TORONTO — Ubaldo Jimenez and two relievers combined on a three-hitter and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Blue Jays 4-0 on Thursday night, moving into a tie with Toronto in the AL wild-card race with three games remaining.
When he started at Toronto on June 12, Jimenez allowed five runs and six hits in 1/3 of an inning, the shortest start of his career.
The right-hander returned and carved up the Blue Jays. The only hit he allowed was Ezequiel Carrera’s single to begin the first.
Josh Donaldson followed with a walk but Jimenez retired the next six batters in order.
Devon Travis walked to open the third and advanced on Carrera’s sacrifice, but that was the first of 11 consecutive outs for Jimenez, a streak that ended with Edwin Encarnacion’s two-out walk in the sixth. Jose Bautista flied out to end the inning.
Jimenez (8-12) allowed one hit in 62/3 innings, improving to 3-1 with a 2.31 ERA in five September starts. He walked three and struck out five.
TWINS 7, ROYALS 6: Byron Buxton tripled, doubled, drove in two runs and scored twice as Minnesota won at Kansas City, Missouri.
Buxton’s one-out double triggered a three-run ninth off Kelvin Herrera (2-6). Robbie Grossman, Miguel Sano and Max Kepler contributed run-scoring singles in the inning.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CARDINALS 4, REDS 3: Yadier Molina hit a disputed double that drove in the winning run with two outs in the ninth for a win at St. Louis.
The Cardinals began the day one game behind San Francisco for the second NL wild-card spot.
Matt Carpenter drew a one-out walk from Blake Wood (6-5). With two outs, Molina’s one-hop hit appeared to bounce off a sign above the left-field wall and carom back into play.
Carpenter kept running and scored from first. Reds Manager Bryan Price ran after the umpires, who left the field as soon as Carpenter touched the plate.
Molina and Jedd Gyorko hit solo homers for the Cardinals.
CUBS 1, PIRATES 1: Chicago and Pittsburgh played to the first tie game in the major leagues since 2005 when rain forced the teams to stop in the sixth inning at Pittsburgh.
The Cubs and Pirates aren’t scheduled to play again this season, and the game won’t be made up because it doesn’t affect postseason positioning. So instead of becoming a suspended game, the stats count and it was declared a tie – the first since Houston and Cincinnati went seven innings on June 30, 2005, before rain halted them.
NATIONALS 5, DIAMONDBACKS 3: Wilmer Difo hit his first major league homer, and Pedro Severino his second, helping injury-depleted NL East champion Washington move closer to clinching home-field advantage in the division series with a win at a dreary, near-empty stadium in Washington.
BRAVES 5, PHILLIES 2: Freddie Freeman’s 30-game hitting streak ended when he struck out in the eighth inning, but Atlanta managed to score four runs after that to win at home. Freeman’s streak was the longest in the majors since Dan Uggla (33) in 2011.
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