Alejandro Kirk hit two home runs, including his first career grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays clinched their first AL East title in a decade by routing the Tampa Bay Rays 13-4 in their regular-season finale Sunday.
George Springer and Addison Barger also went deep for the Blue Jays, who needed a win or a New York Yankees loss on the final day to take the division crown for the seventh time in team history and first since 2015. Toronto (94-68) also wrapped up the best record in the American League and will have home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs.
Kirk made sure of it with a first-inning slam and a two-run homer in the fifth as the Blue Jays capped their 11th series sweep of the year and extended their winning streak to four games.
The homers gave Kirk 15 this season, a career high. It was his second multi-home-run game of the season and the sixth of his career.
Kirk finished 3 for 5 with six RBIs. He also homered in Saturday’s 5-1 win.
BREWERS 4, REDS 2
MILWAUKEE — Cincinnati lost its regular-season finale to Milwaukee but still reached the playoffs because the New York Mets fell to the Miami Marlins.
Cincinnati entered Sunday knowing it could reach the playoffs if it beat Milwaukee or if the Mets lost to Miami. The Mets’ 4-0 loss to the Marlins enabled the Reds to get the National League’s third and final wild-card spot.
The Reds and Mets both finished the season at 83-79, but the Reds owned the head-to-head tiebreaker after going 4-2 against the Mets this season. The Reds head to Los Angeles to begin a wild-card series against the defending World Series champion Dodgers on Tuesday.
Cincinnati took an early 2-0 lead on leadoff homers by Elly De La Cruz in the second inning and TJ Friedl in the third. De La Cruz hit his 402-foot shot off Freddy Peralta, while Friedl delivered a 416-foot blast off DL Hall.
Milwaukee cut the lead to 2-1 when Jackson Chourio and Brice Turang opened the third inning with back-to-back doubles.
Danny Jansen put Milwaukee ahead 3-2 by hitting a two-run homer off Brady Singer in the fourth. Andrew Vaughn added a two-out RBI double off Nick Lodolo later in the inning to make it 4-2.
Singer (14-12) struck out five but allowed three runs, five hits and one walk in 3 1/3 innings.
Five Milwaukee relievers combined to hold the Reds hitless after the third inning. Abner Uribe retired the side in order in the ninth for his seventh save in nine opportunities.
MARLINS 4, METS 0
MIAMI — Edward Cabrera tossed five innings of two-hit ball and Miami used a four-run fourth to beat New York in its regular-season finale, preventing the Mets from making the playoffs.
The Mets (83-79) needed a win and a Cincinnati loss at Milwaukee to reach the postseason. The Reds (83-79) lost 4-2 to the Brewers but took the final National League wild card on a head-to-head tiebreaker after winning the season series against New York.
Cabrera (8-7) struck out seven and walked five.
Mets starter Sean Manaea fanned three in 1 2/3 hitless innings. But with little margin for error, manager Carlos Mendoza pulled Manaea following his second walk in the second, and reliever Huascar Brazobán got out of the inning.
Connor Norby began the Miami fourth with a single off reliever Brooks Raley (3-1).
Raley was replaced by Ryne Stanek — already the fourth Mets pitcher — and he gave up a run-scoring double to Eric Wagaman that put the Marlins on the board. Brian Navarreto hit another RBI double, followed by a run-scoring triple from Javier Sanoja and an RBI single by Xavier Edwards off Tyler Rogers.
The Mets used eight pitchers, including closer Edwin Díaz, who pitched scoreless innings in the fifth and sixth.
Francisco Lindor doubled in the seventh for one of five Mets hits, but New York went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 overall. The season ended when Lindor grounded into a game-ending double play.
The Marlins won the season series from their division rivals, 7-6.
GUARDIANS 9, RANGERS 8, 10 INNINGS
CLEVELAND — Brayan Rocchio hit a three-run homer in the 10th inning and Cleveland rallied for a victory over Texas, putting an exclamation point on their improbable AL Central title.
When the Detroit Tigers lost 4-3 at Boston earlier in the day, the Guardians completed the largest comeback to win a division or league championship in major league history.
Texas took an 8-5 lead on pinch-hitter Rowdy Tellez’s three-run homer off Zak Kent (1-0) in the top of the 10th.
But with George Valera as the automatic runner on second base, Bo Naylor hit an RBI double to bring Cleveland within two. Petey Halpin drew a walk before Rocchio drove a 1-2 fastball from Jose Corniell (0-1) off the right-field foul pole to give the Guardians their ninth walk-off win this season.
The Guardians (88-74) trailed 5-4 in the middle of the eighth when they found out they were division champs after Detroit’s Parker Meadows flied out to Boston left fielder Jarren Duran. If the two teams had ended up tied, Cleveland still would have won the division based on the head-to-head tiebreaker after taking the season series.
RED SOX 4, TIGERS 3
BOSTON — José De León pitched a career-high 6 2/3 innings in his first outing in two years, and Masataka Yoshida and David Hamilton homered to give Boston a victory over Detroit that clinched the AL Central title for the Cleveland Guardians.
After each team wrapped up a playoff berth during the series — the Red Sox on Friday and the Tigers on Saturday — they both sent out lineups for the regular-season finale that allowed some regulars to rest and others to get work if they needed it.
De León, called up from Triple-A so the Red Sox could line up their starters for the wild-card round, allowed three runs on eight hits and three walks. He struck out eight. Greg Weissert pitched the ninth for his fourth save.
The Tigers scratched ace Tarik Skubal after clinching a postseason spot on Saturday, even though they still could have won the division and the home-field advantage in the wild-card round that goes with it. Detroit needed a win Sunday and a Cleveland loss to Texas.
Chris Paddack (5-12) allowed four runs on seven hits and four walks while striking out four in 4 1/3 innings. The Tigers took a 3-1 lead in the fourth on Javier Báez’s three-run homer, but Boston answered in the bottom half with Hamilton’s two-run shot and Jarren Duran’s RBI double.
YANKEES 3, ORIOLES 2
NEW YORK — New York was on track to finish one win shy of repeating as AL East champion and lose to Toronto on a tiebreaker despite beating Baltimore behind a pair of Ben Rice home runs for a season-ending eight-game winning streak.
Toronto led Tampa Bay 13-4 in the eighth inning when the Yankees’ game ended. With a victory, the Blue Jays and Yankees would both finish 94-68 and Toronto would win the AL East on a tiebreaker because of its 8-5 advantage in the season series.
New York was on track to host Boston in a best-of-three wild-card series starting Tuesday, with the winner advancing to a Division Series next weekend.
Aaron Judge went 1 for 4 and won his first batting title, leading the major leagues at .331.. He had 53 homers and 114 RBIs.
Rice homered in the first against Kyle Bradish but Jordan Westburg and Gunnar Henderson hit back-to-back homers in the fourth off Luis Gil for 2-1 lead.
Giancarlo Stanton’s RBI single tied the score in the bottom half and Rice hit an opposite-field drive to left in the eighth off Rico Garcia (0-2).
Devin Williams (4-2) pitched a one-hit eighth and David Bednar finished for his 27th save in 30 chances.
New York started 35-20, slumped during a 25-34 stretch, then closed 34-14.
Baltimore went 75-87, winning 16 fewer games than last year, after firing manager Brandon Hyde in May.
New York’s Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out as a pinch hitter in the seventh and took over at second base, a day after he was hit on the left forearm by a 96.8 mph pitch.
Rice hit the Yankees’ 50th first-inning home run, three more than the previous big league record set by Atlanta in 2023.
Gil, the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, allowed two runs in five innings and finished 4-1 with a 3.32 ERA in 11 starts. He made his season debut Aug. 3 after recovering from a right lat strain.
DODGERS 6, MARINERS 1
SEATTLE — Clayton Kershaw tossed 5⅓ scoreless innings in the final regular-season start of his 18-year major league career, helping Los Angeles beat Seattle.
Kershaw (11-2) scattered four hits, three of them singles, and struck out seven, including the last batter he faced — the Mariners’ Eugenio Suárez. The 37-year-old left-hander turned to his slider in the top of the sixth to retire Suárez for the 3,052nd strikeout of his career. He then left the game to a standing ovation from a sellout crowd at T-Mobile Park.
The Dodgers scored early and often against Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller (4-6). Hyeseong Kim hit a two-run home run in the second inning and Freddie Freeman added a two-run shot in the third.
After Miller departed, Los Angeles two-way star Shohei Ohtani hit his franchise-record 55th home run of the season. Andy Pages added an RBI single in the eighth inning to complete the Dodgers’ scoring.
Seattle slugger Cal Raleigh went 1 for 3 in his regular-season finale, finishing with 125 RBIs and a major league-leading 60 homers.
PADRES 12, DIAMONDBACKS 4
SAN DIEGO — Manny Machado hit an RBI single during the five-run first inning and homered leading off the third for San Diego, who got a final tune-up for the postseason by routing Arizona for a three-game sweep.
San Diego heads to Chicago for a best-of-three NL wild-card series against the Cubs starting Tuesday. The teams split the season series 3-3, with each team going 2-1 at home. It’ll be the first time they’ve met in the postseason since the 1984 National League Championship Series, when the Padres rallied from an 0-2 deficit to beat the Cubs in five games and advance to their first World Series.
San Diego is 3-0 all-time in wild-card series. However, they’ve struggled on the road this season, going 38-43 away from Petco Park.
The Padres (90-72) recorded consecutive seasons of 90 or more wins for the first time. It was the sixth time they’ve reached that benchmark.
Two seasons removed from playing in the World Series, Arizona finished 80-82, a drop of nine wins from last season.
The Padres jumped on Brandon Pfaadt (13-9) for five straight hits to open the first, with every baserunner scoring. Machado had an RBI single, Jackson Merrill an RBI double and Xander Bogaerts a two-run double. Jake Cronenworth had a sacrifice fly.
Machado homered to left leading off the third, his 27th.
Arizona’s Ketel Marte hit his third leadoff homer of the season, off JP Sears (9-11). Geraldo Perdomo knocked in a run in his final at-bat to become the first Arizona shortstop to post 100 RBIs.
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