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Phillies clinch, Astros wrap up division on final day of MLB season / Photo: Emilee Chinn - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Phillies clinch, Astros wrap up division on final day of MLB season
Bryce Harper and Edmundo Sosa blasted home runs as the Philadelphia Phillies punched their ticket to the playoffs with a 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday as the curtain came down on Major League Baseball's regular season.
The Phillies had gone into Sunday's home game against Tampa Bay on the back of a four-game losing streak, raising the prospect of the Arizona Diamondbacks pipping them to the final spot available in the National League wild card round.
But the Phillies made sure of their place in the playoffs with a clinical performance that sends them into a best-of-three series against the Atlanta Braves starting on Tuesday.
Phillies starting pitcher Zach Wheeler set up the victory, throwing six innings and giving up just one run with five hits and five strikeouts.
The Phillies offense also kept the scoreboard rolling, with Bryson Stott driving in a run for Kyle Schwarber with a double in the bottom of the first inning.
J.T Realmuto's double in the bottom of the second made it 2-0 before Schwarber drove in two more runs with a sharp line drive that sent Realmuto and Trea Turner over home plate for a 4-0 lead.
Jonny DeLuca pulled one back with a solo home run for the Rays in the fifth inning but Harper then made it 5-1 with a 366-foot solo homer.
Brandon Marsh's sacrifice fly allowed Stott to score for a 6-1 lead before Sosa's home run made sure of victory.
The only other major issue to be settled on Sunday was the winner of the American League West division, with the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers neck-and-neck with 80-81 records at the start of the day.
With the Astros holding the better head-to-head record between the two teams, the Rangers needed to beat the Minnesota Twins and hope the Astros lost on the road to the Athletics in Sacramento.
But the Rangers' hopes evaporated in a 6-4 defeat to the Twins which made the Astros' comfortable 9-0 win over the Athletics moot.
The wild card rounds get under way on Tuesday, with the Phillies taking on the Braves in the National League and the fifth-seeded Chicago Cubs facing the fourth-seeded San Diego Padres in California.
In the American League, the Astros will face the sixth-seeded Chicago White Sox while the fourth-seeded New York Yankees host the Boston Red Sox.
The Yankees' final fixture of the 162-game season against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday was cancelled as a powerful storm rolled into New York.
D.Ch. Nadeau--SMC
