@Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 3 — Jon Lester’s 9th straight quality start settled both ends of the AL East. The BoSox clinched the division, while the Jays, picked for first by some preseason polls, finished last, where Boston ended last year. Koji Uehara came on to face the tying run in the 8th and notched a 5-out save.

• David Ortiz reached 97 RBI, edging closer to becoming the third with 7 or more 100-RBI seasons for the Red Sox.

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Braves 9, @Cubs 5 — Atlanta’s first division crown since 2005 has seemed a mortal lock ever since they ended July with an 11-game lead, amidst a streak of 14 wins. Tonight, after a 5-1 lead slipped away, they put up 4 runs with 2 outs in the 9th, and formally placed one foot firmly inside the door, clinching a tie for the NL East. Freddie Freeman hit an early 3-run HR, Brian McCann had the decisive RBI, and Chris Johnson’s 3 hits moved him back into a virtual tie for the NL batting crown.

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Reds 6, @Pirates 5 (10 inn.) — A 2-out error in the 9th kept the Reds alive to score 3 runs off Mark Melancon, the last by Billy Hamilton after yet another pinch-steal, and Joey Votto’s homer to the left-field corner in the 10th against Kyle Farnsworth lifted them to a tie for 2nd place, after three solid months in 3rd.

Pittsburgh had led since their first two batters homered on consecutive pitches from Mat Latos, who had allowed just one HR in his last 10 starts. They made it 4-1 in the 4th, a rally that went bad when Russell Martin was thrown out stealing 3rd with the pitcher batting. Francisco Liriano held that lead through the 8th, allowing 2 runs on just 3 hits, and notching his 1,000th strikeout during his last inning’s work, to reach the threshold of his 17th win this year.

Melancon began the 9th by fanning Votto, and got Jay Bruce for the 2nd out with a man aboard. Todd Frazier hit the first pitch slowly to short, and Jordy Mercer’s off-balance sling sailed wild, scoring one run. After Zack Cozart’s single put men on the corners, Hamilton took over his bag and was off at the first chance, recording his 10th steal to put the tying run in scoring position. Devin Mesoraco fouled off three full-count pitches, then stroked a hard one-hopper towards third — do or die for Pedro Alvarez, who had it but couldn’t hold it, and the deflection let Hamilton speed all the way home. Once Votto brought the lead, Aroldis Chapman came on and blazed through the save.

• Ryan Ludwick had 3 hits, breaking an 0-for-15 schneid with a ribby single in the 1st, and started the 9th-inning comeback.
• Neil Walker’s homer had such a lovely backdrop, and brought such hometown joy on the heels of Jose Tabata’s laser shot, that it hurts to think of what those fans went through at the bitter end.

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Cardinals 7, @Brewers 6 (10 inn.) — St. Louis blew a 2-run, 9th-inning lead, but turned a bases-loaded double play to get into extra time, where Carlos Beltran’s long sac fly brought the lead that would stand up, as they took a 2-game lead over the Bucs and Reds. The Cards had scored twice in the 7th to tie, and Matt Adams hit a 2-run HR in the top of the 9th. But Edward Mujica’s slump continued, with 3 hits and a walk scoring one run and leaving the sacks full for John Axford. Aramis Ramirez, who put the Crew up early with a 3-run HR and had a sac fly in the 5th, beat out an infield hit to tie the game. But Carlos Gomez hit into a 5-2-3 DP, completing his 0-for-5. In the Cards’ 10th, rookie Kolten Wong batted for Axford and fell behind 0-and-2, but he stayed alive with 6 foul balls and earned a 12-pitch walk. Matt Carpenter, whose 52nd double touched off the tying rally in the 7th, sent Wong to 3rd with #53. And Beltran, whose throw cut down the lead run at home plate in the 7th, pulled a 2-0 pitch to the track in right to score Wong.

• Carpenter shook off Thursday’s 0-for-6 with three hits, two doubles and two runs, advancing his MLB lead in those categories. His 53 doubles matches the Cardinals’ high since Stan Musial (of course) in 1953 (naturally); only Joe Medwick ever had more for the Redbirds.
• The Cards had 16 hits and 7 walks, and saw 205 pitches in just 10 innings.
• Mujica has allowed 2 hits or more in 5 straight outings, and 29 hits in his last 23 IP since the All-Star Break.

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@Indians 2, Astros 1 (7 inn.) — Two Houston errors set up unearned scores, and Cleveland claimed another one-run win and took their wild-card chances into their own hands. Zach McAllister fell behind on Brandon Laird’s solo shot in the 2nd, but Laird’s error at third base helped tie it in the bottom half, and McAllister pitched out of trouble in the 5th with a bags-full DP. The Indians went ahead in the 4th when 1B Chris Carter mishandled Michael Brantley’s grounder with 2 on and 1 away. McAllister left in the 6th after a 4-pitch leadoff walk, but Carlos Santana rubbed him out with a rare caught stealing, just his 11th in 62 tries. Bryan Shaw got the last 4 outs, 3 on strikes, before the rain became unplayable.

• Brett Oberholtzer went 6 innings on 4 hits in the tough loss, but cut his ERA to 2.14 in 9 starts.

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@Royals 2, Rangers 1 — A 4-pitch walk to Alcides Escobar from Neftali Feliz forced in the tiebreaker, capping K.C.’s 2-out rally in the 8th. Greg Holland closed it cleanly, fanning two, and shaking up the AL wild-card race.

Each team tallied on a double in the 2nd, and Ervin Santana was masterful from there. He set down 11 straight until a 2-out rumble in the 5th, and fanned Elvis Andrus with the bases loaded to escape. Luke Hochevar got the last 2 outs in the 8th with a man aboard, and in the Royals’ half, Jason Frasor fanned the first two and had 2 strikes on Lorenzo Cain. But Cain and Mike Moustakas singled, and pinch-hitter David Lough worked a full-count walk, so Ron Washington called in Feliz. The former closer, back this month after a 15-month surgical sabbatical, had worked five scoreless outings, stranding 4 inherited, but this was his first meaningful moment, and perhaps that showed.

• Through 2012, Santana owned a 6.04 ERA in 27 starts against Texas, but he’s given them just one earned run in 2 starts this year.
• K.C. got doubled up in their first two innings, but Justin Maxwell salvaged the second threat with a 2-out, tying hit.
• Maxwell got a bit too frisky later, and Geovany Soto nabbed him stealing 3rd to end the 6th on the first pitch to Alex Gordon.
• Royals to pundits: You know where to stick your forks. They’re 17-8 since an August 7-game swoon left them at .500. But will the fans buy in? This game drew less than 22,000, and the Cleveland series just completed averaged under 20,000.

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@Rays 5, Orioles 4 (18 inn.) — David DeJesus’s 4th hit cashed in a Desmond Jennings double, and the Rays won the longest game in their history to retain clear title to their wild-card seat.

• What we have: Tampa 84-69, Cleveland 84-70, Texas 83-70, Baltimore and K.C. 81-72, Yankees 81-73.
• What chaos there might have been: A Baltimore win would have left the Indians alone atop the wild-card jumble, Tampa and Texas tied for #2, with the O’s (one game back), Royals (two) and Yankees (2.5) all in hot pursuit. But we’ll save that for another day.
• The 18-inning game broke Tampa’s mark of 16, set in 2003 and tied in 2011, both home losses to Boston. Their longest win was 14 innings, last done in 2012.
• The O’s played 18 innings for a crucial win just over a year ago. Their longest searchable game is 19 innings, last done in 1967 — featuring the only walk-off HR for Andy Etchebarren, and one of two searchable games with four teammates pitching 3+ innings of scoreless relief.
• A month ago, Danny Valencia was playing games against the Toledo Mud Hens. Now he’s batting cleanup in a playoff race.

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@Nationals 8, Marlins 0 — Jordan Zimmermann allowed two singles, in the 6th and 9th, to earn his 19th win and keep the Nats 5 games behind both wild-card leaders, with 8 games to play.

• Zimmermann is the 4th pitcher in Nats/Expos history with two shutouts of 2 hits or less in one season. If you can guess two of the other three, without cheating or missing a guess, you are a true franchise guru.

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@Angels 3, Mariners 2 (11 inn.) — Chris Iannetta’s game-winning hit brought the surging Angels to 13-6 this month and within 3 games of .500.

• Matt Shoemaker, an undrafted free agent who somehow advanced through the minors over the last 6 years for no apparent reason, threw five scoreless innings in his MLB debut. Congratulations, Matt!

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Thursday afterthoughts

Charlie Culberson had 3 hits and 4 strikeouts in the Rockies’ 15-inning win. It’s the 11th searchable game with those minimum criteria, with 3 coming this year and all 11 since 1968. It’s happened just once in regulation.

The game-winning triple by Corey Dickerson was the 5th in MLB this year. Only the Rockies have been on both ends.

But who was the last walk-off tripler who had another triple in the same game? If I’ve done my work properly, Dickerson is the first to do that since at least 1945 (the start of the event database).

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Nationals fans, here’s the silver lining to missing the postseason: You won’t have to watch Rafael Soriano try to nail down October outs. On the dark side, you still have him signed up for next year, with a good chance that he’ll trigger his 2015 option. Here are the previous seven closers to record 40+ saves with fewer than 7 SO/9 (as Soriano’s done this year), along with a quick gauge of their next year’s performance:

• Jim Johnson, 2012 (declined)
• Bob Wickman, 2005 (declined)
• Danys Baez, 2005 (crashed)
• Jose Mesa, 2004 (crashed)
• Danny Graves, 2004 (crashed, burned, and had charred remains sprinkled in the Shea Stadium tomato garden)
• Mike Williams, 2002 (shudder)
• Jose Jimenez, 2002 (crashed)

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Placido Polanco is batting .251 and slugging .290 — while playing third base. If those rates hold up, he’ll post the 4th live-ball season with isolated power less than .040 (that’s SLG minus BA) and 100 games played at third base.