Boston pitcher David Price took his eighth straight decision as the Red Sox won 5-3 at Baltimore on Thursday, closing in on both the American League East title and the overall best record in the league.
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Carlos Santana’s three-run home run in the sixth inning broke a tie and lifted the Cleveland Indians to a 5-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
Benintendi, who was playing in his fourth game since missing three weeks with a knee injury, stepped up next and swung at the first pitch, a 94-mph heater, and drilled a missile over the tall right-field fence for a three-run homer. He has won 12 of his past 13 starts against the Twins.
Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell and his relievers combined to strand 11 NY runners in a 2-0 win against the Yankees.
Rays rookie Blake Snell (6-8) threw five shutout innings, and former Yankees pitcher Chase Whitley threw 2-2/3 innings of scoreless relief. They’ve even won some low-scoring, close games as a warmup for the post-season.
Milwaukee’s Chris Carter hit his 37th home run of the season, matching his career high, as the Brewers beat Pittsburgh 3-1 to drive another nail into the Pirates’ playoff ambitions.
The game was a makeup of Wednesday’s rain-shortened game, which was postponed in the bottom of the third inning. There was no score before it was called.
Upton’s homer came off Twins reliever Alex Wimmers and broke a 1-1 tie.
Red Sox: RHP Steven Wright (shoulder) threw from 60 feet on Thursday and was scheduled to throw from 120 feet on Friday.
In womens’ college soccer the Panthers also came up with a victory, 3-1 over Castleton, breaking open a tie game by scoring two goals less than a minute apart in the second half on strikes by Sabrina Glaser and Katherine Hobbs. He had a 5.66 ERA through his first 27 games of the season.
Atlanta’s Matt Kemp hit two home runs to power the Braves over Miami 6-3. He has 10 multi-homer games in his career, including three this season.
With a base hit against the Marlins, Freddie Freeman extended his hitting streak to 26 games, tied for the second-longest in Major League Baseball this season and the longest by a Braves player since Dan Uggla in 2011 (33 games).
The only blemish on Anderson’s record was a solo home run by Francisco Cervelli in the fifth inning – his first since September 30 of last season.
ANGELS 2, ASTROS 0 (at Houston) – Albert Pujols hit a two-run homer in the first inning and Ricky Nolasco pitched seven solid innings, helping Los Angeles hinder Houston’s wild-card hopes.
Nolasco (7-14) produced his third scoreless outing for the Angels since being acquired from the Twins on August 1. He allowed just one run and three hits with four strikeouts and two walks and worked his way out of a few jams.
Trailing 1-0 in the sixth, the Red Sox loaded the bases against Orioles reliever Brad Brach, who should have gotten out of the inning unscathed.
Taking up the opponent on an offer to get back into the game? A home run would give the Mets the win but Ender Inciarte leaped, reached, and snow-coned a catch in the webbing of his glove, robbing Cespedes of a game-winning walk-off and delivering a collective gut-punch to the Mets fans, who have now seen their team get swept three in a row by the last place Braves at the worst possible time.
The Phillies have won six of 10.
San Francisco kept pace with the New York Mets for the National League wild-card lead. one-half game ahead of St. Louis.
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Los Angeles’ Yasmani Grandal homered twice, including a grand slam in the seventh inning, to rally the Dodgers past Colorado 7-4. Their division lead over San Francisco remained at six games.
