The regular season is closing in, and the division champions are not yet decided

The Los Angeles Dodgers clinch a critical victory over Colorado Rockies in the extra-inning, stepping away from the Giants at the head of NL West.

Stats PerformUpdate: Sep 24th, 2021 17:00 EDT

The Los Angeles Dodgers have had an unfortunate time in extra-inning games during the season. Still, they struck up a decisive win on Thursday when Max Muncy’s 10th-inning home run gave them a 7-5 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

MLB news:

Content:

MLB playoffs: team-by-team analysisLa Russa on ‘Fantasy Island’ as White Sox land AL Central titleLA Angels’ Ohtani throws 10 strike outs days after his season almost endedAngels’ Ohtani’s arm sore, may miss rest of season as pitcherDodgers’ Max Scherzer throws 3,000th career strikeout

The more successful of the two LA teams, the Dodgers (98-55) had been 5-13 in extra-inning games before Thursday, matched to 10-7 for the team they have pursued all summer, the opposing Giants.

However, San Francisco fell in extras, 7-6 to the San Diego Padres on a walk-off single in the 10th by Victor Caratini, narrowing the Giants’ division lead to one game.

The San Francisco Giants have endured at least a part of first place in the National League (NL) West all but one day since May 31, and the pair seem set to battle it out over the final nine games of the regular season, though both will not meet each other head-to-head

MAX POWER, MAX RESULTS.

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 23, 2021

White Sox clinch division title

The Chicago White Sox split a double-header with the Cleveland Indians, but they only needed to win one to clinch the American League Central title and they did that with a 7-2 triumph in the opener. Tim Anderson homered in the first and second innings, while Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez also went deep in the second as the Sox drove Cleveland starter Aaron Civale from the game. This is the first time the White Sox have reached the postseason in successive years in a franchise history that dates to 1901.

St Louis Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright gave up a grand slam to Tyrone Taylor in the first inning, and the Milwaukee Brewers outfielder added a solo shot in the fourth. That was all Milwaukee had, though, as the Cardinals got their offense going late and rolled to an 8-5 victory punctuated by a pair of Paul Goldschmidt homers. It was the 12th win in a row for the Cardinals, who hold a commanding lead on the second NL wild-card spot.

The Seattle Mariners remained in the American League wild card hunt with a comeback victory of their own, 6-5 over the Oakland Athletics. Home runs by Cal Raleigh, Mitch Haniger and Luis Torrens brought Seattle back from a 4-1 deficit to leave the Mariners two games back of the idle New York Yankees for the second wild card berth.

The Philadelphia Phillies fell behind the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-0 before roaring back for a 12-6 victory that left them just two games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East. A three-run homer by Ronald Torreyes in the sixth inning put Philadelphia over the top, and J.T. Realmuto and Didi Gregorius also homered for the Phillies. It was the third time this month the Phillies have come back from a deficit of at least six runs to win, the first time any MLB team in the modern era has done that.

Double setback for Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays not only lost a chance to gain ground on the idle Yankees and Boston Red Sox in their 7-2 defeat to the Minnesota Twins, they also saw a key player go down with a freak injury. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. left the game in the fifth inning when team-mate Randal Grichuk stepped on his right hand on a play in the field. X-rays were negative but Gurriel needed two stitches in his right middle finger to close the wound. Gurriel is hitting .364 with seven home runs and 30 RBIs in September.