AMERICAN LEAGUE
The Tampa Bay Rays held off the New York Yankees 7-5 on Thursday to avoid a three-game sweep and dent the Yankees’ hopes of making the playoffs.
New York (75-65) fell 11 games behind the American League East leaders and failed to gain any ground in the wild card race, which probably represents their only chance of making it to the postseason.
Starting pitcher Scott Kazmir improved to 11-6 for the Rays (85-53), the left-hander leaving the game with a 6-0 lead following the sixth inning.
Tampa Bay scored five runs in the second inning to chase Yankees starter Darrell Rasner from the mound. Rays third baseman Willy Aybar finished 2-for-4 with three RBI, including a solo homer in the fourth.
Rays relief pitcher Jason Hammel gave up five runs to the Yankees in the ninth, including home runs to Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, but Dan Wheeler came on to get the final out of the game and record his 11th save of the year.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said his team had missed an opportunity to make headway in the race for the playoffs.
“We had a chance to sweep them,” he said. “That would’ve been big for us, but we didn’t and we have to move on.”
BLUE JAYS 9, TWINS 0
At Toronto, Jesse Litsch threw a four-hit shutout as Toronto completed a three-game sweep of Minnesota.
Litsch (10-8) walked two and struck out three and is 2-1 with a 0.94 ERA in four starts since being recalled from Triple-A on Aug. 14.
Travis Snider hit his first career home run and went 3-for-4 with two RBIs to help Toronto beat Minnesota for the ninth straight meeting.
In other games it was:
• Angels 7, Tigers 1
• Royals 5, Athletics 4, 10 innings
• Royals 9, Athletics 6
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Will Venable hit his first career homer as the San Diego Padres beat Milwaukee 5-2 on Thursday, handing the slumping Brewers their fourth straight loss.
Nick Hundley and Luis Rodriguez each drove in two runs for San Diego, which had lost nine straight on the road and is tied with Washington and Seattle for the fewest wins in the majors.
With all of the National League’s playoff hopefuls taking the day off, maybe Milwaukee should have, too. The Brewers’ wild-card lead was trimmed to four games over Philadelphia, and they fell five games behind NL Central-leading Chicago with 22 games left.
Fresh off being swept by the New York Mets, Milwaukee fell to 0-4 on a 10-game homestand, but this loss was much more troubling.
The Padres, mired in last in the NL West, took advantage of every opportunity Jeff Suppan (10-8) and Milwaukee gave them. J.J. Hardy hit his 22nd homer for the Brewers.
REDS 8, PIRATES 6
At Cincinnati, Joey Votto hit a solo homer and a tiebreaking, bases-loaded single in the eighth inning, completing Cincinnati’s rally from a five-run deficit.
By scoring three times in the eighth, Cincinnati avoided a sweep by the Pirates, who have dropped 11 of their last 13 games.
BRAVES 2, NATIONALS 0
At Atlanta, James Parr tossed six sharp innings in his major league debut, leading Atlanta past Washington.
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CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
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