The Tampa Bay Rays keep reaching new milestones, and their latest feat brought them closer to perhaps the most significant accomplishment in an amazing regular season.
The Rays reduced their magic number to win the AL East to 2 last night with another franchise first: a doubleheader sweep in Baltimore.
After James Shields pitched seven effective innings in a 5-2 victory over the Orioles in the opener, Tampa Bay rallied to win the nightcap, 7-5.
The sweep left the Rays three games ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East. Any combination of Rays wins and Red Sox losses totaling 2 will give Tampa Bay its first division title.
In the second game, Tampa Bay trailed, 5-1, before Evan Longoria homered and pinch hitter Dioner Navarro singled in two runs off Jamie Walker (1-3) in a six-run eighth inning.
Jeff Neimann (1-2) pitched 2 1/3 innings and J.P. Howell got five outs for his third save.
Braves 3, Phillies 2 - Casey Kotchman homered, Mike Hampton won for the first time in a month, and visiting Atlanta curbed streaking Philadelphia's playoff push.
The NL-East leading Phillies missed a chance to reduce their magic number for clinching their second straight division title against the Mets.
Philadelphia leads New York by 1 1/2 games and its magic number for clinching the division remained at 4.
Mets 6, Cubs 2 - Johan Santana (15-7) sparked New York's offense with a broken-bat infield single and struck out 10 in eight innings, leading the Mets past visiting Chicago.
New York leads Milwaukee by one game in the NL wild-card race.
Brewers 7, Pirates 5 - Prince Fielder homered with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Milwaukee rallied twice to beat Pittsburgh and keep pace with the Mets in the NL wild-card race.
Dodgers 10, Padres 1 - Nomar Garciaparra and Blake DeWitt each hit three-run homers and host Los Angeles reduced its magic number for clinching the NL West title to three.
Reds 2, Astros 1 - Edinson Volquez pitched 7 1/3 strong innings as visiting Cincinnati pushed Houston to the brink of elimination - an Astros loss and a Mets win today would eliminate Houston.
Cardinals 7, Diamondbacks 4 - Kyle Lohse won his 15th game as host St. Louis pushed Arizona three games behind the Dodgers in the NL West race. Despite the win the Cardinals were eliminated from the wild-card race.
Yankees 3, Blue Jays 1 - Mike Mussina (19-9) pitched five shutout innings, Jason Giambi homered, and New York won at Toronto, but the Yankees' slim postseason hopes ended when the Red Sox beat the Indians.
In other games - Kenji Johjima drove in three runs and the Mariners came back from a four-run deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Angels, 9-6, at Seattle . . . Zack Greinke (13-10) and Leo Nunez combined for a four-hitter to lift the Kansas City Royals to 5-0 victory over the Tigers at Detroit . . . Hank Blalock hit a go-ahead home run in the seventh to lift the host Texas Rangers past the Oakland A's, 6-4 . . . The Florida Marlins were eliminated from the NL wild-card race as Shairon Martis (1-3) got his first major league win in host Washington's 9-4 victory . . . Tim Lincecum (17-5) held on to the NL ERA lead but slipped in the Cy Young race as the Colorado Rockies rallied to beat the Giants, 9-4, at San Francisco.
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