The Royals split a sort-of doubleheader with the Indians to move within one game of the Tigers in the AL Central. The evening starts with Kansas City taking a 4 – 3 loss in the completion of a game suspended on August 31st with Cleveland having just taken a 4 – 2 lead in the 10th; the Royals score a run in the bottom of the inning but fail to extend the contest. In the regularly scheduled game, Danny Duffy pitches 6 scoreless innings for a 2 – 0 win. Cleveland is now 3 1/2 games behind K.C. and is virtually eliminated from contention.

The Pirates play their third consecutive 1 – 0 game as they defeat the Braves by that score, reducing their magic number to clinch a postseason slot to 2. Francisco Liriano is the winner, thanks to a 6th-inning solo homer by Andrew McCutchen. The Bucs won two of the three contests, whereas the last team to play three such games before them, the 1960 Phillies, had lost all three.

Brett Gardner hits the 15,000th home run in Yankees history off Toronto’s Drew Hutchison in the 5th inning of a 5 – 2 New York win. The total dates back to the team’s first season in the Big Apple in 1903 and is the most of any major league franchise. Masahiro Tanaka is the winner in his return to the mound after a ten-week layoff.

The Pirates shut out the Brewers, 1 – 0, behind the pitching of Vance Worley and an RBI single by Russell Martin. The Bucs are now 4 1/2 games ahead of Milwaukee for the second wild card spot in the National League

Jerome Williams does something no pitcher has ever done before: he beats the Athletics for the third time this season – for his third different team. He had recorded a win against the A’s wearing the uniforms of the Astros and Rangers, before earning a 3 – 0 victory for the Phillies today.

The Royals lose a key home game to the Tigers, 3 – 2, as Max Scherzer defeats James Shields. With the score tied 1 – 1 in the 6th, the Royals have a run taken back when the Tigers make a successful appeal play against Salvador Perez, who fails to retouch third base before going home following a line-out and an error. The Tigers then score twice in the 7th, with a two-out pinch single by Tyler Collins the key blow. The Royals manage to cut the lead by one in the 8th and place two men on with one out in the 9th, but Joe Nathan induces two ground outs to get the save, dealing a serious blow to Kansas City’s postseason hopes.

Oliver Perez records the first four-strikeout inning in Diamondback history when a dropped third strike allows the first batter to reach base in the seventh frame of the team’s 5-1 loss to Colorado at Coors Field. The 33 year-old Arizona southpaw becomes the 69th different major league hurler to accomplish the feat.

Brandon McCarthy throws nine pitches, has nine strikes, and records three outs, retiring Wil Myers, Nick Franklin, and Matt Joyce in the seventh inning of the Yankees’ 3-2 victory over Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field. The 31 year-old right-hander pitches the fifth Immaculate Inning in franchise history, joining Al Downing (1967), Ron Guidry (1984), A.J. Burnett (2009), and Ivan Nova (2013) in accomplishing the feat.

Jason DeGrom strikes out the first eight batters he faces in the Mets’ 6-5 loss in Miami, tying the modern-day major league mark to start a game. The Amazins’ rookie right-hander now shares the record with Jim Deshaies, who struck out the first eight Dodgers he faced with the Astros in a 1986 contest.