The Atlanta Braves continued their dominance of the NL East with their sixth straight division title, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 behind Spencer Strider’s major league-leading 17th win on Wednesday.
Atlanta leads the majors with 96 wins and locked up another NL East crown in its 146th game, the second-quickest clinch in the divisional era.
The division title was the Braves’ record 26th, two more than the Yankees or Dodgers.
Strider limited the Phillies to one run and four hits in seven innings, striking out nine to raise his MLB-best total to 259.
Brad Hand fanned two in the eighth and Kirby Yates pitched the ninth for his fifth save.
Austin Riley gave Strider all the support he needed with a two-run homer – his 35th - in the first inning off Christopher Sanchez.
Riley added a sacrifice fly in the third and Kevin Pillar had an RBI double in the fourth.
Sanchez pitched into the eighth inning and struck out a career-high 10.
Philadelphia remained 1 ½ games ahead of the Cubs in the race for the top wild-card spot in the NL.
Montgomery pitches surging Rangers past Blue Jays
Jordan Montgomery and two relievers combined to five-hit the Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers cruised to their fifth straight win with a 10-0 rout.
Montgomery allowed four hits over seven innings before Martin Perez and Ian Kennedy each worked one inning.
Nathaniel Lowe and Mitch Garver hit three-run homers and Robbie Grossman added a two-run shot to help Texas remain one game behind AL West-leading Houston.
The Rangers moved 1 ½ games ahead of the Blue Jays in the wild-card race, sending Toronto to its fourth consecutive loss.
Astros lose combined no-hitter in 9th inning
Hunter Brown and three relievers held the Oakland Athletics hitless for eight innings but the bid for history was broken up with one out in the ninth inning in the Houston Astros’ 6-2 win.
After Ryan Pressly retired Tony Kemp on a groundball to open the ninth, Zach Gelof walked before Ryan Noda grounded a changeup past Pressly and into center field.
Pressly allowed two runs before finishing up the two-hitter as Houston salvaged the series finale against the Athletics, who lost their 100th game.
Yordan Alvarez hit a three-run homer and Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker had solo shots as the Astros remained one game ahead of second-place Texas in the AL West.