Juan Soto homered twice, including his first career grand slam, and the San Diego Padres won their fourth straight game for the first time this season, beating the Oakland Athletics 10-1 on Sunday to sweep the series. The Padres had been the only team in the major leagues this season to not have a win streak of over three games. For San Diego manager Bob Melvin, fighting off playoff elimination with a few weeks left in the season means needing more than just four wins in a row.
Ken Waldichuk pitched six hitless innings in relief and Brent Rooker hit the first of three home runs by the Oakland Athletics in their 4-0 victory over the Houston Astros on Monday night. Houston, which has a two-game lead in the AL West over Texas, fell to 9-2 against the last-place A's this season. Oakland improved to 45-99, delaying the team’s 100th loss for at least another day.
Former Athletics ace Chris Bassitt allowed one run in eight strong innings and the Toronto Blue Jays took sole possession of the third AL wild card spot with a 7-1 win over Oakland on Tuesday night. Toronto’s fifth win in six games moved the Blue Jays past the Rangers in the crowded AL playoff race. “We’re showing a lot of maturity behind the scenes of not chasing a 3½ game deficit within one game,” Bassitt said.
After the most successful month in franchise history, the Seattle Mariners might prefer if August just never ended and rolled right into October. The Mariners closed out the winningest month in team history by beating the Oakland Athletics 5-4 on Wednesday. J.P. Crawford dropped a two-run single into left field in the seventh inning to give Seattle the lead, and the Mariners rallied from a pair of deficits.
Yoán Moncada hit a three-run homer, Touki Toussaint pitched five scoreless innings and the Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 6-2 on Saturday night, finishing a difficult week for the franchise with a sorely needed victory. Lenyn Sosa and Andrew Benintendi also homered for the White Sox, who had dropped four of five. Eloy Jiménez went 2 for 2 with two walks, and Luis Robert Jr. had two hits.