BOSTON — Renato Núñez homered in his second straight game and was one of four Baltimore players to go deep as the Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-4, on Saturday.
DJ Stewart, Richie Martin and Trey Mancini also homered for Baltimore, which won its 54th game of the season and has a chance to close out a dismal year with a three-game sweep of the defending World Series champion Red Sox on Sunday at Fenway Park.
Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez homered for the Red Sox, who lost their third straight.
John Means (12-11) recovered from a rough start and pitched five solid innings for the Orioles, allowing three runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out five.
Martin and Stewart drove in two runs apiece, and Mancini capped off the day with a solo homer to right in the ninth, his team-high 35th of the season.
Jhoulys Chacín (3-12) lasted just 2⅔ innings for Boston. He allowed four runs on five hits, struck out three and walked one.
WASHINGTON — Washington assured itself of hosting the NL wild-card game by holding on to beat already-eliminated Cleveland with the help of a grand slam in a nine-run second inning from Gerardo Parra, whose dugout dancing and Baby Shark walk-up music have become trademarks of Washington’s turnaround.
Nationals Park will be the site of a win-or-go-home game Tuesday night between Washington, which will send three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer to the mound, and either the St. Louis Cardinals or Milwaukee Brewers. One of those clubs will be the NL Central champion; the other will be the league’s second wild-card entry.
The lone bit of bad news for the Nationals on Saturday was the way starter Patrick Corbin got hit around, giving up six runs in 4⅓ innings — on three homers.
The Indians, meanwhile, have lost four in a row. An 8-2 defeat at Washington on Friday eliminated them from the playoff race after Cleveland won the previous three AL Central titles.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Minnesota lost third baseman Luis Arraez to an apparent right leg injury in the seventh inning of its victory over Kansas City.
Arraez collided with first baseman Willians Astudillo while he was chasing Hunter Dozier’s pop fly at the mound. Astudillo caught the ball and Arraez grabbed the back of his right leg as he tumbled to the ground.
Arraez, a rookie who is batting .334 in 92 games for the AL Central champions, had to be carted off the field.
TORONTO — Tampa Bay managed just three hits and lost to Toronto, damaging the Rays’ chances of hosting the AL wild card fame.
Matt Duffy homered in the seventh inning, but that was it for Tampa Bay. Duffy finished with two hits and Tommy Pham singled for the team’s other hit.
CHICAGO — Reynaldo López tossed five-hit ball into the ninth inning, Eloy Jiménez and Danny Mendick homered and Chicago beat Detroit in the first game of a doubleheader.
Jiménez, who began the season in the minors, has 31 homers on the season. Miguel Cabrera homered for Detroit, which has lost four straight and has 113 defeats on the season, the second-most in franchise history.
SAN FRANCISCO — Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched seven sharp innings and Los Angeles posted its 105th win to match the highest total in franchise history, beating San Francisco for its sixth straight victory.
The NL West champions tied the win mark of the 1953 “Boys of Summer” team based in Brooklyn that included Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider and other Hall of Famers.
The Dodgers began the day one game behind Houston for the best record in baseball and one game ahead of the Yankees. Los Angeles will begin the Division Series next Thursday at home against the NL wild-card winner.
Ryu (14-5) allowed five hits, struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter. He also hit an RBI single in the fifth for the game’s first run.
Kenta Maeda pitched the eighth. Kenley Jansen hit Evan Longoria to start the ninth and gave up Kevin Pillar’s single before striking out three for his 33rd save.
Max Muncy hit his 35th homer in the sixth off rookie Logan Webb (2-3). Webb singled in the fifth for his first major league hit.
Retiring Giants manager Bruce Bochy oversaw his 4,031st game, moving past Sparky Anderson for sole possession of seventh place on the all-time list while managing his second-to-last game with San Francisco. Bochy was honored on the field before the game by San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who presented Bochy with a key to the city.
Webb, a top pitching prospect, allowed two runs on six hits in six innings, struck out five and walked one in his eighth career start.
MADBUM’S PLACE
Madison Bumgarner will be ready Sunday even if he’s not on the mound as originally planned — Bochy hinted “he’ll have his spikes on,” so perhaps be prepared for a pinch-hit appearance and one final ovation from the home crowd.
“We thought that would be the best thing for both of us,” Bumgarner said Saturday.
The 2014 World Series MVP can become a free agent, so Tuesday might have been his final start for the Giants. He is wrapping up a contract singed in April 2012 that included a $12 million contract option this year, and the Giants opted not to deal him at the trade deadline.
“I’m sure I’ll make my way back here one way or another,” he said.
HONORING MCGOWAN
Peter Magowan, who died in January, was honored pregame with a plaque on the Giants Wall of Fame he started as San Francisco’s managing general partner.
“It was good to get Peter’s plaque up there, with what he’s done for the San Francisco Giants and the impact he made keeping them here and really in the community,” Bochy said. “I know that he’d be very proud. … Peter, he did a lot for me.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: LF A.J. Pollock sat out after being hit in the left knee with a pitch and leaving during the fifth inning of Friday’s 9-2 win with a bruised knee. … Manager Dave Roberts said 3B Justin Turner — missing a fourth straight game with back tightness — doesn’t need to play Sunday though it would be nice to get him a couple of at-bats if Turner feels better. If not, he will get some simulated work done during Tuesday’s workout day back home ahead of the Division Series. Turner was set to throw and swing in the cage again Saturday as he did Friday. “If he wasn’t able to kind of move around and swing the bat, I’d probably be a little concerned but since he’s doing that I feel confident he’ll be fine,” Roberts said.
Giants: C Buster Posey returned to the starting lineup after three days not playing at all following a 16-inning game Tuesday in which he caught 13 of those innings.
UP NEXT
LHP Rich Hill (4-1, 2.59 ERA) makes his 13th start of the season pitching the last day having gone 1-0 with eight strikeouts in two previous outings vs. San Francisco. RHP Dereck Rodriguez (6-10, 5.27) will now start Sunday’s season finale for the Giants.
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