SAN FRANCISCO — Fernando Tatis Jr. hit his NL-leading 39th home run and the San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants 7-4 on Thursday to earn a series split.
The Padres moved within half a game of the idle Cardinals for the second NL wild card at 76-70. San Diego starts a three-game series in St. Louis on Friday.
Tatis also singled and walked twice a day after matching a career best with four hits. Tommy Pham and Manny Machado each drove in two runs, and Adam Frazier and Austin Nola had three hits apiece.
Evan Longoria homered for the NL West-leading Giants, whose lead over the Dodgers dropped to a game. Los Angeles was off Thursday.
Nabil Crismatt (3-1) pitched four scoreless innings in relief to earn the win in a bullpen game for the Padres.
Giants starter Kevin Gausman (14-6) lost for the first time since July 30, allowing four earned runs on eight hits in five innings.
ATHLETICS 7, ROYALS 2
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Salvador Perez tied Johnny Bench’s record for homers in a season by a catcher with his 45th, but Chad Pinder’s two-run single spurred a third-inning rally and Oakland held off Kansas City.
Perez hit a two-run homer in the first inning, matching Bench’s total from 1970 for the most by a player who played at least 75% of his team’s games at catcher. Perez is tied with Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the major league lead in homers and also leads the bigs with 112 RBIs.
Oakland started the day 3 1/2 games behind Toronto, Boston and the New York Yankees for the two AL wild cards.
Paul Blackburn (1-2) battled through five-plus innings for Oakland, yielding two runs on six hits.
Daniel Lynch (4-5) took the loss. He left the game in the third inning with left calf tightness with the bases loaded and a full count on Matt Olson. He gave up three runs (one earned) on two hits in two-plus innings. He also walked one and hit two batters.
REDS 1, PIRATES 0
PITTSBURGH — Tyler Mahle cruised through six innings, Asdrúbal Cabrera hit a go-ahead, pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the seventh, and Cincinnati avoided a three-game sweep against Pittsburgh.
Mahle (12-5) allowed five hits — all singles — and struck out four with a walk as the Reds salvaged the finale of a nine-game road trip that saw them lose a little bit of ground in the chase for the second NL wild-card spot.
Mychal Givens worked out of a two-on, one-out jam in the ninth by striking out Hoy Park on a full-count fastball for his eighth save as the Reds bounced back after a pair of one-run losses to the last-place Pirates.
Cabrera provided the game’s only run while pinch-hitting for Mahle in the top of the seventh against Cody Ponce (0-4)
ANGELS 9, WHITE SOX 3
CHICAGO — Alex Cobb pitched five scoreless innings, Luis Rengifo and Jose Rojas hit home runs, and Los Angeles coasted over Chicago.
Cobb was activated from the 10-day injured list after suffering right wrist inflammation and allowed two hits in his first start since July 23. Cobb (8-3) allowed only two baserunners to advance as far as second base, and he induced inning-ending double plays in the second and fourth innings.
Chicago starter Reynaldo Lopez (3-3) allowed a season-high seven runs in his seventh start of the season. Lopez had allowed two home runs in his previous 30 innings prior to surrendering homers to Rengifo and Rojas.
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