Yankees bumped from pennant contention as wild-card races heat up

Clay Buchholz allowed just two hits over six innings to remain undefeated after 11 games as the Boston Red Sox downed New York 9-2 on Sunday to eliminate the Yankees from the American League East pennant race.

At Pittsburgh, Francisco Liriano took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning before faltering in his first no-decision this season to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates over the Chicago Cubs 3-2.

Pittsburgh remains even with St. Louis for the National League Central lead after taking three of four from the last-place Cubs and winning for the sixth time in seven games.

Boston leads second-placed Tampa Bay by 9.5 games with a magic number of four to clinch its second division title since 1995.

The Yankees trail the Rays and Texas Rangers by three in the wild-card standings, with Cleveland and Baltimore also ahead of them in the race.

The Yankees had won the past two division titles and 13 of the past 17.

Daniel Nava had four hits as Buchholz walked four batters, struck out three and allowed only one unearned run in his second start since coming off the disabled list.

Tampa Bay's Joel Peralta gave up a solo home run to Ryan Doumit in the eighth inning and a three-run drive to Josmil Pinto as the Rays stumbled again in the AL wild-card race with a 6-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins.

The Rays remain tied with Texas for the two AL wild-card spots, a half-game ahead of Cleveland.

Nick Swisher homered from both sides of the plate for the 13th time in his career and Asdrubal Cabrera hit a three-run homer as the Indians beat the Chicago White Sox 7-1 to pull within a half-game of Tampa Bay and Texas in the AL wild-card race.

At St. Louis, Yadier Molina broke out of a slump with a home run and three singles as Shelby Miller and the Cardinals remained tied for first place in the NL Central by beating the Seattle Mariners 12-2 in an interleague matchup.

Matt Adams also homered as St. Louis won for the seventh time in nine games and kept pace with Pittsburgh. Both teams are 87-62 with 13 games remaining.

In the NL, Milwaukee's Sean Halton hit a solo homer with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Milwaukee Brewers to a 6-5 comeback victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

(China Daily 09/17/2013 page23)