WASHINGTON — Stephen Strasburg was dominant in his final regular-season start and the Washington Nationals held their lead in the NL wild-card chase, beating the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-3, on Thursday to sweep a five-game series.
The Nationals remained one game ahead of Milwaukee, which topped Cincinnati, 5-3, atop the wild-card race.
Strasburg (18-6) allowed one run on four hits in six innings while striking out 10. He fanned Bryce Harper three times on his way to a career-best 251 strikeouts this season.
Strasburg set a career high for wins this year and had a 3.32 ERA. Both Strasburg and fellow ace Max Scherzer would have at least regular rest for the NL wild-card game against either Milwaukee or St. Louis on Tuesday.
After Harper said the heckling from Nationals fans went over the line Wednesday night, he drew a mix of boos and cheers his first time up. The former Washington star was then booed in the rest of his at-bats.
Michael A. Taylor hit his first homer in over a year for the Nationals, who completed the first five-game sweep in franchise history. Washington went 14-5 against Philadelphia this season, including the final nine at home after dropping the first meeting on April 2.
SAN FRANCISCO — Tyler Beede struck out seven in 3⅓ hitless innings before leaving due to an injury, and San Francisco beat Colorado.
Mike Yastrzemski and Mauricio Dubón homered for the Giants, at 77-82 assured of their third straight losing season.
Beede, a 26-year-old rookie right-hander, grabbed his left side after striking out Ryan McMahon leading off the fourth. Beede was replaced by Burch Smith, who allowed the Rockies to tie the score in the fifth.
Dubón, a 25-year-old rookie acquired at the trade deadline from Milwaukee, had a tiebreaking single in the bottom half off Jesús Tinoco (0-3), then hit his fourth homer for a 4-2 lead in the seventh against Sam Howard.
Yastrzemski entered as a pinch hitter in the fourth and hit his 21st homer, a solo drive off Tinoco, for a 2-1 lead. Yastrzemski had an RBI double in a four-run seventh that included a two-run single by Aramís García.
SAN DIEGO — Clayton Kershaw shut down San Diego for six innings and Chris Taylor scored from first base on Max Muncy’s single in the sixth to lead seven-time NL West champion Los Angeles past San Diego for a three-game sweep of the Padres.
The Dodgers have won four straight and nine of 12 heading into their final regular-season series at San Francisco. They begin pursuit of a third straight NL pennant on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium against the wild card winner.
Kenta Maeda came on with Wil Myers aboard on a leadoff single in the ninth and retired the side for his third save. He struck out Manny Machado, who was with the Dodgers for the second half of 2018 and their World Series loss to the Boston Red Sox, and Hunter Renfroe before getting Seth Mejias-Brean to fly out.
DETROIT — Jonathan Schoop hit Minnesota’s record 300th home run, Willians Astudillo also went deep and the AL Central champion Twins rallied past Detroit to move within one victory of giving the major leagues four 100-win teams for the first time.
Minnesota was tied with the New York Yankees for the big league lead with 299 homers coming in. With the Twins ahead 6-4 in the seventh, Schoop lofted Jose Cisnero’s slider to deep left, and a strong breeze pushed the ball into the Tigers bullpen. Astudillo connected off Zac Reininger in the eighth.
Before this year, the record for home runs by a team was 267 from the Yankees last year.
A day after clinching its first division title since 2020, the Twins rested most of their regular starters and improved to 99-60 with their 10th win in 13 games.
Houston (104), the Yankees (102) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (102) have already reached 100 wins. The only prior years with three 100-win teams were 1942, 1977, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2017 and 2018.
Minnesota closes the season at home against Kansas City, among a record-tying four teams with 100 losses.
Detroit (46-112), already assured of the big leagues’ worst record and next year’s top draft pick, finished 22-59 at Comerica Park and tied the major league record for home losses set by the 1939 St. Louis Browns.
Devin Smeltzer (2-2) allowed three runs and 10 hits in five innings.
Jordan Zimmermann (1-13) lost his fourth straight start, giving up six runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. Zimmermann started 23 times this season and set a team record for fewest wins by a pitcher with 20 or more starts. Art Houtteman had two runs in 20 starts in 1948.
Willi Castro and Victor Reyes hit RBI singles in the fourth for a 3-2 lead, but Minnesota went ahead 6-3 on Astudillo’s RBI single, Jake Cave’s two-run triple and Victor Alcantara’s wild pitch.
ATTENDANCE
The crowd of 17,557 raised Detroit’s home season total to 1,501,430, down from 1,856,970 last season and the Tigers’ lowest since they drew 1,368,245 fans during their 119-loss season in 2003.
WADE-ING IN
LaMonte Wade Jr., usually an outfielder, making his professional debut at first base. Wade, who borrowed Max Kepler’s mitt, said he last played the position in college.
UP NEXT
Twins: Minnesota has not announced a starter for Friday’s opener. LHP Eric Skoglund (0-2, 7.50) is to start for Kansas City.
Tigers: LHP Tyler Alexander (1-3, 4.99) starts the opener of Friday’s doubleheader at the Chicago White Sox and RHP Iván Nova (11-12, 4.80).
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