UNDATED (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers continue to own the second-best record in Major League Baseball. Unfortunately for them, they are staring at the possibility of playing in the National League Wild Card game.
San Francisco still leads the NL West by 2 1/2 games over the Dodgers following the Giants’ 3-2 win over the Mets. Darin Ruf furnished a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning to give the Giants a three-game sweep of the Mets.
Kris Bryant’s second home run in as many days put San Francisco ahead, 2-0 lead in the first inning and helped the Giants improve to a major league-best 83-44.
The Mets wasted Pete Alonso’s two-run blast and finished 2-11 in a 13-game stretch against the Giants and Dodgers.
The Dodgers kept pace as Max Scherzer won his eighth straight decision in a 4-0 shutout of the Padres. Scherzer struck out 10 and limited the slumping Padres to two hits over 7 2/3s.
The Dodgers made the most of five hits as Austin Barnes smacked a two-run homer in the third to open the scoring.
Los Angeles completed a three-game sweep and won for the 16th time in its last 18 games.
The Padres are two games behind Cincinnati for the second NL wild card.
In Thursday’s other major league action:
— Nick Ahmed and Carson Kelly slammed two-run homers while the Diamondbacks built an 8-2 lead before fending off the Phillies, 8-7. Arizona almost wasted a strong outing by Zac Gallen, who was reached for two unearned runs and five hits over five innings. The Phils scored five in the ninth before losing for the seventh time in nine games, putting them six games behind the NL East-leading Braves.
— Jonathan India smacked a three-run homer and Sonny Gray tossed six shutout innings to lead the Reds to a 5-1 victory over the Brewers. India’s blast made it 4-0 in the fifth, one inning before Nick Castellanos went deep. Cincinnati is back within 8 1/2 games of the NL Central-leading Brewers after avoiding a three-game sweep.
— The Pirates trailed 7-3 before exploding for eight runs in the seventh inning of an 11-7 comeback over the Cardinals. Bryan Reynolds and Wilmer Difo hit two-run singles to tie it, Gregory Polanco added a two-run double and Yoshi Tsutsugo capped the rally with a two-run homer. St. Louis led 7-1 until Colin Moran’s two-run homer in the third.
— Jorge Alfaro and Miguel Rojas homered for the Marlins in a 7-5 win versus the Nationals. Rookie Bryan De La Cruz had three hits to raise his average to .353 since Miami acquired him from Houston on July 30. Brian Anderson had two hits and two RBIs for the Marlins, who won their second straight since an eight-game losing streak.
— The Yankees squandered a 6-0 lead before running their winning streak to 12 games with a 7-6 downing of Oakland. Giancarlo Stanton, Brett Gardner and Joey Gallo hit home runs, but the Yankees needed Aaron Judge’s RBI single in the ninth to get within four games of the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays. Matt Chapman, Sean Murphy and Josh Harrison homered for the Athletics, who dropped their fifth in a row to fall two games behind the AL West-leading Houston Astros.
— Carlos Rodón returned to the mound and allowed two runs over five innings of the White Sox’s 10-7 win at Toronto. Rodón was reached for five hits hours after being activated off the injured list. Luis Robert hit a two-run home run for the White Sox, who also got solo shots from José Abreu, César Hernández and Eloy Jiménez.
— Bobby Dalbec homered twice and had seven RBIs in the Red Sox’ 12-2 dismantling of the Twins. Chris Sale joined Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax as the only pitchers in big league history to strike out the side in order on just nine pitches three times in their career. Rafael Devers hit his 30th to help Sale improve to 3-0 in three starts since coming back from Tommy John surgery.
— The Royals beat the Mariners, 6-4 as Salvador Perez crushed his fourth career grand slam in a five-run sixth. Perez has hit five of his 35 home runs this season during the first seven games of Kansas City’s road trip. Kyle Seager hit his 30th home run for Seattle, which fell 3 1/2 games out of a wild-card berth.
— First-inning homers by Myles Straw and Bradley Zimmer sparked the Indians’ 10-6 win over the Rangers. Zimmer had three RBIs for Cleveland, which wasted a 4-0 lead before Andres Gimenez delivered an RBI double in a four-run fourth. Owen Miller also homered for the Indians.
— Pedro Severino launched a grand slam and had a career-high six RBIs as the Orioles clobbered the Angels, 13-1. Keegan Akin allowed one run over seven innings to help Baltimore win its second straight since a 19-game losing streak. Akin blanked Los Angeles after Shohei Ohtani smacked his major league-leading 41st home run on the game’s second pitch.
