ST. LOUIS (AP) — Adam Wainwright earned his 200th win, pitching seven innings of four-hit ball in a vintage performance as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 1-0 on Monday night.
It was the longest outing this season for the 42-year-old Wainwright (5-11), who struck out three and walked two. He has won consecutive starts — both against first-place teams — after going 0-10 with a 10.72 ERA over his previous 11 games between June 24 and Sept. 7.
The right-hander became the 38th pitcher in NL history to reach 200 wins, and the 24th major leaguer to achieve the milestone since 2000.
Willson Contreras homered off Freddy Peralta (12-9) in the fourth. Milwaukee lost its second straight and its magic number to clinch the NL Central remained at seven. The Brewers hold a six-game lead over the Chicago Cubs with 12 to play.
ORIOLES 8, ASTROS 7
HOUSTON (AP) — Cedric Mullins hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning to rally the Baltimore Orioles past the Houston Astros 8-7 on Monday night in a matchup of American League division leaders.
Houston led by two entering the ninth before closer Ryan Pressly (3-5) allowed consecutive singles to Ryan O’Hearn and Austin Hays with one out. Mullins then hit his 15th homer into the seats in right field to put the Orioles on top.
Yordan Alvarez reached second to start the bottom of the ninth on a throwing error by Gold Glove third baseman Ramón Urías. Pinch-runner Jake Meyers advanced when José Abreu lined out to right field, but held at third when Kyle Tucker grounded out to second. Cionel Pérez was replaced by Yennier Cano, who struck out Chas McCormick to get his seventh save.
Baltimore moved 2 1/2 games ahead of second-place Tampa Bay.
Houston has lost three of four but maintained a 1 1/2-game lead in the AL West thanks to a fourth straight loss by Texas on Monday night against Boston.
REDS 7, TWINS 3
CINCINNATI (AP) — Rookie Connor Phillips pitched three-hit ball over seven innings for his first major league win, Will Benson drove in three runs and Cincinnati beat Minnesota in a game with postseason implications for both teams.
Cincinnati (79-73) won for the fifth time in seven games and trails Chicago (78-72) by .0003 for the NL’s final wild-card berth, both a half-game behind Arizona (79-72). Miami (78-73) dropped a half-game behind the Reds with a 2-1 loss to the New York Mets,
Minnesota (79-72), nearing its third division title in five years, maintained a seven-game lead over second-place Cleveland in the AL Central with 11 games left.
Phillips (1-0), a 22-year-old right-hander, hadn’t gotten past five innings in either of his first two big league starts. He gave up solo homers by Royce Lewis in the fourth and Alex Kirilloff in the seventh. Phillips matched his season high with seven strikeouts and walked one.
PHILLIES 7, BRAVES 1
ATLANTA (AP) — Kyle Schwarber hit a 483-foot, two-run homer, and the Phillies went deep four other times to back Zack Wheeler in a win over Atlanta.
Schwarber’s 45th long homer of the season gave the Phillies a six-run lead in the sixth, a drive that cleared the top of the Chop House restaurant in right field at Truist Park. It was the second-farthest ball hit at the home of the Braves and the second-longest homer by Schwarber in his career, 5 feet shy of the ball he hit off Yu Darvish in the NL Championship Series at San Diego last year.
Philadelphia opened a 3 1/2-game lead over Arizona for the top NL wild card.
Atlanta lost its fourth straight but was assured a bye in the Wild Card Series and home-field advantage in the Division Series when Milwaukee lost 1-0 at St. Louis.
Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Nick Castellanos and Johan Rojas also homered to send the major league-leading Braves to their fourth straight loss.
RED SOX 4, RANGERS 2
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Rob Refsnyder hit a go-ahead two-run single in the eighth inning and Boston snapped a four-game losing streak by beating playoff-chasing Texas, which lost its fourth in a row even after getting two All-Star players back in the lineup.
Boston rallied against reliever Will Smith (2-7), who walked No. 8 batter Luis Urias and then gave up a double that snapped No. 9 batter Connor Wong’s 0-for-17 slide. Refsnyder’s one-out hit that made it 3-2 came after Rafael Devers, with 10 hits his previous 23 at-bats, was intentionally walked. Adam Duvall followed with a sac fly.
Marcus Semien, the only Rangers player to start all 150 of their games, hit another leadoff homer and had an RBI single.
Texas (82-68), already guaranteed its first winning record since 2016, is tied with Seattle for the American League’s third and final wild-card spot. The Rangers play the Mariners seven times in the season’s last 10 days.
METS 2, MARLINS 1
MIAMI (AP) — Jeff McNeil hit a tiebreaking homer leading off the ninth inning and New York knocked Miami out of playoff position.
Mark Vientos had an RBI single and José Butto pitched six stingy innings to help the fourth-place Mets play spoiler again with their second consecutive win over a postseason contender. New York also beat the Cincinnati Reds at home on Sunday.
Miami fell a half-game behind the idle Chicago Cubs for the third and final National League wild card. Cincinnati is also a half-game in front of the Marlins after defeating Minnesota on Monday night.
McNeil pulled a slider from closer Tanner Scott (8-5) over the right-field wall for his 10th homer. That snapped a string of seven straight scoreless outings for Scott, who hadn’t allowed an earned run in 18 appearances since July 31.
MARINERS 5, ATHLETICS 0
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Mariners rookie Bryan Woo had six strikeouts over five sharp innings in a successful homecoming, and Seattle pulled even for the third AL wild card by beating last-place Oakland.
José Caballero homered for the first time in two months, and J.P. Crawford walked three times and delivered an RBI single to help the Mariners win the opener of their final road trip.
Seattle moved into a tie with skidding Texas for the final American League playoff berth. Both teams are 1 1/2 games behind first-place Houston in the AL West.
Woo (4-4) was born in Oakland and attended high school in nearby Alameda. A sixth-round draft pick in 2021 who made his major league debut June 3, the 23-year-old righty allowed three hits and overcame four walks to win back-to-back starts for the first time this season.
DODGERS 8, TIGERS 3
LOS ANGELES (AP) — J.D. Martinez homered twice off Eduardo Rodriguez and drove in five runs as Los Angeles rolled over Detroit.
Rodriguez (11-9), who used his no-trade rights to nix a deal to the Dodgers on Aug. 1, lasted just three-plus innings. He exited in the fourth with an undisclosed injury during Chris Taylor’s at-bat.
Lance Lynn (12-11), acquired by the Dodgers from the Chicago White Sox days before the Rodriguez deal fell through, gave up three runs over five innings as NL West champion Los Angeles moved closer to earning a playoff bye and home-field advantage in the Division Series.
Jake Rogers hit a three-run homer for the Tigers, who dropped to 3-1 on a 10-game West Coast trip.
WHITE SOX 6, NATIONALS 1
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Clevinger pitched a six-hitter for his third career complete game, and Chicago beat Washington.
Luis Robert Jr. hit a three-run homer for Chicago, which improved to 5-12 in September. Tim Anderson had four of the team’s 15 hits.
Clevinger was working on a shutout before Dominic Smith hit his 10th homer with two out in the ninth inning. Smith walked slowly to first while watching the shot to right-center, and then flipped his bat.
Clevinger (8-8) apparently took exception and exchanged words with Smith, prompting benches to clear in an incident that didn’t escalate beyond shouting. Clevinger then struck out Carter Kieboom for the final out.
Washington was eliminated from postseason contention with the loss.
PADRES 11, ROCKIES 9
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Luis Campusano hit a go-ahead three-run home run and Garrett Cooper and Eugy Rosario also connected for San Diego, which beat Colorado to extend its winning streak to a season-best five games.
The high-priced Padres, who have been a massive disappointment this year coming off a stirring run to the NL Championship Series, became the last team in the majors to win four straight games on Sunday when they swept the Oakland Athletics, who have baseball’s worst record. The Rockies have the NL’s worst record.
San Diego is an extreme longshot to make the postseason, coming into Monday night six games out of the final wild card berth, with four teams ahead of them. The Padres have been below .500 since May 12.
Campusano went down on his right knee as he muscled his seventh homer out of the ballyard for a 5-3 lead with two outs in the third against Ty Blach (3-2). Campusano finished with three hits.
ROYALS 6, GUARDIANS 4
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Drew Waters hit a go-ahead double during a two-out rally in the eighth inning Monday, and Kansas City rallied to beat Cleveland in their series-opening matinee.
The Royals trailed 4-2 when Kyle Isbel drew a leadoff walk against Trevor Stephan. The reliever retired the next two batters before walking MJ Melendez and hitting Nelson Velázquez, loading the bases for Michael Massey, whose own walk off Stephan (6-7) scored a run to get Kansas City within one.
Cleveland brought in Enyel De Los Santos to face Waters, and his double to left gave the Royals the lead. A wild pitch from De Los Santos allowed Massey to score and give Kansas City’s bullpen a cushion.
Jackson Kowar (2-0) earned the win with a scoreless inning. James McArthur handled the ninth for his first big league save.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
