wild things

Of the many moments that mattered on Saturday, perhaps none was bigger than the walk-off two-run homer off the bat of Nate Lowe in the 11th inning at Tampa Bay. The ex-Mississippi State standout’s first career walk-off beat Boston 5-4 and moved the Rays a game up on Cleveland for second place in the American League wild card chase. “There’s not a whole lot better than hitting a walk-off homer in a pennant race,” Lowe told The Associated Press after he was mobbed by his teammates. The opposite-field homer was the lefty-hitting Lowe’s seventh in 45 big league games this year; he hit 16 at Triple-A Durham. Another former State first baseman, Mitch Moreland, had put the Red Sox ahead in the top of the 11th with his 18th homer of the season. … Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier, whose playing time has been sparse of late for Washington, delivered a go-ahead run with a single in the 10th inning at Miami, sparking a six-run rally and a 10-4 win that kept the Nationals a game ahead of Milwaukee atop the National League wild card standings. The RBI was the first in over a month for Dozier, who had entered the game as a pinch hitter and stayed in on a double-switch. … Milwaukee got home runs from former Biloxi Shuckers stars Keston Hiura (No. 18) and Trent Grisham (No. 6) in a 10-1 rout of visiting Pittsburgh. The Brewers are 3 games up on third-place Chicago in the NL wild card race after the Cubs suffered a devastating loss to NL Central leader St. Louis at Wrigley Field. Former Mississippi Braves closer Craig Kimbrel allowed two ninth-inning homers in the Cubs’ 9-8 loss; John Gant (11-1), another M-Braves alum, got the win for St. Louis, which leads the division by 3 games over Milwaukee.