Kirk hits 1st career slam as Blue Jays clinch 1st AL East title in decade with win over Rays

By Canadian Press on September 28, 2025.

Alejandro Kirk hit two home runs, including his first career grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays clinched their first AL East title in a decade by routing the Tampa Bay Rays 13-4 in their regular-season finale Sunday.

George Springer and Addison Barger also went deep for the Blue Jays, who needed a win or a New York Yankees loss on the final day to take the division crown for the seventh time in team history and first since 2015. Toronto (94-68) also wrapped up the best record in the American League and will have home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs.

Kirk made sure of it with a first-inning slam and a two-run homer in the fifth as the Blue Jays capped their 11th series sweep of the year and extended their winning streak to four games.

The homers gave Kirk 15 this season, a career high. It was his second mulithomer game of the season and the sixth of his career.

Kirk finished 3 for 5 with six RBIs. He also homered in Saturday’s 5-1 win.

BREWERS 4, REDS 2

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Cincinnati lost its regular-season finale to Milwaukee but still reached the playoffs because the New York Mets fell to the Miami Marlins.

Cincinnati entered Sunday knowing it could reach the playoffs if it beat Milwaukee or if the Mets lost to Miami. The Mets’ 4-0 loss to the Marlins enabled the Reds to get the National League’s third and final wild-card spot.

The Reds and Mets both finished the season at 83-79, but the Reds owned the head-to-head tiebreaker after going 4-2 against the Mets this season. The Reds head to Los Angeles to begin a Wild Card Series against the defending World Series champion Dodgers on Tuesday.

Cincinnati took an early 2-0 lead on leadoff homers by Elly De La Cruz in the second inning and TJ Friedl in the third. De La Cruz hit his 402-foot shot off Freddy Peralta, while Friedl delivered a 416-foot blast off DL Hall.

Milwaukee cut the lead to 2-1 when Jackson Chourio and Brice Turang opened the third inning with back-to-back doubles.

Danny Jansen put Milwaukee ahead 3-2 by hitting a two-run homer off Brady Singer in the fourth. Andrew Vaughn added a two-out RBI double off Nick Lodolo later in the inning to make it 4-2.

Singer (14-12) struck out five but allowed three runs, five hits and one walk in 3 1/3 innings.

Five Milwaukee relievers combined to hold the Reds hitless after the third inning. Abner Uribe retired the side in order in the ninth for his seventh save in nine opportunities.

CUBS 2, CARDINALS 0

CHICAGO (AP) — Seiya Suzuki homered in his fourth straight game, Javier Assad pitched shutout ball into the sixth inning and playoff-bound Chicago beat St. Louis for a three-game series sweep to close out the regular season.

Suzuki hit five homers and drove in 10 runs in his last four games. He raised his season totals to 32 homers and a team-leading 103 RBIs.

Moises Ballesteros added an RBI single for the Cubs (92-70), who finished as the top NL wild card. Chicago will host San Diego in the first round of the playoffs. Game 1 of the best-of-three series is Tuesday.

The Cardinals, at 78-84, finished in fourth place in the NL Central and out of the playoffs for the third straight season.

Assad (4-1) pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing three hits and striking out six while walking one. Michael Soroka got two outs, then Jordan Wicks scattered three hits over the final three innings for his first save.

Kyle Leahy opened for the Cardinals with three scoreless innings, allowing one hit. John King (2-1), the second of four St. Louis relievers allowed one run while getting four outs.

Suzuki lined a solo homer off King to the left-center bleachers leading off the bottom of the fifth. The Cubs added an unearned run in the seventh when Ballesteros singled and scored Kevin Alcantara from second.

GIANTS 4, ROCKIES 0

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Logan Webb struck out eight on the way to leading the National League with 224 Ks and also pitched a majors-best 207 innings, sending San Francisco past Colorado.

Willy Adames homered to become the first Giant with 30 since home run king Barry Bonds hit 45 in 2004 and Rafael Devers also connected to back Webb (15-11).

Webb is the first Giants pitcher to rank tops in the league for both strikeouts and innings since Bill Voiselle in 1944.

The All-Star right-hander didn’t walk a batter over 5 1/3 innings to go 3-0 with a 1.56 ERA and 21 Ks against the Rockies this year. Webb exited to hugs from teammates and a roaring ovation in the sixth, and he tipped his cap before disappearing into the dugout.

Manager Bob Melvin initially had Adames batting second but moved him up in a late switch, which led to the first leadoff home run of Adames’ career in the bottom of the first inning.

Jung Hoo Lee added a two-run single for the Giants, who at 81-81 wound up one win better than in Melvin’s first year but missed the playoffs for a fourth straight season.

Spencer Bivens pitched two innings for his third save.

Devers played in his 163rd game of the year after 73 games with Boston before being traded to San Francisco. Minnesota’s Justin Morneau was the last to do so in 2008 when he appeared in a tiebreaker game while Todd Zeile played 163 in 1996 after a trade from the Phillies to Baltimore.

Right-hander McCade Brown (0-5) was done after three innings, surrendering both home runs among four hits allowed. The Rockies’ starters set a record-high with a 6.65 ERA, topping the 6.64 by Detroit in 1996.

WHITE SOX 8, NATIONALS 0

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shane Smith took a perfect game into the sixth inning, Brooks Baldwin homered and drove in three, and Chicago limited Washington to one hit in a rout in the season finale for both last-place teams.

Miguel Vargas and Dominic Fletcher also homered for the White Sox, who concluded their first season under Will Venable at 60-102. It was a 19-game improvement after the franchise went 41-121 in 2024 to set the modern record for single-season losses.

Washington closed at 66-96, a decline of five games after going 71-91 the last two seasons.

The Nationals finished last in the NL East for the fifth time in six years. Interim manager Miguel Cairo was 29-43 after taking over for Dave Martinez, who was fired July 6 with Washington at 37-53.

Smith (7-8) retired the first 16 batters he faced before Brady House singled. The right-hander struck out eight in six innings.

Vargas hit a two-run homer off Washington starter Brad Lord (5-10) in the first inning. Baldwin hit a solo shot and Fletcher had a two-run homer in the fourth.

Lord allowed five runs in four innings.

Baldwin added a two-run double off Shinnosuke Ogasawara in the fifth.

Former National Michael A. Taylor, who announced his retirement before the game, received applause before each plate appearance and had an RBI groundout in the eighth in his final at-bat.

RED SOX 4, TIGERS 3

BOSTON (AP) — José De León pitched a career-high 6 2/3 innings in his first outing in two years, and Masataka Yoshida and David Hamilton homered to give Boston a victory over Detroit that clinched the AL Central title for the Cleveland Guardians.

After each team wrapped up a playof berth during the series – the Red Sox on Friday and the Tigers on Saturday – they both sent out lineups for the regular-season finale that allowed some regulars to rest and others to get work if they needed it.

De León, called up from Triple-A so the Red Sox could line up their starters for the wild-card round, allowed three runs on eight hits and three walks. He struck out eight. Greg Weissert pitched the ninth for his fourth save.

The Tigers scratched ace Tarik Skubal after clinching a postseason spot on Saturday, even though they still could have won the division and the home-field advantage in the wild-card round that goes with it. Detroit needed a win Sunday and a Cleveland loss to Texas.

Chris Paddack (5-12) allowed four runs on seven hits and four walks while striking out four in 4 1/3 innings. The Tigers took a 3-1 lead in the fourth on Javier Báez’s three-run homer, but Boston answered in the bottom half with Hamilton’s two-run shot and Jarren Duran’s RBI double.

BRAVES 4, PIRATES 1

ATLANTA (AP) — Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a two-run home run in the first inning and Atlanta ended its season with a win over Pittsburgh.

Chris Sale (7-5) allowed one run on four hits with nine strikeouts and five walks in 5 2/3 innings after coming on in the second inning for opener Charlie Morton making possibly his final major league appearance. Raisel Iglesias earned his 22nd save of the season.

Acuña’s 21st home run was hit approximately 451 feet. Matt Olson’s eighth-inning RBI single gave the Braves an insurance run and he subsequently scored on Jared Triolo’s throwing error to first base.

Morton allowed two hits and a walk over 1 1/3 scoreless innings. The 41-year-old Morton, who was signed by the Braves on Sept. 22, got the start so he can potentially retire as a Brave, the team he was drafted by in 2002 and debuted for in 2008.

For the Pirates, right-handed starter Johan Oviedo (2-1) allowed two runs on three hits with three strikeouts over five innings.

YANKEES 3, ORIOLES 2

NEW YORK (AP) — New York was on track to finish one win shy of repeating as AL East champion and lose to Toronto on a tiebreaker despite beating Baltimore behind a pair of Ben Rice home runs for a season-ending eight-game winning streak.

Toronto led Tampa Bay 13-4 in the eighth inning when the Yankees’ game ended. With a victory, the Blue Jays and Yankees would both finish 94-68 and Toronto would win the AL East on a tiebreaker because of its 8-5 advantage in the season series.

New York was on track to host Boston in a best-of-three Wild Card Series starting Tuesday, with the winner advancing to a Division Series next weekend.

Aaron Judge went 1 for 4 and won his first batting title, leading the major leagues at .331.. He had 53 homers and 114 RBIs.

Rice homered in the first against Kyle Bradish but Jordan Westburg and Gunnar Henderson hit back-to-back homers in the fourth off Luis Gil for 2-1 lead.

Giancarlo Stanton’s RBI single tied the score in the bottom half and Rice hit an opposite-field drive to left in the eighth off Rico Garcia (0-2).

Devin Williams (4-2) pitched a one-hit eighth and David Bednar finished for his 27th save in 30 chances.

New York started 35-20, slumped during a 25-34 stretch, then closed 34-14.

Baltimore went 75-87, winning 16 fewer games than last year, after firing manager Brandon Hyde in May.

New York’s Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out as a pinch hitter in the seventh and took over at second base, a day after he was hit on the left forearm by a 96.8 mph pitch.

Rice hit the Yankees’ 50th first-inning home run, three more than the previous big league record set by Atlanta in 2023.

Gil, the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, allowed two runs in five innings and finished 4-1 with a 3.32 ERA in 11 starts. He made his season debut Aug. 3 after recovering from a right lat strain.

PHILLIES 2, TWINS 1, 10 INNINGS

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Trea Turner won his second career NL batting title, Kyle Schwarber led the league with 56 homes and 132 RBIs and Nick Castellanos capped Philadelphia’s 96-win season with a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning as the Phillies beat Minnesota.

Turner and Schwarber have a few days to enjoy the spoils of their outstanding individual seasons before the NL East champion Phillies play again. The Phillies are set to host Game 1 of the NL Division Series on Saturday.

The Phillies will try to stay sharp during the layoff with an intrasquad scrimmage on Wednesday night.

The Phillies finished at 96-66 and are looking to win their first World Series title since 2008. Loaded with All-Stars and an opening day payroll that reached almost $284 million, the Phillies have struggled in the postseason the last three seasons, losing in the 2022 World Series, the 2023 NLCS and last year to the New York Mets in the division series.

Turner returned from a three-week layoff due to a hamstring injury and went 0 for 2, yet still finished a league-best .304 this season. Turner also won a batting title in 2021, when he led the major leagues at .328 for Washington and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He’s the first Phillies’ first batting champion since Richie Ashburn in 1958.

Schwarber, eligible for free agency in the offseason, finished one homer ahead of Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani to lead the National League and four behind major league leader Cal Raleigh of Seattle, who hit 60.

Schwarber fell two homers shy of matching Ryan Howard for the franchise record of 58 set in 2006. He closed out the regular season No. 3 in walks at 107.

Cristopher Sánchez struck out eight and tossed two-hit ball over 5 1/3 innings — and tipped his cap to a roaring, appreciative crowd — in his final start before he takes the mound in Game 1 of the NLDS.

ROYALS 9, ATHLETICS 2

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Mike Yastrzemski hit two solo home runs, Cole Ragans struck out eight in 4 1/3 innings as Kansas City defeated the Athletics.

Yastrzemski hit a homer deep to right in the seventh inning off Michael Kelly and homered to right off Osvaldo Bido in the eighth. Yastrzemski hit 17 homers, including nine with the Royals after he was traded from the Giants at the deadline.

Michael Massey had four of Kansas City’s 15 hits. Catcher Carter Jensen had three, including a homer just after Yastrzemski’s seventh-inning home run.

Bobby Witt Jr. hit a two-run double in the seventh. The Kansas City shortstop led the majors in hits for the second straight year. He had 184 this season after collecting 211 in 2024.

Ragans limited the A’s to two hits and a walk. Lefty Daniel Lynch IV (6-2) got the victory. Lynch entered the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth and escaped the jam by striking out Nick Kurtz.

Kurtz hit an opposite-field two-run homer off lefty Sam Long in the eighth. The Athletics’ first baseman leads all rookies in home runs (36), RBIs (86), runs (90) and walks (63).

Brady Basso (1-1), the first of seven Athletics pitchers, took the loss.

ASTROS 6, ANGELS 2

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Ramón Urías hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning, one of four Houston home runs, and the Astros beat Los Angeles in the season finale for both teams.

Yainer Diaz, Brice Matthews and Victor Caratini also went deep for the Astros, who failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

Houston snapped a 1-1 tie with four runs and six hits in the fifth inning, which featured solo shots by Diaz and Matthews and the two-run shot by Urías.

Caratini’s solo homer in the sixth pushed Houston’s lead to 6-1.

The last-place Angels (72-90) finished with nine more wins than they had in 2024 but suffered their 10th straight losing season and extended their playoff drought to 11 years.

Mike Trout closed on a high note, hitting his fifth homer in seven games, a 443-foot shot that tied the score 1-1 in the first.

Trout, a three-time AL MVP, hit just one homer in 36 games from Aug. 8 through Sept. 19. He finished with a .232 average, a career-low .798 OPS, 26 homers and 64 RBIs in 130 games.

Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. returned from his fourth stint on the injured list to allow one run and two hits, striking out four and walking one, in three innings. Colton Gordon (5-5) threw five hitless relief innings, striking out three and walking one.

Angels starter Sam Aldegheri (0-2) gave up four runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.

DODGERS 6, MARINERS 1

SEATTLE (AP) — Clayton Kershaw tossed 5⅓ scoreless innings in the final regular-season start of his 18-year major league career, helping Los Angeles beat Seattle.

Kershaw (11-2) scattered four hits, three of them singles, and struck out seven, including the last batter he faced — the Mariners’ Eugenio Suárez. The 37-year-old left-hander turned to his slider in the top of the sixth to retire Suárez for the 3,052nd strikeout of his career. He then left the game to a standing ovation from a sellout crowd at T-Mobile Park.

The Dodgers scored early and often against Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller (4-6). Hyeseong Kim hit a two-run home run in the second inning and Freddie Freeman added a two-run shot in the third.

After Miller departed , Los Angeles two-way star Shohei Ohtani hit his franchise-record 55th home run of the season. Andy Pages added an RBI single in the eighth inning to complete the Dodgers’ scoring.

Seattle slugger Cal Raleigh went 1 for 3 in his regular-season finale, finishing with 125 RBIs and a major league-leading 60 homers.

PADRES 12, DIAMONDBACKS 4

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Manny Machado hit an RBI single during the five-run first inning and homered leading off the third for San Diego, who got a final tune-up for the postseason by routing Arizona for a three-game sweep.

San Diego heads to Chicago for a best-of-three NL wild-card series against the Cubs starting Tuesday. The teams split the season series 3-3, with each team going 2-1 at home. It’ll be the first time they’ve met in the postseason since the 1984 National League Championship Series, when the Padres rallied from an 0-2 deficit to beat the Cubs in five games and advance to their first World Series.

San Diego is 3-0 all-time in wild card series. However, they’ve struggled on the road this season, going 38-43 away from Petco Park.

The Padres (90-72) recorded consecutive seasons of 90 or more wins for the first time. It was the sixth time they’ve reached that benchmark.

Two seasons removed from playing in the World Series, Arizona finished 80-82, a drop of nine wins from last season.

The Padres jumped on Brandon Pfaadt (13-9) for five straight hits to open the first, with every baserunner scoring. Machado had an RBI single, Jackson Merrill an RBI double and Xander Bogaerts a two-run double. Jake Cronenworth had a sacrifice fly.

Machado homered to left leading off the third, his 27th.

Arizona’s Ketel Marte hit his third leadoff homer of the season, off JP Sears (9-11). Geraldo Perdomo knocked in a run in his final at-bat to become the first Arizona shortstop to post 100 RBIs.

GUARDIANS 9, RANGERS 8, 10 INNINGS

CLEVELAND (AP) — Brayan Rocchio hit a three-run homer in the 10th inning and Cleveland rallied for a victory over Texas, putting an exclamation point on their improbable AL Central title.

When the Detroit Tigers lost 4-3 at Boston earlier in the day, the Guardians completed the largest comeback to win a division or league championship in major league history.

Texas took an 8-5 lead on pinch-hitter Rowdy Tellez’s three-run homer off Zak Kent (1-0) in the top of the 10th.

But with George Valera as the automatic runner on second base, Bo Naylor hit an RBI double to bring Cleveland within two. Petey Halpin drew a walk before Rocchio drove a 1-2 fastball from Jose Corniell (0-1) off the right-field foul pole to give the Guardians their ninth walk-off win this season.

The Guardians (88-74) trailed 5-4 in the middle of the eighth when they found out they were division champs after Detroit’s Parker Meadows flied out to Boston left fielder Jarren Duran. If the two teams had ended up tied, Cleveland still would have won the division based on the head-to-head tiebreaker after taking the season series.

MARLINS 4, METS 0

MIAMI (AP) — Edward Cabrera tossed five innings of two-hit ball and Miami used a four-run fourth to beat New York in its regular-season finale, preventing the Mets from making the playoffs.

The Mets (83-79) needed a win and a Cincinnati loss at Milwaukee to reach the postseason. The Reds (83-79) lost 4-2 to the Brewers but took the final National League wild card on a head-to-head tiebreaker after winning the season series against New York.

Cabrera (8-7) struck out seven and walked five.

Mets starter Sean Manaea fanned three in 1 2/3 hitless innings. But with little margin for error, manager Carlos Mendoza pulled Manaea following his second walk in the second, and reliever Huascar Brazobán got out of the inning.

Connor Norby began the Miami fourth with a single off reliever Brooks Raley (3-1).

Raley was replaced by Ryne Stanek — already the fourth Mets pitcher — and he gave up a run-scoring double to Eric Wagaman that put the Marlins on the board. Brian Navarreto hit another RBI double, followed by a run-scoring triple from Javier Sanoja and an RBI single by Xavier Edwards off Tyler Rogers.

The Mets used eight pitchers, including closer Edwin Díaz, who pitched scoreless innings in the fifth and sixth.

Francisco Lindor doubled in the seventh for one of five Mets hits, but New York went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 overall. The season ended when Lindor grounded into a game-ending double play.

The Marlins won the season series from their division rivals, 7-6.

The Associated Press