Matt Wallner hit a go-ahead three-run homer and Minnesota’s bullpen pitched four perfect innings as the Twins completed a doubleheader sweep of the reeling Cleveland Guardians with a 6-3 win on Friday night.
In the first game, Bailey Ober pitched six shutout innings and Carlos Santana and Ryan Jeffers each hit solo home runs to give the Twins a 4-2 victory.
The Twins’ seventh win in nine tries moved them within 1 ½ games of the Guardians, who have lost a season-high seven in a row.
That's the closest defending division champion Minnesota has been since May 13 to Cleveland, which has held first place for all but seven days in April.
The Guardians, who hadn't lost more than three games in a row all season until this skid started last weekend, went hitless against relievers Cole Sands, Caleb Thielbar and Trevor Richards after tagging Twins starter Louie Varland for eight hits and three runs in 4 2/3 innings.
Richards recorded his first save, after Jhoan Duran notched his 16th save in the opener by striking out the side in the ninth inning.
Sizzling Padres rally past Marlins
Manny Machado highlighted a four-run 10th with a two-run double and drove in three runs as the red-hot San Diego Padres rallied for their sixth straight win, 6-2 over the Miami Marlins.
The Padres trailed 2-0 entering the eighth but Jurickson Profar doubled with one out and scored on Machado’s double. Jackson Merrill, who finished with three hits, led off the ninth with a 400-foot homer to center, his 16th to tie it.
Machado’s double off Brett De Geus scored former Marlin Luis Arraez, who had singled, and Jake Cronenworth. Tyler Wade broke the 2-2 tie when he beat the throw home on a Cronenworth grounder to shortstop Xavier Edwards.
Martin Perez allowed two runs on three hits over seven innings and Bryan Hoeing and Jason Adam each worked a hitless inning before Tanner Scott worked the 10th against his former team.
San Diego has won 15 of its last 17 games and is 2 ½ games behind the NL West-leading Dodgers.
Jake Burger and Jonah Bride hit back-to-back homers in the fourth for the last-place Marlins, who have lost eight of 12.
Diamondbacks win on Del Castillo’s walk-off homer
Adrian Del Castillo hit a walk-off home run in the ninth inning for his first career blast to lift the surging Arizona Diamondbacks to a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Phillies rallied from a 2-0 deficit, tying it in the eighth on a two-out RBI double from Johan Rojas that scored Nick Castellanos from first.
That set up Del Castillo's ninth-inning heroics. He jumped all over a 97 mph fastball from Jeff Hoffman, launching it deep into the right-field seats for his first big league homer. Del Castillo was called up this week after starting catcher Gabriel Moreno went down with a groin injury in Cleveland.
Arizona has won 13 of 16 to strengthen its hold on an NL wild-card spot.
Padres, Mets take 2-1 lead in NL division series
Fernando Tatis Jr.'s two-run home run capped a six-run second inning, and the San Diego Padres held on for a 6-5 victory over the rival Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night to take a 2-1 lead in a tense NL Division Series.
The Padres moved within one victory of eliminating the Dodgers in the NLDS for the second time in three seasons. Game 4 is Wednesday night at Petco Park, which was packed with a rally towel-waving record crowd of 47,744.
Tatis' impressive homer gave the Padres a 6-1 lead, but Teoscar Hernández hit a grand slam with one out in the third off Michael King to bring the Dodgers within a run.
Mookie Betts also homered for the Dodgers to break an 0-for-22 playoff slump, but apparently thought left fielder Jurickson Profar had robbed him like he did in Sunday night's 10-2 Padres win at Dodger Stadium, when tempers flared on the field and in the stands. Betts rounded first and headed toward the dugout before teammates and even King motioned that it was a homer.
Tatis' shot into the left-field seats was his third of the series, leaving him one shy of the NLDS record held by Carlos Beltran (2004, Houston) and Nick Castellanos (2023, Philadelphia). Tatis had two of San Diego's six homers Sunday night. The flamboyant Tatis stood for a few seconds and watched the ball sail out of the yard, flipped his bat and gestured toward the dugout before beginning his trot.
King got his second win in as many playoff starts after allowing five runs and five hits in five innings, with three strikeouts and one walk.
Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam and Tanner Scott pitched one-hit ball over the next 2 2/3 innings and Robert Suarez got the final four outs for his first save.
David Peralta delivered a two-run double during San Diego’s big second inning and Kyle Higashioka lofted a sacrifice fly before Tatis homered off Walker Buehler with two outs.
Manaea stifles Phillies to put Mets up
Pete Alonso homered again off Aaron Nola, and Sean Manaea pitched brilliantly into the eighth inning as the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-2 in Game 3 of their NL Division Series.
Jesse Winker also went deep and Starling Marte added a pivotal two-run single to help the wild-card Mets, playing their first home game in 16 days, grab a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.
Game 4 is Wednesday at Citi Field, with All-Star Ranger Suárez scheduled to start for Philadelphia against fellow lefty Jose Quintana.
A win would send New York to the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers or San Diego Padres.
Manaea was lifted after allowing a leadoff single to start the eighth. The left-hander received hearty pats on the chest from teammates and a standing ovation from the towel-waving sellout crowd of 44,093 as he strolled off the mound.
Manaea allowed just two hits, struck out six and walked two for his first playoff win after entering 0-3 with a 10.66 ERA in his postseason career.
Clinging to a 2-0 lead, Manaea escaped major trouble in the sixth. After issuing consecutive walks to start the inning, he received a mound visit from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and struck out star slugger Bryce Harper on three off-speed pitches.
Nick Castellanos then lined into an inning-ending double play, as the Mets' middle infield doubled off Kyle Schwarber at second base.
Alonso led off the bottom of the second by sending Nola's first pitch deep to right field. He flipped his bat high in the air on his way to first base when the ball reached the front row of the second deck.
It was Alonso's second home run of the series and third in New York's past four playoff games.
Nola and Alonso have been squaring off since their college days in the Southeastern Conference, but the matchup has been one-sided in the majors. It was Alonso's sixth career homer off the right-hander, after entering with a .320 batting average and 1.050 OPS in 54 career plate appearances against him.
Royals, Tigers draw even in AL playoffs
Salvador Perez's solo home run ignited a four-run fourth inning that sparked the Kansas City Royals to a crucial 4-2 win over the New York Yankees in Monday's Game 2 of the teams' American League DIvision Series.
Tommy Pham, Garrett Hampson and Maikel Garcia each delivered run-scoring singles during the big inning, while four Kansas City relievers kept the Yankees' potent bats largely quiet the rest of the way as the Royals evened this best-of-five series at 1-1.
Garcia finished 4 for 5 to tie a franchise record for hits in a post-season game.
The fifth-seeded Royals, making their first post-season appearance since 2015, will now host the next two meetings with Game 3 scheduled for Wednesday in Kansas City.
New York, the AL's top seed, got a ninth-inning home run from Jazz Chisholm but a shaky performance from starting pitcher Carlos Rodon, who held the Royals scoreless for the first three innings before getting hit hard in the fourth.
Perez, the last remaining member of Kansas City's 2015 World Series champion team, started the uprising with a long home run to left field that tied the game at 1-1.
Yuli Gurriel followed Perez's blast with a single and took second on Rodon's wild pitch before scoring the go-ahead run on Pham's one-out single.
Pham stole second and later crossed the plate on Hampson's two-out single that chased Rodon. Garcia then greeted reliever Ian Hamilton with a single to bring in Hampson, who advanced to second on the throw home to try to prevent Pham's run, for a 4-1 advantage.
Angel Zerpa (1-0) and John Schreiber threw a scoreless inning each to protect the lead before Kris Bubic worked the seventh and eighth to maintain the three-run cushion.
Lucas Erceg came on in the ninth and allowed Chisholm's lead-off homer, but retired the three of the next four Yankee hitters for his third save of these playoffs.
Rodon struck out seven in 3 2/3 innings, but was charged with all four runs while surrendering seven hits.
Cole Ragans threw the first four innings for Kansas City and issued four walks, but allowed just one run on three hits while striking out five.
New York's lone run against Ragans came in the third. Gleyber Torres drew a lead-off walk, moved to second on an Austin Wells single and came home on Giancarlo Stanton's single.
Carpenter's homer in ninth gets Tigers even with Guardians
In the AL's other Division Series, Kerry Carpenter's three-run homer off All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase in the ninth inning broke a scoreless tie and lifted the Detroit Tigers to a much-needed 3-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians.
With two on and two out in the top of the ninth, Carpenter drove a slider from Clase over the right field wall to finally put Detroit ahead in a game dominated by pitching and defence to that point.
Beau Brieske then struck out two in a perfect bottom of the ninth to allow the sixth-seeded Tigers to send this best-of-five series to Detroit tied at 1-1. Game 3 will be held Wednesday at Comerica Park.
Clase, the AL leader with 47 saves during the regular season, retired the first two Detroit hitters in the top of the ninth before Jake Rogers extended the Tigers' half of the inning with a single. Trey Sweeney followed with a single before Carpenter delivered just the third home run Cleveland's usually dominant reliever has allowed in 2024.
The blast also ended Detroit's 17-inning scoreless streak to begin this series, which the second-seeded Guardians opened with Saturday's 7-0 victory.
Clase had not permitted more than one run in any of his 75 previous appearances this season and yielded just five earned runs in a combined 75 1/3 innings going in.
Carpenter's homer made a winner out of Will Vest after the right-hander threw one scoreless inning in relief of Detroit ace Tarik Skubal, who held the Guardians to just three hits and struck out eight in seven innings.
Cleveland used five pitchers to keep the game 0-0 through eight innings, with former Tiger Matthew Boyd striking out five over the first 4 2/3 innings.
Both teams had scoring chances earlier in the contest, with the Tigers nearly taking the lead in the eighth after putting two on with two out. Wenceel Perez then greeted Clase with a sinking line drive that was caught by a diving Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan to end the threat.
Cleveland threatened in both the fifth and sixth, but came away empty both times as Skubal induced inning-ending double-play grounders with two runners on base on both occasions.
Phillies beat Mets on Castellanos' walk-off single to even NLDS at 1
Nick Castellanos once again delivered a clutch hit for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Castellanos, who led all of MLB with four walk-off hits this season, sent the Phillies to a 7-6 win over the New York Mets with a game-ending single with two outs in the ninth inning off Tylor Megill to even the NL Division Series at one game apiece.
Philadelphia needed Castellanos' heroics after Mark Vientos hit a two-run homer with one out in the top of the ninth to tie the score at 6-6. It was the second two-run homer of the day for Vientos, and Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo added solo shots for New York.
The Phillies trailed 4-3 in the eighth until Bryson Stott lined a two-run triple down the right-field line off Mets closer Edwin Díaz to put Philadelphia ahead. Stott later came around to score on J.T. Realmuto's grounder.
Philadelphia was held off the scoreboard until the sixth inning when Bryce Harper hit a two-run homer and Castellanos followed with a solo blast two pitches later off Mets starter Luis Severino.
Game 3 between these NL East rivals is Tuesday in New York.
Padres crush six homers to rout Dodgers in Game 2
The San Diego Padres tied an MLB play-off record with six home runs in a 10-2 pounding of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 for their first win in this NLDS series.
The game took an ugly turn in the seventh inning, when fans at Dodger Stadium threw baseballs at San Diego left fielder Jurickson Profar, as well as trash on the warning track near the Padres bullpen. The game was delayed for 12 minutes.
Profar was in the middle of a couple of heated moments. In the sixth inning, he exchanged words with Dodgers catcher Will Smith after starting pitcher Jack Flaherty hit Fernando Tatis Jr. with a pitch, and in the first inning, Profar reached over the wall to rob a potential home run by Mookie Betts and promptly stared down some fans.
Tatis hit a pair of home runs, while David Peralta and Jackson Merrill each hit two-run homers, and Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Higashioka added solo shots.
Yu Darvish held Los Angeles to one run and three hits over seven innings, while the top of the Dodgers' batting order struggled.
Shohei Ohtani went 0 for 4, Betts was hitless in a sixth consecutive play-off game and Freddie Freeman struck out and flied out in two at-bats before exiting after five innings with discomfort in his sprained right ankle.
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