American League

Blue Jays 6, Rays 3

Bo Bichette homered and matched his career-high with five RBIs, Robbie Ray fanned 13 over seven innings to claim the major league strikeout lead and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-3 Wednesday.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled twice and scored twice, and Teoscar Hernández added an RBI single. The Blue Jays improved to 13-2 in September to move ahead of Boston and the New York Yankees for the top AL wild card before those teams play later Wednesday.

“We’re showing everybody who we are,” Bichette said.

Tampa Bay lost for the fifth time in seven games. The AL East leaders are 6-8 in September after going 21-6 in August.

Ray (12-5) allowed one run and four hits to win his fourth straight decision. The left-hander is 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA and 91 strikeouts since his last loss, July 21 against Boston.

“Early on, the fastball was electric,” Ray said. “I felt like it was getting on guys, I was able to pound guys with it.”

Ray allowed leadoff doubles in the second and fourth but didn’t allow a run until Mike Zunino homered to begin the fifth. The homer was Zunino’s 30th.

Ray left to a standing ovation after striking out Jordan Luplow to end the seventh. He raised his season total to 233 strikeouts, passing Yankees ace Gerrit Cole (224) and Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler (225).

“It’s tough to make an argument that that’s not the best fastball going right now in the American League,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said of Ray. “For the most part, he’s going to come at you with fastballs and pound the zone. And when it’s there, there’s really not a ton you can do with it.”

Ray didn’t walk a batter and threw 101 pitches, 75 strikes. He has struck out 10 or more batters in five of his past six outings. His 11.2 strikeouts per nine for his career are the most in major league history among pitchers with at least 1,000 innings.

Ray also lowered his AL-best ERA to 2.64.

Tampa Bay’s Brett Phillips cut it to 6-3 with a two-run home run off right-hander Joakim Soria in the eighth, his 12th. Right-hander Jordan Romano closed it out with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 18th save in 19 chances as the Jays took two of three.

“That’s one of the best teams in baseball,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “To keep doing what we’re doing, you’ve got to beat them.

“It was a great series. We did everything.”

After being shut out for only the third time this season Tuesday, the Blue Jays jumped on Rays right-hander Michael Wacha with a three-run first. Marcus Semien walked, Guerrero lashed a double to left and Bichette followed with his 25th home run.

No big league team has been held scoreless as few times as Toronto this season.

Bichette added a sacrifice fly in the third, and he and Hernández hit consecutive RBI singles in the fifth.

“Bichette did a lot of damage,” Cash said

Wacha (3-5) allowed six runs and seven hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out five.

“He really did a nice job of resetting in the second with a six-pitch inning and then his stuff kind of recalibrated,” Cash said.

Wacha has allowed a team-high 23 home runs this season.

Ray has 46 strikeouts against the Rays this season, the most by a Toronto pitcher against one opponent in a single season. Drew Hutchison fanned 44 Orioles in 2014.

Bichette’s homer made him the fourth Blue Jays player with 25 home runs and 90 RBIs, joining Guerrero, Semien and Hernández. It’s the first time in team history that’s happened, and the first time any team has done it since both Philadelphia and Minnesota did in 2009.

Players and coaches from both teams wore jersey number 21 on Roberto Clemente Day across baseball. Those doing so for Toronto included Puerto Rican manager Montoyo, and outfielder George Springer, whose mother is Puerto Rican.

Athletics 12, Royals 10

Matt Olson hit a two-run homer, Josh Harrison drove in three runs and Elvis Andrus had four hits as Oakland held on through a nervy ninth inning.

The A’s ended a three-game skid and remained 3 1/2 games back of Toronto, Boston and New York in the AL wild-card chase.

Oakland’s Sean Manaea (10-9) allowed five runs in five innings. And the Athletics' beleaguered bullpen coughed a run in the seventh, three more in the eighth and loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth before Andrew Chafin (four saves) finally managed to lock down the win.

Mark Canha and Tony Kemp also drove in runs off Carlos Hernandez (6-2) and the beat-up Kansas City bullpen.

Salvador Perez hit his 44th homer for Kansas City, moving into a tie with Shohei Ohtani and within one of big league leader Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Andrew Benintendi went 5 for 5 and drove in four runs for the Royals.

Indians 12, Twins 3

Cal Quantrill turned in a strong start, and Oscar Mercado, Bobby Bradley and Franmil Reyes homered to help Cleveland rout Minnesota.

José Ramírez and Myles Straw each had three of Cleveland’s 14 hits, and Mercado and Bradley each drove in three runs. Ramírez had two RBIs to reach 90 for the season for the Indians.

Miguel Sanó had the only two hits for Minnesota against Quantrill (6-3), including a three-run homer in the seventh.

Quantrill retired 13 straight batters at one point and finished 6 2/3 innings with three walks and four strikeouts.

Twins starter Griffin Jax (3-4) was done in by a four-run fifth.

Astros 7, Rangers 2

Jake Meyers and Marwin Gonzalez hit consecutive homers in a three-run second inning, Kyle Tucker homered among his three hits, and Jose Urquidy allowed one run and two hits in six innings as Houston beat Texas.

Urquidy (7-3) struck out six and walked one in beating Texas for third time in four career starts, helping the AL West-leading Astros win for the third time in four games.

Chas McCormick hit a two-run single and Yordan Alvarez had an RBI double.

Brock Holt scored Texas’ first run in the third inning on a groundout after hitting his first triple since Aug. 2019. Willie Calhoun went 2 for 4, accounting for half of the Rangers’ hits.

Kohei Arihara (2-4) didn’t retire a batter in the fifth inning and was pulled after three batters. He allowed six runs on eight hits and hit two batters.

Angels 3, White Sox 2

Brandon Marsh hit a tiebreaking solo homer off Michael Kopech in the eighth inning, and Los Angeles beat Chicago.

Marsh drove a 101 mph, full-count fastball from Kopech (4-3) over the wall in left-center for his second homer and finished with three hits and two runs scored.

Mike Mayers (5-5) struck out the side in the seventh for the win. Raisel Iglesias finished for his 32nd save.

Yoán Moncada homered for AL Central-leading Chicago, which had won three of four.

National League

Rockies 3, Braves 2 (10 innings)

Raimel Tapia hit a tiebreaking single off A.J. Minter in the 10th inning, scoring Colton Welker from third base and lifting Colorado over Atlanta.

Atlanta’s NL East lead was trimmed to 3½ games over Philadelphia as the Braves attempt to win the division for the fourth straight year. Colorado was 28 games back in the NL West.

Robert Stephenson earned his first save in two chances in the bottom of the 10th.

Minter (2-6) took the loss. Carlos Estévez (3-4) faced five batters in the ninth to earn the win.

Pirates 5, Reds 4

Wilmer Difo scored on a groundout from Colin Moran with one out in the ninth inning, and Pittsburgh handed Cincinnati its seventh loss in nine games.

Cincinnati slipped 1 1/2 games behind St. Louis Cardinals for the NL's second wild card.

Chris Stratton (6-1) pitched a perfect ninth for the Pirates.

After falling behind by two in the first, Pittsburgh took the lead with three runs in the third.

Yoshi Tsutsugo drove in Ke’Bryan Hayes on a double to left and advanced to third on a bobble from Schrock. Bryan Reynolds tripled down the right-field line, scoring Tsutsugo, and went home on Moran’s sacrifice fly that put Pittsburgh up 3-2.

Kyle Farmer homered and Reds starter Vladimir Gutiérrez (9-7) allowed four runs on five hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Phillies 6, Cubs 5

Andrew Knapp scored on a passed ball in the ninth inning to bolster Philadelphia's tenuous playoff push with a win over Chicago.

The Phillies bullpen blew it in the late innings. Robinson Chirinos hit a two-run homer off Jose Alvarado that tied it 4-all in the eighth. Matt Duffy hit a solo shot off Ian Kennedy (2-1) in the ninth and tied it at 5.

J.T. Realmuto homered in the eighth inning for the Phillies.

Knapp led off the ninth with a single off Trevor Megill (1-2) and advanced to third on a sacrifice and a groundout. Chirinos couldn’t get a handle on Megill’s knuckle-curve and Knapp scooted home with the winning run.

Philadelphia's win, coupled with Atlanta's loss to Colorado, moved the Phillies 3 1/2 games behind the Braves in the NL East. The Phils are three games behind St. Louis in the wild-card race.

Marlins 8, Nationals 6

Jesus Sanchez’s second two-run homer of the day capped a four-run ninth inning and Miami rallied past Washington.

After an RBI single by Miguel Rojas and fielder’s-choice groundout by Lewin Diaz tied the score, Sanchez hit the first pitch he saw from Kyle Finnegan (5-7) to left center for his 12th homer of the season.

Sanchez also hit a two-run homer in the sixth for Miami’s first runs. Bryan De La Cruz homered in the eighth for the Marlins, who took two of three from Washington.

Paul Campbell (2-3), the seventh Miami pitcher, worked the eighth and Dylan Floro pitched a perfect ninth — the only 1-2-3 inning for Marlins pitchers in the game — for his 12th save.

Interleague

Tigers 4, Brewers 1

Dustin Garneau homered and drove in two runs, rookie Matt Manning combined with the bullpen on a three-hitter and Detroit beat Milwaukee to complete a two-game sweep.

Milwaukee’s magic number to clinch the NL Central remained at five after they dropped a pair to the Tigers following a five-game winning streak.

Manning (4-6) gave up a run on two hits and struck out a career-high six over six innings in his 15th start. Michael Fulmer recorded four strikeouts during the last two innings while notching his ninth save.

Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff (9-9) gave up three runs on four hits and struck out seven in six innings. Lorenzo Cain knocked in Milwaukee’s run with a second-inning double.