American League wild-card roundup: Twins move up as rivals lose

The Minnesota Twins took care of their own business and will end the night in sole possession of the final wild-card spot in the American League.

The Twins defeated the Atlanta Braves 6-4 on Wednesday to complete a sweep and improve to 63-65. That win, combined with losses across the American League, propelled the Twins up into the third wild-card spot.

The Rangers, Guardians, Orioles, Blue Jays and Tigers all lost to fall below the Twins. The Mariners, who seemed out of the race after a 22-0 loss to the Brewers on Tuesday, rebounded to beat Milwaukee 7-5 to keep within striking distance.

MINNEAPOLIS — Kody Clemens and Brooks Lee had RBI singles in the seventh inning and Minnesota beat Atlanta to sweep the three-game series.

Clemens drove in three runs and Kaelen Culpepper added three hits for Minnesota.

Yoendrys Gómez earned his third save in as many games and 20th of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth. A.J. Minter (2-2) got the last two outs of the seventh inning and Jeff Hoffman struck out three batters in the eighth.

With the game tied at 4, Josh Bell doubled off Victor Mederos (2-1) with one out in the seventh inning and Clemens followed with an RBI single against Dylan Lee. Brooks Lee singled two batters later to score Clemens.

The Braves have scored 15 runs in losing five of six games, including 4-2 on Monday and 4-1 on Tuesday. They are 8 for 43 with runners in scoring position in that span.

Manager Walt Weiss was ejected for arguing a check swing in the eighth.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Cade Cavalli struck out 11 over six innings for his second double-digit strikeout game in a row and retired the final 11 batters he faced as Washington beat Texas.

Cavalli (11-5) limited the Rangers to three singles and walked one while throwing 58 of 84 pitches for strikes. He was pitching six days after 10 Ks while throwing one-hit ball over eight scoreless innings against the Chicago Cubs. The right-hander is 7-1 his last 10 starts.

José Tena put the Nationals ahead to stay with a solo homer in the third, and Andrés Chaparro’s third hit in the game was a towering 415-foot drive for a three-run homer in the seventh that made it 6-0. Washington has an MLB-high 182 homers.

The Nationals had lost four in a row and six of seven, a stretch in which the only other win was Cavalli’s against the Cubs last Thursday when he didn’t allow a hit until the seventh.

Will Dion, Max Kranick and Jake Bird each pitched an inning to wrap up Washington’s fifth shutout victory. Texas (62-65) dropped out of the American League’s third wild card spot.