The Houston Astros dropped a 4-3 decision against the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.

The loss lowered the Tigers’ magic number to one to clinch the third and final wild-card spot in the American League.

Detroit lost, 4-3, in Boston on Friday. The Tigers and Astros have two games left to play in the regular season.

Stanton’s half season better than most players

New York – Giancarlo Stanton’s half season has been better than most players’ full years.

Sidelined until mid-June by injured elbows, Stanton has 23 homers and 64 RBIs in 75 games after hitting a pair of two-run drives that led the Yankees over the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 Friday night and kept New York tied with Toronto for the AL East lead.

“It’s been effective, efficient and not over,” he said. “Still got to do more.”

Toronto and New York are 92-68 and the Blue Jays hold he tiebreaker over New York, which has won six straight and nine of 10.

Stanton put the Yankees in front against Trevor Rogers with a 397-foot drive to right-center on an 0-2 pitch. New York set a major league record with its 48th home run in the first inning, one more than Atlanta hit in 2023.

After Jordan Westburg’s three-run homer in the third against Will Warren, Aaron Judge hit his 52nd homer, a two-run shot in the bottom half. The 423-footer landed in the netting above Monument Park behind center field.

Stanton followed two batters later with a 451-foot homer that wound up in the bleachers to the left of Monument Park for his 39th multi-homer game, including one in the postseason. He added an RBI groundout in the seventh.

With his 452nd homer, the active major league leader tied Carl Yastrzemski for 40th on the career list.

“Don’t get me wrong. He hit it great, but that’s not all of it either,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “That’s like a good healthy fly ball to center for us regular people.”

Stanton is hitting .267 and his RBI total ranked 102nd in the majors after Friday night’s game. He is playing with tendon inflammation in both elbows, pain he is able to manage.

Nearing his first batting title, Judge has a .330 average and 111 RBIs. He also tops the major leagues in on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.687) and OPS (1.145).

Judge is hitting .420 (21 for 50) with eight homers and 20 walks in his last 15 games.

“I feel like he’s been on base seven times a day the last week,” Boone said. “He’s playing like an all-time great.”

Judge and Stanton have homered in the same game 58 times, with the Yankees winning 51. They joke with each other about who hits the longest home runs.

“It’s all in good fun,” Stanton said. “Today was like: ‘That’s how you hit it out to center!’”

Stanton batted .339 with a 1.253 OPS in August before cooling to a .200 average with a .746 OPS and 34 strikeouts in 70 at-bats this month.

“He’s grinding a little bit at it.” Boone said. “He was just kind of carrying us through that that month where it was just – seemed like a homer every day or a big hit every day.”

Stanton’s three-run double put the Yankees ahead in Thursday’s 5-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. Eight of his last 20 homers gave New York the lead and another tied the score.

“Getting back to more comfortable, for sure. Getting my balance right the last little bit,” he said. “Squaring up pitches I should square up in the zone. It’s their job to keep us off balance, so the more times I could be balanced and on time, the better.”

What to watch during the final week

Right around Labor Day, it looked like Major League Baseball’s playoff race would be a big snooze fest.

September had other ideas.

The standings in both the American League and National League have tightened in a hurry, and a lot of the action over the final few days of the season will take place in Ohio.

Here’s a look at some things to watch as MLB’s regular season comes to an end and October baseball arrives:

What are the biggest storylines?

1. The National League wild-card race was still tight as of Friday afternoon with the New York Mets holding a one-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds and a two-game advantage on the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Mets looked well-positioned for a playoff spot on Sept. 1 but have a 9-13 record this month, which allowed the Reds and D-backs to climb into the race. Arizona was a seller at the trade deadline after a disappointing first half of the season, but has recovered with a 20-13 record since Aug. 19.

2. The American League also has plenty of drama, with four teams – including the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Guardians and Houston Astros – fighting for the final three playoff spots. The Guardians have a stunning 17-3 record since Sept. 5, climbing into a tie with the Tigers for the AL Central after being 10 1/2 games back on Sept. 1. Cleveland trained by 15 1/2 games in July. The largest lead for a team that lost a division or league since 1900 is 13 by the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers, and the most games behind for an eventual division or league winner is 15 games by the 1914 Boston Braves (15 games back as late as July 5). If the AL Central is tied at the end of the year, the Guardians hold the tiebreaker with an 8-5 advantage over the Tigers during the regular season.

3. Cal Raleigh hit his59th and 60th home runs while Seattle clinched the AL West on Wednesday, extending his record for homers in a season by a player who primarily plays catcher. He has four games left to match Yankees star Aaron Judge’s AL record of 62. Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber homered twice Wednesday to reach 56 home runs, and Judge also connected twice to reach 51. The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani has 54 homers after going deep against the D-backs on Thursday.

What is the MLB playoff format?

There are 12 teams that qualify for MLB’s postseason, including six teams from both the AL and NL. The three division winners in each league get seeds No. 1 through No. 3, ranked by win-loss record. Then the three wild-card teams get seeds No. 4 through No. 6, also ranked by win-loss record.

The top two teams with the best record in both the AL and NL automatically advance to the Division Series. The other eight teams play in the Wild Card Series, which is a best-of-three format beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 30. In both the AL and NL, the No. 6 seed will travel to face the No. 3 seed while the No. 5 seed goes to No. 4. The higher seed hosts all three games.

The winners then advance to the best-of-five Division Series, followed by the best-of-seven League Championship Series and a best-of-seven World Series between the winners of the AL and NL.

What is the MLB postseason schedule?

Wild Card Round: Sept. 30-Oct. 2 (ESPN)

Division Series: Oct. 4-11 (NL on TBS, AL on FOX/FS1)

Championship Series: Oct. 12-21 (NL on TBS, AL on FOX/FS1)

World Series: Oct. 24-Nov. 1 (FOX)

Who has already a clinched a spot?

In the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres have already qualified for the postseason. The Padres clinched on Monday with a win over the Brewers. Only one spot remains available.

In the American League, the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners know they will play October baseball. The Red Sox are best positioned to clinch next, with a 98.8% chance to make the playoffs, according to ESPN.com.

Who are the favorites to win the World Series?

The Phillies (+425) are the favorite to win the World Series, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. After that, it’s the Dodgers (+500), Mariners (+550), Brewers (+750), Blue Jays (+800) and Yankees (+800).

The Blue Jays opened the season at +6000 odds.

Crow-Armstrong becomes 30-30 player

Chicago – Pete Crow-Armstrong is 23 years old, but on Friday the speedy Cubs center fielder turned a record-setting 30-something.

Crow-Armstrong hit his 30th homer in Chicago’s 12-1 win over St. Louis Cardinals, making him the first player in franchise history to hit 30 home runs, steal 30 bases and hit 30 doubles in a season, and the record sixth player in the majors this season with 30 homers and 30 steals.

The left-handed hitting All-Star joined Sammy Sosa as the second Cub to hit 30 homers and steal 30 bases. Sosa did it in 1993 and 1995.

As the sixth 30-30 player this year, two more than the previous high, he joined Arizona’s Corbin Carroll, the New York Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr., the New York Mets’ Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, and Cleveland’s José Ramírez.

Crow-Armstrong, in his third major league third season, seemed to still be processing the feat after the win.

“I think it just means that I’ve improved over the last few years,” he said. “I think that’s what I’m selfishly most proud of is, in my own development, is just seeing a bit of a progression each year that I’ve been playing pro ball.”

“I would just say a nice culmination of some years and many more to come.”

Crow-Armstrong hit a high curve from Miles Mikolas 396 feet into the right-center bleachers for a two-run shot that gave Chicago a 3-0 lead with two outs in the fourth.

Crow-Armstrong also has 35 stolen bases and 37 doubles. But his drive Friday was just his second homer in his last 29 games and third in his last 55.

Crow-Armstrong has slumped at the plate the second half, even as his defensive play has sparkled. His batting average was .273 on Aug. 1, but has slipped to .245.

“Yeah, it’s been a tale of two halves, for sure,” Crow-Armstrong said. “But yeah, it’s being able to go home and be honest with myself and analyzing how the second half has been.”

Chicago’s second victory in eight games reduced its magic number to clinch the top NL wild card – and home field advantage – to one over San Diego. The teams will meet in the opening round starting next Tuesday.

“Whatever the stats are, I just want to go play playoff baseball at this point,” Crow-Armstrong said. “(Rather) than talk about other stuff honestly, I just want to win more ballgames.”

But 30 is a big number. Even for the fan who brought Crow-Armstrong’s home run ball back to him in exchange for an in-person meeting outside the clubhouse a cache of souvenirs.

“The guy who got it, it was his first Cub game in, he said like 30 years,” Crow-Armstrong said. “So what was neat.”

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