Cease shuts down Astros; Padres belt four HRs.
SAN DIEGO — Dylan Cease pitched brilliantly into the ninth inning and Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Donovan Solano hit consecutive home runs in the eighth for the San Diego Padres, who beat the AL West-leading Houston Astros 4-0 on Wednesday.
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Machado homered twice for the Padres, who won two of three against the Astros and stayed two games ahead of Arizona for the first NL wild card. The Astros came in with a five-game division lead over Seattle.
Cease (14-11), who threw his first career no-hitter on July 25 at Washington, took a one-hitter into the ninth before Mauricio Dubon beat out an infield single to shortstop. Cease struck out Jake Meyers but then shortstop Xander Bogaerts booted Jose Altuve’s grounder for an error that allowed Dubon to take third, and that was it for the right-hander after 103 pitches.
Cease retired the first 15 Astros batters before allowing a single to right field by Jason Heyward to open the sixth. Cease then retired the side.
Cease struck out five and walked none. Tanner Scott got two outs for his 21st save.
Machado, who has 29 home runs, lined a shot to left-center off Framber Valdez opening the sixth.
Tatis, who struck out in his first three at-bats, hit reliever Kaleb Ort’s first pitch into the first row in left-center leading off the eighth. It was his 19th. Machado followed with a shot deep into the seats in left and Solano hit a liner to left, his seventh. That was it for Ort, who threw just nine pitches.
GIANTS 5, ORIOLES 3 Mike Yastrzemski homered on the game’s first pitch, Michael Conforto also hit a home run and San Francisco beat Baltimore.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
BRAVES 7, REDS 1 Marcell Ozuna homered, Gio Urshela drove in three runs and Spencer Schwellenbach pitched six innings of one-run ball as Atlanta beat Cincinnati. The win allowed the Braves to stay within two games of the Mets for the final National League wild card spot. The Braves are 1-4 against the Reds this season.
BREWERS 2, PHILLIES 1 Jake Bauers hit an RBI single in the ninth inning and Milwaukee, which had clinched the NL Central earlier when the Cubs lost, beat Philadelphia to prevent the Phillies from securing a playoff berth. Bauers’ single off Phillies closer Carlos Estevez (4-5) scored Jackson Chourio, who had tripled.
