Major leagues:
Kyle Schwarber homered and drove in two runs, and the Chicago Cubs beat the crosstown White Sox 6-1 Sunday to lower their magic number for clinching the NL Central title to five.
Ben Zobrist had three hits and Kyle Hendricks dazzled again as the Cubs took the rubber game of the weekend series. They also stayed 2½ games ahead of second-place Milwaukee, which cruised to a 13-6 victory at Pittsburgh.
National League
St. Louis 9, San Francisco 2: Miles Mikolas won his fourth straight start, Matt Carpenter hit his NL-leading 36th homer and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants 9-2 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep and remain on track for the NL’s second wild card.
St. Louis (87-69) has won three straight games and six of seven. The Cardinals began the day 1½ games ahead of Colorado, which played later Sunday, and remained two games behind Milwaukee, the wild card leader. St. Louis hosts the Brewers (89-67) in a three-game series starting Monday night.
Mikolas (17-4) allowed two runs – one earned – and two hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts and no walks. John Brebbia and Giovanny Gallegos finished a five-hitter.
Colorado 2, Arizona 0: Kyle Freeland extended his unbeaten streak to 10 starts, and Colorado beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 2-0 for a three-game sweep than kept the Rockies 1½ games behind St. Louis for the NL’s second wild card with one week remaining in the regular season.
Arizona lost for the seventh time in eight games and was eliminated from contention in the NL West and wild-card race. The Diamondbacks led the division entering the final month but are 5-16 in September.
Freeland (16-7) allowed seven hits in seven innings, struck out six and walked one, lowering his ERA to 2.84. He is 7-0 since an Aug. 10 loss at St. Louis.
Atlanta 2, Philadelphia 1: Lane Adams homered and drove in two runs, Anibal Sanchez won for the first time in nine starts and the Atlanta Braves used a lineup of reserves to win their fifth straight game, 2-1 over the Philadelphia Phillies.
The loss dropped Philadelphia from postseason contention. Atlanta, the first NL team to qualify for the playoffs, eliminated the Phillies from the NL East race on Saturday. The Braves have the second-best record in the NL at 88-68 and could earn home-field advantage in the NL Division Series during the final week of the season.
The Braves mostly rested their regulars against ace Aaron Nola (16-6). Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis each had one at-bat before walking off the field to standing ovations before the start of the second. Ozzie Albies grounded out as a pinch-hitter in the fifth and Ronald Acuna Jr. flew out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth.
N.Y. Mets 8, Washington 6: Michael Conforto hit a go-ahead, bases-loaded triple, rookie Jeff McNeil matched a career high with four hits and the New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals 8-6 on a slow and soggy afternoon.
Miami 6, Cincinnati 0: The Marlins became the first major league team to draw fewer than 1 million fans at home since the 2004 Montreal Expos, beating the Cincinnati Reds 6-0 before 13,595 to complete the Miami portion of their schedule in Derek Jeter’s first season as chief executive officer.
L.A. Dodgers 14, San Diego 0: Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched six scoreless innings and tied a career high with three of the Dodgers’ 16 hits, and NL West-leading Los Angeles routed the San Diego Padres 14-0.
Ryu (6-3) allowed four hits, struck out eight and walked none to help the Dodgers take two out of three from the last-place Padres.
American League
Houston 6, L.A. Angels 2: Charlie Morton left Houston’s 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels after one inning because of discomfort in his pitching shoulder, a potential problem for the World Series champions as they close in consecutive AL West titles.
The 34-year-old right-hander did not pitch for the Astros from Aug. 28 until Sept. 8 because of right shoulder discomfort. He won his first two starts following his stint on the disabled list, allowing four runs in 11 innings.
Morton threw 24 pitches in the first. He gave up a double to Justin Upton, who scored from second on a wild pitch in the dirt that bounced off the glove of catcher Martin Maldonado, who initially had trouble finding the ball.
AL West-leading Houston started the day 3½ games ahead of second-place Oakland.
Yuli Gurriel hit a two-run homer, giving him three homers and 10 RBIs in the three-game series, and Evan Gattis had three hits and two RBIs.
Baltimore 6, N.Y. Yankees 3: The Yankees’ Didi Gregorius tore cartilage in his right wrist while scoring the run that clinched a wild card berth for New York, manager Aaron Boone said after his team wasted a three-run lead in a 6-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
Boone said Gregorius was hurt when he slid into home plate head-first to score from first on Aaron Hicks’ 11th-inning double Saturday. The shortstop sat out Sunday. Boone said he was unsure if Gregorius, who has 27 homers and 86 RBIs, would be able to return in time for the postseason.
Tampa Bay 5, Toronto 2: Blake Snell won his ninth straight start to increasing his major league-leading victories total to 21, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-2 to stave off elimination.
Kansas City 3, Detroit 2: Rookie Brad Keller pitched seven strong innings, Cam Gallagher broke a sixth-inning tie with a two-run single and the Kansas City Royals held on to beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2.
Texas 6, Seattle 1: Adrian Beltre was given a standing ovation when he was removed from what could be his last home game for Texas, just before the Rangers rallied for four runs in the sixth inning to beat the Seattle Mariners 6-1.
Minnesota 5, Oakland 1: Oakland will have to take its bubbly on the road.
Kyle Gibson allowed one run over 7 1/3 innings, Jake Cave hit a two-run homer and the Minnesota Twins beat the Athletics 5-1, preventing Oakland from clinching an AL wild-card berth in its last regular-season home game.
Oakland leads Tampa Bay by 7½ games and needs one win or a Rays loss to clinch its first playoff berth in four years. The A’s remained 1½ games behind the New York Yankees, who have clinched a wild-card berth, and fell 4½ games back of AL West-leading Houston.