd save. It was Iglesias’ sixth two-inning appearance of the season.
RED SOX 8, TWINS 1, 1ST GAME
RED SOX 9, TWINS 3, 2ND GAME
BOSTON — Struggling Minnesota was swept in a split doubleheader against Boston when Romy Gonzalez hit a three-run homer and drove in four runs in the nightcap to lead the Red Sox to a 9-3 victory.
Losing for the 13th time in 19 games, the Twins fell a game behind both Detroit and Kansas City for the AL’s final two wild-card spots. They own the tiebreaker over both.
Minnesota (81-75) is just 11-22 since going 17 games over .500 on Aug. 17.
The Red Sox won for just the ninth time in 23 games to get back to .500 (78-78) after fading in the playoff chase. They’re only 24-36 since the All-Star break
RANGERS 6, MARINERS 5
ARLINGTON, Texas — Marcus Semien’s line single into the left field corner scored Leody Taveras as Texas rallied from a five-run deficit in a walk-off win over Seattle.
Taveras had tied the score at 5-all with a solo homer in the seventh inning and finished with three hits — all from the sixth inning onward.
The Mariners built a 5-0 lead on Dylan Moore’s RBI single in the second inning, Cal Raleigh’s solo home run in the third and a three-run sixth that included Victor Robles singling in two runs, stealing second base and scoring when a pickoff attempt led to two Texas errors.
The Rangers countered by cutting the deficit to one run in the sixth on an RBI single by Josh Smith and a three-run homer by Wyatt Langford off starter Bryan Woo.
The Mariners are two games out of the last AL wild-card spot with six games remaining. Seattle closes out the season with three games at Houston and hosting the Oakland Athletics.
PADRES 4, WHITE SOX 2
SAN DIEGO — The Chicago White Sox tied the post-1900 MLB record of 120 losses by the 1962 expansion New York Mets on Sunday when the San Diego Padres won 4-2 by rallying for three runs in the eighth inning, capped by Fernando Tatis Jr.’s towering home run.
The White Sox (36-120) had taken a 2-1 lead on home runs by Korey Lee and Miguel Vargas off Yu Darvish, but that lead quickly disappeared in the eighth.
This defeat came a day after the White Sox tied the American League record of 119 losses set by the 2003 Detroit Tigers.
The 1899 Cleveland Spiders hold the major league record for losses at 20-134.
PIRATES 2, REDS 0
CINCINNATI — Paul Skenes struck out nine and pitched two-hit ball through five innings, leading Pittsburgh to a win over Cincinnati.
Skenes (11-3) recorded his 16th game with seven or more strikeouts, surpassing Larry McWilliams (1983) for seventh-most by a Pirates starter in a season. In three starts against the Reds, the 22-year-old right-hander has allowed one earned run with 25 strikeouts in 17 innings.
Skenes lowered his ERA to 1.99 on Sunday, the second-lowest through 22 career starts behind Steve Roger’s 1.95 ERA in 1973-74 with the Montreal Expos.
Oneil Cruz hit his 21st homer in the first inning and Nick Yorke’s first career homer off Fernando Cruz in the fifth inning gave the Pirates a two-run lead. Pittsburgh won by shutout for the 12th time this season.
RAYS 4, BLUE JAYS 3
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Jonathan Aranda homered in a third straight game and Tampa Bay beat Toronto to complete a three-game sweep.
Aranda gave the Rays a 2-1 lead on his two-run drive against Zach Pop in the sixth inning. Aranda has connected for six of his 10 career homers against the Blue Jays.
Pinch hitter Christopher Morel had a seventh-inning sacrifice fly off Génesis Cabrera (3-3) before Brandon Lowe’s solo homer in the eighth made it 4-2. Lowe has 20 homers this season.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got the Blue Jays within 4-3 with a single for his third hit of the game in the ninth off Edwin Uceta, who recovered to get his fourth save.
Guerrero had consecutive three-hit games, has 21 of them this season and is hitting .327.
BREWERS 10, DIAMONDBACKS 9
MILWAUKEE — Jake Bauers drove in the go-ahead run with a pinch-hit infield single that capped a four-run eighth inning as Milwaukee overcame an eight-run deficit and avoided a series sweep, rallying for a win over Arizona.
The Brewers trailed 8-0 in the third before chipping away and tying that game at 9 by scoring three runs with two outs in the eighth inning. Jackson Chourio walked, took second on Blake Perkins’ single, and scored on Garrett Mitchell’s RBI single to make it 9-7. Justin Martinez (5-6) relieved and Rhys Hoskins tied it with a two-run single to left.
Willy Adames doubled and Hoskins advanced to third base before Bauers hit a run-scoring slow-rolling grounder for a single to the left side.
Jared Koenig (9-4) earned the win and the Brewers’ Devin Williams worked a scoreless ninth for his 13th save in 14 chances.
Milwaukee rallied within 8-4 with a run in the third, two in the fourth and an unearned run in the sixth. Milwaukee made it 8-6 in the seventh on RBI doubles by Hoskins and Adames.
CARDINALS 2, GUARDIANS 1
ST. LOUIS — Lars Nootbaar scored the go-ahead run from second base on a wild pitch and Andre Pallante allowed one hit in seven innings as St. Louis beat Cleveland.
Myles Straw’s single in the sixth inning was the only hit Pallante (8-8) allowed in seven innings. Pallante walked two and struck out three.
Andrew Kittredge pitched a scoreless eighth inning, and Ryan Helsley pitched the ninth to earn his major league-leading 47th save, breaking a tie with Guardians reliever Emmanuel Clase.
Gavin Williams allowed one run on four hits and two walks in 5 2/3 innings for the Guardians, who clinched the American League Central Division title Saturday night. Williams has received just 18 runs of support in 16 starts this season.
ANGELS 9, ASTROS 8
HOUSTON — Zach Neto hit two home runs and drove in six, and Los Angeles came from behind twice to beat Houston.
The Angels trailed 4-0 in the sixth before scoring two runs in back-to-back innings and then took the lead in the eighth on a solo shot from Neto. The Astros responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning before the Angels had a four-run ninth.
Leading 9-6, Jose Quijada gave up a pair of RBI singles to Yainer Diaz and Victor Caratini, making it a one-run game. The Angels called on Guillo Zuniga to close it out. He struck out Jeremy Pena with the tying run on third base. It was Zuniga’s second save of the season. Brock Burke (2-1) got the win.
Houston (85-71) begins a three-game series with Seattle (80-76) on Monday and has a chance to clinch the AL West with a win in that series.
CUBS 5, NATIONALS 0
CHICAGO — Shota Imanaga pitched seven crisp innings in his sixth consecutive win, and Chicago beat Washington.
Imanaga (15-3) was backed by home runs from Mike Tauchman, Michael Busch and Miguel Amaya. The Japanese left-hander allowed six hits, struck out four and walked none, continuing his strong finish to his first season in the majors.
The start of the game was delayed for 2 hours and 20 minutes because of rain. The Wrigley Field crowd of 30,086 passed the time by watching much of the Bears’ 21-16 loss at Indianapolis on the massive video board in left-center.
The Cubs (80-76), who were eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday, took three of four in the series. They went 6-1 against the Nationals this season.
DODGERS 6, ROCKIES 5
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning and Mookie Betts followed with a game-ending blast as the Dodgers rallied victory over Colorado to maintain their three-game lead in the National League West.
Ohtani had four hits and added two stolen bases, giving him 53 home runs and 55 steals on the season.
Three pitches after Ohtani tied the game against Rockies right-hander Seth Halvorsen, Betts homered to left, his 19th.
The Dodgers were three outs away from falling to two games ahead of the San Diego Padres with a key three-game series between the teams starting Tuesday.
YANKEES 7, ATHLETICS 4
OAKLAND, Calif. — Aaron Judge hit his major league-leading 55th homer of the season, Gleyber Torres and Jasson Domínguez also went deep and New York beat Oakland for a three-game sweep that moved the Yankees to the verge on an AL East title.
Already assured of a playoff berth, the Yankees (92-64) can clinch the division with one victory over second-place Baltimore (86-70) during a three-game series in the Bronx that starts Tuesday night.
New York opened a two-game lead over Cleveland for home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs.
Judge, originally drafted by the A’s in 2010 and from the California Central Valley, homered in each of his final two games at the Coliseum. He received a rousing ovation from the large contingent of Yankees fans in attendance when he ran out to center field before the game and again when he rounded the bases after his solo shot to center in the third.