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A22 SPORTS
Saturday 30 September 2017
Martin’s HR-saving grab dashes Cards’ wild card hopes

ST. LOUIS (AP) —The St. Louis and Jesse Winkler off Oliver
Cardinals were eliminated Drake, Jared Hughes (5-3)
from postseason conten- entered with two on and
tion when Leonys Martin the Reds loaded the bases
leaped at the center-field when the reliever bobbled
fence to rob Paul DeJong Jose Peraza’s bunt for an
of a tying home run with error.
two outs in the 11th inning, Hughes struck out Adam
preserving the Chicago Duvall and got Stuart Turn-
Cubs’ 2-1 win over St. Louis er to ground into a double
on Thursday night. play.
St. Louis, which went 5-14 NATIONALS 5, PIRATES 4
against its rival, missed WASHINGTON (AP) — The
the playoffs in consecu- NL East champion Nation-
tive seasons for the first als began their last — and
time since 2007 and 2008. meaningless — series of
At 82-77, the Cardinals are the regular season without
assured their fewest wins a sore Bryce Harper and
since going 78-84 in 2007. with a blown save by clos-
A day after clinched their er Sean Doolittle in what
second straight NL Central became a victory over
title, the defending World the Pirates, whose starting
Series champions started pitcher, Ivan Nova, left af-
only two position players ter getting hit by a pitch
who had played in at least St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Jose Martinez is unable to catch the throw from pitcher Matt on his throwing hand while
100 games: outfielders Ian Bowman as Chicago Cubs’ Kyle Schwarber reaches safely then advances to second on the error batting.
during the 11th inning of a baseball game Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Happ and Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber subsequently scored the go-ahead run. Howie Kendrick, a pos-
Schwarber singled off Matt Associated Press sible starter instead of
Bowman (3-6) with one out
in the 11th and Davis, who He became the sixth play- Girardi stays with Sanchez
struck out in his first three er to reach 59, joining Barry
at-bats, hit a run-scoring Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark
double down the left-field McGwire, Roger Maris and despite defensive difficulties
line.Taiwan’s Jen-Ho Tseng Babe Ruth.
(1-0) pitched three hitless Japanese veteran Ichiro
innings. Suzuki got his 27th pinch hit By RONALD BLUM
MARLINS 7, BRAVES 1 of the year, one shy of the AP Baseball Writer
MIAMI (AP) — record John Vander Wal NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees
Giancarlo Stanton hom- set in 1995. manager Joe Girardi is
sticking with catcher Gary
ered twice to become Dee Gordon got two hits Sanchez for the postsea-
the first player to hit 59 in for the Marlins, who despite son despite the 24-year-
a season since 2001 as the a 75-84 record assured old’s defensive difficulties.
Miami Marlins opened the themselves of second Sanchez leads the major
last series of Jeffrey Loria’s place in the NL East, their leagues in passed balls
tenure as owner by beat- highest finish since 2009. with 16 and has been be-
ing the Braves. BREWERS 4, REDS 3 hind the plate for 53 wild
Stanton hit a solo home run MILWAUKEE (AP) — pitches, four shy of the big
in the fourth, then added a The Brewers closed within league-leading total of
two-run drive in the eighth two games of Colorado for Colorado’s Jonathan Lu-
that would have gone 467 the National League’s sec- croy.
feet unimpeded, accord- ond wild card with three “This is my catcher,” Girardi
ing to MLB’s Statcast. games left, rallying to beat said Friday. “I am happy
He has 33 home runs since the Reds as Brett Phillips hit with the progress that he’s
the All-Star break and 10 a go-ahead double in the made. Will he make more New York Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez gestures to team-
multihomer games this sea- sixth inning. progress? Absolutely. He’s mates after hitting an RBI single during the fifth inning of a base-
son. Milwaukee (84-75) closes young, but this kid has real- ball game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday, Sept. 28,
the regular season at St. ly made a lot of progress.” 2017, in New York. took it upon himself and
14 that he did block?” Gi-
Like Louis, and the Rockies host New York led 4-1 Thursday rardi said. “And he got hit has worked very hard to
Like
when Tampa Bay closed
the Los Angeles Dodgers.
improve,” Girardi said. “We
in the neck. He got hit in
on a wild pitch and passed
The Brewers are assured of
us on their best record since fin- ball that each allowed a the shoulder.” San- don’t necessarily have the
us on
easiest guys to catch in the
criticized
Girardi
run. The Rays rallied for sev-
ishing 96-66 in 2011, when
chez after a passed ball
world.”In his first full season
en runs in the inning and
they lost to the Cardinals in
in the majors, Sanchez has
at Cleveland on Aug. 4,
went on to win 9-6.
the NL Championship Se-
Facebook ries, Milwaukee’s last play- “Catchers are going to saying he needed to im- thrown out 36 of 92 runners
Facebook
attempting to steal. He is
prove, and he benched
have bad days. He got the
off appearance.
hitting .278 with 33 homers
the 24-year-old for the next
crap beat out of him yes-
After Cincinnati tied the
Bon Dia 24 Aruba score in the sixth on RBI terday. Everyone wants to two games. and 90 RBIs in 121 games,
missing time from April 8
“I was just being honest,
focus on the two balls that
singles by Scooter Gen-
facebook.com/bondianoticia nett against Brent Suter maybe they got by him, letting him know that he to May 5 because of a
but what about the 12 or needs to improve, and he strained right biceps.q