Phillies push Braves to the brink, Yankees fall
Rhys Hoskins and Bryce Harper blasted home runs Friday to power the Philadelphia Phillies to a 9-1 win over Atlanta, pushing the defending champion Braves to the brink of Major League Baseball playoff elimination. The Phillies, in their first post-season appearance since 2011, took a 2-1 lead over the Braves in their best-of-five National League division series and can advance with another home victory on Saturday. "It was just a good night overall offensively," Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. "We just kept adding on." The Phillies haven't reached the NL Championship Series since 2010, haven't reached the World Series since 2009 and haven't won the World Series since 2008. The Los Angeles Dodgers visited San Diego in a later NL division series contest with that matchup level 1-1. In an American League game postponed from Thursday by rain, Oscar Gonzalez drove in one 10th-inning run and scored another to lift visiting Cleveland over the New York Yankees 4-2 and level the series 1-1 with games the next two days in Cleveland. At Philadelphia, Bryson Stott smacked a run-scoring double in the fourth and Hoskins followed two batters later with a three-run homer to give the Phillies a 4-0 lead. J.T. Realmuto singled next and Harper then smashed a two-run homer to put Philadelphia ahead 6-0. Atlanta's Dansby Swanson doubled in the sixth and scored on a Michael Harris single but the Phillies answered in the seventh on a run-scoring single by Harper and a two-run single by Nick Castellanos. At New York, 10th-inning leadoff hitter Jose Ramirez turned a bloop hit to short left field into a double and took third on a throwing error by Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson. Gonzalez followed by lofting a bloop single over first base to score Ramirez and give the Guardians a 3-2 edge. Josh Naylor followed with a double to the centerfield wall that scored Gonzalez to produce the final margin. Donaldson got a one-out walk for New York in the 10th but Oswaldo Cabrera struck out and Isiah Kiner-Falefa grounded out to end the game. (AFP)