DENVER — The NL West-leading Colorado Rockies locked up a playoff berth for the second straight season, beating the Washington Nationals 5-2 on Friday night for their eighth win in a row behind a resilient start from Kyle Freeland.
David Dahl homered for the fifth consecutive game and Ian Desmond hit a two-run homer against his former team to help Colorado clinch at least a wild card with two games remaining. The Rockies entered the night with a one-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers as they try to wrap up the franchise’s first division crown.
Wade Davis struck out Bryce Harper looking to end the game and earn his 43rd save. The sellout crowd at Coors Field roared and fireworks went off.
The Rockies are headed to the postseason in back-to-back years for the first time in team history. This is their fifth playoff trip since the franchise began in 1993 – last year, they lost to Arizona in the NL wild-card game.
Freeland (17-7) wiggled out of jam after jam on a cool night to finish the season with a 2.40 ERA in games at the hitter-friendly ballpark. The lefty allowed two runs and 11 hits over six innings before turning it over to a staunch bullpen.
The Rockies’ winning streak is their longest since capturing eight straight in April 2013. During the current streak, the Rockies have outscored opponents by a 57-12 margin.
CUBS 8, CARDINALS 4: Kyle Hendricks went eight innings in another strong start, Kris Bryant homered and host Chicago moved closer to the NL Central championship and dealt another hit to St. Louis’ playoff hopes.
The Cubs came into the final weekend of the regular season with a franchise-record fourth straight trip to the postseason assured and their third division title in a row in sight. They began the day with a one-game lead over Milwaukee, with the Brewers playing Detroit later Friday night.
St. Louis dropped its fourth in a row after being swept by Milwaukee. The Cardinals came in trailing Los Angeles by a game for the second wild card, with the Dodgers visiting San Francisco.
Hendricks (14-11) gave up two runs and seven hits. He’s 5-1 with a 1.52 ERA in his past seven outings.
Bryant made it 3-0 with a long solo drive to center against Adam Wainwright (2-4) for just his second homer in 27 games. The 2016 NL MVP sat out the previous two because of a bruised left wrist and has two stints on the disabled list this season because of left shoulder inflammation.
Daniel Murphy had two hits, two runs and an RBI. He singled and scored in a two-run first, doubled and came around in the fifth, and added a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
Anthony Rizzo had an RBI single and sacrifice fly.
Albert Almora drove in two with a single against Dominic Leone to cap a three-run eighth, making it 8-2.
MARLINS 8, METS 1: David Wright finally made it back into a major league game, grounding out in his first plate appearance for the Mets in nearly 21/2 years as New York lost to visiting Miami.
Sidelined by neck, back and shoulder injuries since May 27, 2016, the 35-year-old Wright came up as a pinch hitter leading off the fifth inning and received a warm ovation from the Citi Field crowd. With fans on their feet and his wife and two young daughters in the stands, Wright swung at the first pitch he saw – a 96 mph fastball from Jose Urena.
PIRATES 8, REDS 4: Elias Diaz hit a tie-breaking homer, and Colin Moran also homered and drove in three runs as visiting Pittsburgh pulled away to its seventh straight win over Cincinnat.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
TWINS 2, WHITE SOX 1: Jose Berrios became the first Minnesota pitcher in eight years to reach 200 strikeouts, throwing seven smooth innings in beating visiting Chicago in the first game of a doubleheader.
Berrios finished his All-Star season with a career-best 3.84 ERA and 202 strikeouts. The last time a Twins pitcher topped that milestone was Francisco Liriano (201) in 2010, with Johan Santana (235) in 2007 the most recent prior to that.
Berrios (12-11) struck out nine, allowing just three hits and one run on Leury Garcia’s RBI single in the third. Berrios walked four, including Avisail Garcia to lead off the sixth, but he followed that by fanning Daniel Palka, Matt Davidson and Omar Narvarez in a 10-pitch span.
Joe Mauer, playing possibly the final games of his career with an expiring contract and a pending decision about whether or not to retire at age 35, had two singles and is hitting .352 (19 for 54) over his last 14 starts while reaching base at least once in each.
Reynaldo Lopez (7-10) took the loss.
ASTROS 2, ORIOLES 1: Gerrit Cole went over 200 innings with a sharp outing at Baltimore, and Houston got a home run from Josh Reddick to win.
Cole gave up one run, five hits and a walk over six innings. His four strikeouts gave him 276 for the season.
BLUE JAYS 7, RAYS 6: Randal Grichuk hit a pinch-hit, three-run triple and visiting Toronto rallied to beat Tampa Bay.
NOTES
ORIOLES: First baseman Chris Davis has evidently put an end to one of the worst seasons in major league history.
Baltimore Manager Buck Showalter said Davis likely won’t play in any of the final four games.
Davis isn’t injured. He’s just had enough of a miserable season that’s gotten worse down the stretch.
If he doesn’t play this weekend, Davis will finish with a .168 batting average, lowest by a qualifier in big league history. The previous record was .179, by Rob Deer in 1991 and Dan Uggla in 2013.
Davis lifted his batting average to .180 on Sept 5. Since then, he’s 1 for 37 with 20 strikeouts.
Approached by a reporter before Friday night’s game against Houston, Davis declined to comment.
Davis has 16 homers, 49 RBI and 192 strikeouts in 128 games for a team that owns the worst record in the majors.
The two-time major league home run leader is in the midst of a seven-year, $161 million contract he signed after the 2015 season.
JERSEYS: Aaron Judge again has baseball’s most popular jersey.
MLB says the Yankee slugger’s No. 99 was the top seller for the second straight season. Judge beat out 2017 AL MVP Jose Altuve, who will be trying to repeat as a World Series champion with the Houston Astros next month.
Judge and the Yankees will face Oakland in the AL wild-card game Wednesday. Teammate Giancarlo Stanton was ninth in jersey sales in his first season with New York.
MVP candidates Javier Baez and Mookie Betts each jumped seven spots into the top five. Baez, an electrifying infielder with the Chicago Cubs, ranked third. Betts, the AL MVP favorite with the Boston Red Sox, was fifth.
Clayton Kershaw was fourth on the list in what could be his final season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kershaw can opt out of the final two years of his deal at the end of the season. Bryce Harper ranked 13th in the last season of his contract with the Washington Nationals.
Los Angeles Angels two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani ranked eighth.
The Japanese rookie also had the most visited player page on the league’s website.
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