Boston Red Sox fail to clinch AL East after loss to Astros

TheHouston Astros kept Boston’s champagne on ice and also kept their ownhopes for home-field advantage throughout the American League playoffsalive with a 3-2 decision over the Red Sox in the Major League Baseballon Friday.Houston’s second straight win over the Red Sox keptBoston’s magic number for clinching the American League East at one,with the New York Yankees winning earlier in the day to stay alive.Still, one Boston win or one New York loss and the Red Sox have theirsecond straight AL East title.Alex Bregman had an RBI single andtwo-run homer among his three hits and Charlie Morton (14-7) and fourrelievers combined on a four-hitter in Houston’s fifth straight win. TheAstros recorded their second 100-win season in franchise history.Yankees 4, Blue Jays 0MasahiroTanaka struck out a career-high 15 hitters in seven dominant innings asNew York blanked Toronto. Tanaka delivered the best start of hisfour-year tenure with the Yankees, who stayed alive in the AmericanLeague East race.The Yankees, who will at the least host theMinnesota Twins in the wild-card game, are two games behind Boston withtwo to play. Tanaka (13-12) joined Washington’s Stephen Strasburg as thesecond pitcher to notch 15 strikeouts in an outing this season.Indians 10, White Sox 1JoseRamirez had three hits, including his 54th and 55th doubles of theseason, and Trevor Bauer pitched six strong innings as Cleveland routedChicago. Bauer (17-9) gave up one run on four hits with seven strikeoutsand no walks.Chicago starter Mike Pelfrey (3-12) gave up all 10 ofCleveland’s runs in 2 2/3 innings, although three of the runs wereunearned. Cleveland won its 101st game of the season, the second most infranchise history.Rockies 9, Dodgers 1Colorado moved closerto reaching the post-season for the first time since 2009 afterwalloping Los Angeles. The victory reduced the Rockies’ magic number toone as they closed in on the post-season for the fourth time in their 25seasons of play.Chad Bettis (2-4) made one of the best starts thisseason for the Rockies since coming back from testicular cancer andreturning to the rotation on Aug. 14, giving up four hits and one run,and retiring the final 14 batters he faced. Brewers 5, Cardinals 3ChaseAnderson worked into the eighth inning and Stephen Vogt knocked inthree runs as Milwaukee beat St Louis. Anderson (12-4) gave up onlythree hits and a run in seven-plus innings, walking one and fanningfive.Vogt was 2-for-4 for the Brewers, delivering their first threeruns. The third, a ground-out to second base in the sixth, scored TravisShaw for a 3-1 lead. Nationals 6, Pirates 1StephenStrasburg allowed just two hits and no runs in 7 2/3 innings and RyanZimmerman went 4-for-4 with two homers and four RBIs as Washingtonwalloped Pittsburgh. Zimmerman had doubles in his first two at-bats,then hit a two-run homer off AJ Schugel in the sixth to give theNationals a 4-0 lead. He then had a solo homer in the eighth off DanRunzler to make it 5-0.Cubs 5, Reds 4Ian Happ slugged his 24thhome run, a three-run shot in the eighth inning that helped Chicago to acome-from-behind victory over Cincinnati. Happ’s homer came on a 1-1pitch off right-handed reliever Michael Lorenzen as the National LeagueCentral champion Cubs won their third straight and fifth in six games.Lorenzen (8-4) took the loss after working two-thirds of an inning asthe Reds (67-93) dropped their ninth in 10 games.Rays 7, Orioles 0Asconsolation prizes go, Tampa Bay earned one by locking up third placein the American League East with a win over Baltimore. The Rays havebeen eliminated from playoff contention and assured of a losing record,but they now know they will finish ahead of the Orioles and Toronto BlueJays. Third place represents their highest finish in the division since2013.Twins 6, Tigers 3Eduardo Escobar had three hits andwas a triple shy of the cycle, Brian Dozier reached base four times andMinnesota came from behind to beat Detroit. Dozier and Escobar homeredback-to-back in the second inning to put Minnesota ahead after Detroitscored three runs in the first off Twins starter Kyle Gibson. Gibsonlasted just 3 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and stringout six batters.Royals 2, Diamondbacks 1Whit Merrifield hita go-ahead home run and Ian Kennedy ended a franchise-record homewinless streak in Kansas City’s victory over Arizona. Merrifield homeredin the third inning for the decisive run.Kennedy (5-13), who was0-9 with a 6.13 ERA in 18 home starts since an Aug. 20, 2016, victoryover Minnesota, threw 86 pitches in five innings.Rangers 5, Athletics 3Left-handerMartin Perez carried a shutout into the seventh inning as Texas snappedits longest losing streak of the season by beating Oakland Athletics.Texas had lost seven straight games, but this win assured the Rangers ofa better record than the A’s, who will finish last in the AmericanLeague West for the third consecutive year.Perez (13-12) allowed just two hits over the first six innings and had a 5-0 lead to work with before the A’s came to life late.Marlins 6, Braves 5Ina tale of two halves, visiting Atlanta scored early while Miamianswered late for a comeback victory. The Braves tallied four times inthe first inning and added another in the second for a 5-0 lead. But theMarlins answered with two runs in the sixth and four more in theseventh inning.Phillies 6, Mets 2Behind three home runs,Philadelphia beat New York on the same day it announced that managerPete Mackanin will not be retained following the 2017 season. Mackanin,like his Mets counterpart Terry Collins, will finish out the season asmanager and could possibly have won his final game in a Phillies uniformon Friday.Giants 8, Padres 0Buster Posey drove in threeruns with three doubles and right-hander Chris Stratton combined withthree relievers on an eight-hit shutout, lifting San Francisco over SanDiego in the opener of a three-game series.Brandon Crawford alsocollected three hits and three RBIs for the Giants (63-97), who, withthe win, were assured of not losing 100 games this season.Angels 6, Mariners 5LuisValbuena’s two-out, two-run pinch-hit double capped a four-run eighthinning to help Los Angeles rally past Seattle at Angels Stadium. TheMariners got home runs from Nelson Cruz, Kyle Seager and Mike Zunino topower their way to a three-run lead before things unravelled in theeighth inning against their bullpen.Mike Trout led off the inningwith the second of his two homers in the game, Albert Pujols doubled andlater scored on CJ Cron’s two-out single to make put the game in reach.