Major leagues
Rookie Dylan Carlson hit two go-ahead home runs, one from each side of the plate, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 Thursday.
Carlson’s homers made a winner out of J.A. Happ, who entered the game 0-3 in his last five starts against the Brewers. Happ (10-8) gave up 3 runs on 9 hits and struck out 7 in 6 1/3 innings, his longest outing since St. Louis acquired him from the Minnesota Twins on July 30.
Kodi Whitley and T.J. McFarland combined for two innings of scoreless relief and Luís Garcia earned his second save as the Cardinals won the rubber game of the series after having their franchise record 17-game winning streak snapped the night before. The streak lifted the Cardinals into next week’s NL wild-card game against the Los Angeles Dodgers or San Francisco.
American League
Baltimore 6, Boston 2: The Boston Red Sox were dealt another blow in their postseason push by last-place Baltimore, with Ryan Mountcastle hitting a three-run homer in the third inning of the Orioles’ 6-2 win.
Baltimore has lost 107 games this year but took two of three in this series against Boston – welcome news for the Yankees, Blue Jays and Mariners. The Red Sox fell into a tie with Seattle for the American League’s second wild card. Boston trailed the Yankees by 1 1/2 games and led the Blue Jays by half a game, pending the conclusion of New York’s game at Toronto.
Kiké Hernandez homered on the first pitch of the game for the Red Sox, but not much went right for them after that. Mountcastle put Baltimore up 3-1 with his 33rd home run of the season, and the Orioles added three more runs in the sixth.
Boston’s Nick Pivetta (9-8) struck out the side in the first, but he ultimately allowed three runs and four hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out eight with two walks.
Texas 7, L.A. Angels 6: Adolis Garcia has been a bright spot throughout a 100-loss season for the Texas Rangers. After a long wait, the Cuban outfielder broke a pair of longstanding rookie records with one big swing.
Garcia broke the Rangers rookie record for home runs and RBIs with his two-run homer that was part of a big comeback, capped by Brock Holt’s two-run double in the eighth, in a 7-6 victory over Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday.
Garcia’s 31st homer, a two-run blast in the fifth that went 403 feet into the Rangers bullpen in right-center, pushed his RBI total to 90. It was his first homer in 14 games since he matched Pete Incaviglia’s rookie record of 30 homers in 1986, and he had tied the 88 RBI by Incaviglia when he drove in two runs in the series opener Tuesday night.