DETROIT — Jonathan Schoop hit Minnesota’s record 300th home run, Willians Astudillo also went deep and the AL Central champion Twins rallied past the Detroit Tigers 10-4 Thursday to move within one victory of giving the major leagues four 100-win teams for the first time.
Minnesota was tied with the New York Yankees for the big league lead with 299 homers coming in. With the Twins ahead 6-4 in the seventh, Schoop lofted Jose Cisnero’s slider to deep left, and a strong breeze pushed the ball into the Tigers’ bullpen. Astudillo connected off Zac Reininger in the eighth.
Before this year, the record for home runs by a team was 267 from the Yankees last year.
A day after clinching its first division title since 2010, the Twins rested most of their regular starters and improved to 99-60 with their 10th win in 13 games.
Houston (104), the Yankees (102) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (102) have already reached 100 wins. The only prior years with three 100-win teams were 1942, 1977, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2017 and 2018.
Minnesota closes the season at home against Kansas City, among a record-tying four teams with 100 losses.
Detroit (46-112), already assured of the big leagues’ worst record and next year’s top draft pick, finished 22-59 at Comerica Park and tied the major league record for home losses set by the 1939 St. Louis Browns.
Devin Smeltzer (2-2) allowed three runs and 10 hits in five innings.
Jordan Zimmermann (1-13) lost his fourth straight start, giving up six runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. Zimmermann started 23 times this season and set a team record for fewest wins by a pitcher with 20 or more starts. Art Houtteman had two runs in 20 starts in 1948.
Willi Castro and Victor Reyes hit RBI singles in the fourth for a 3-2 lead, but Minnesota went ahead 6-3 on Astudillo’s RBI single, Jake Cave’s two-run triple and Victor Alcantara’s wild pitch.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
DODGERS 1, PADRES 0: Clayton Kershaw shut down San Diego for six innings and Chris Taylor scored from first base on Max Muncy’s single in the sixth to lead seven-time NL West champion Los Angeles to a win at San Diego for a three-game sweep.
The Dodgers have won four straight and 9 of 12 heading into their final regular-season series at San Francisco. They begin pursuit of a third straight NL pennant next Thursday night at Dodger Stadium against the wild-card winner.
Kenta Maeda came on with Wil Myers aboard on a leadoff single in the ninth and retired the side for his third save. He struck out Manny Machado, who was with the Dodgers for the second half of 2018 and their World Series loss to the Boston Red Sox, and Hunter Renfroe before getting Seth Mejias-Brean to fly out.
The Padres, who fired manager Andy Green on Saturday, lost for the 12th time in 14 games and closed within one defeat of their fourth-straight 90-loss season.
San Diego has missed the playoffs for the 13th straight season and will have a losing record for the ninth straight year.
BREWERS 5, REDS 3: Orlando Arcia doubled with the bases loaded, and visiting Milwaukee won its seventh straight.
The Brewers earned at least a wild card with a 9-2 win on Wednesday night, dousing each other with champagne and beer in the clubhouse afterward. Little more than 12 hours after the empty bottles and cans were cleaned away by clubhouse attendants, Milwaukee focused on an even bigger prize.
Milwauee moved within one game of the idle Cardinals for the NL Central lead heading into the final weekend, the same status as a year ago when they also were a game out with three to play. They caught the Cubs and then beat them at Wrigley Field in a one-game tiebreaker for the division title.
Milwaukee concludes with three games in Colorado against the team it swept in the playoffs before losing to the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series. The Cardinals host the Cubs.
GIANTS 8, ROCKIES 3: Tyler Beede struck out seven in 3 1/3 hitless innings before leaving due to an injury, and San Francisco won at home.
Mike Yastrzemski and Mauricio Dubon homered for the Giants, at 77-82 assured of their third straight losing season.
Beede, a 26-year-old rookie right-hander, grabbed his left side after striking out Ryan McMahon leading off the fourth. Beede was replaced by Burch Smith, who allowed the Rockies to tie the score in the fifth.
NATIONALS 6, PHILLIES 3: Stephen Strasburg was dominant in his final regular-season start and Washington held its lead in the NL wild-card chase, beating visiting Philadelphia to sweep the five-game series.
The Nationals remained one game ahead of Milwaukee, which topped Cincinnati 5-3, atop the wild-card race.
Strasburg (18-6) allowed one run on four hits in six innings, striking out 10. He fanned Bryce Harper three times on his way to a career-best 251 strikeouts this season.
Strasburg set a career high for wins this year and had a 3.32 ERA. Both Strasburg and fellow ace Max Scherzer would have at least regular rest for the NL wild-card game against either Milwaukee or St. Louis on Tuesday.
MARLINS 4, METS 2: Curtis Granderson, Tyler Heineman and Austin Dean hit late home runs and Miami rallied against Zack Wheeler to win at New York.
Wheeler, a potential free agent pitching perhaps for the last time with the Mets, hit an RBI single to break a scoreless tie in the seventh inning.
PIRATES 9, CUBS 5: Joe Musgrove pitched three-hit ball through six innings as Pittsburgh sent visiting Chicago to its ninth straight loss.
NOTES
PIRATES: Clint Hurdle hopes to return for what would be his 10th season as manager in 2020.
Hurdle has two more years remaining on a deal that started with the 2018 season.
Pittsburgh began Thursday 67-91, its most losses since 2010. The second half of the season included several clubhouse incidents, including a fight between relief pitchers Felipe Vazquez and Kyle Crick.
General Manager Neal Huntington says he is not discussing personnel decisions until after the season.
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