The Boston Red Sox extended their winning run in MLB, while the American League wildcard battle is going down to the wire.

Andrew Benintendi belted a three-run home run as the Red Sox claimed a 5-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

With it, they stretched their run of wins to seven and closed in on the American League (AL) East title.

The battle for the AL wildcards remains tight.

Joining the Orioles in losing were the Toronto Blue Jays, beaten 2-1 by the Seattle Mariners through 12 innings.

Baltimore are just a game clear of the Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros, who had a 6-5 win over the Oakland Athletics.

The Tigers' clash with the Minnesota Twins was postponed due to weather.

The Arizona Diamondbacks edged the San Diego Padres 3-2, the Pittsburgh Pirates overcame the Milwaukee Brewers 4-1 and the Los Angeles Angels got past the Texas Rangers 5-4.

The Chicago Cubs downed the Cincinnati Reds 9-2, the Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins 8-3 and the New York Yankees were 11-5 victors against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Cleveland Indians enjoyed a 4-3 win over the Kansas City Royals, the New York Mets went down to the Atlanta Braves 4-3 and the Philadelphia Phillies recorded an 8-3 victory against the Chicago White Sox.

The Colorado Rockies thrashed the St Louis Cardinals 11-1 and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants 9-3.

GATTIS POWERS ASTROS

Evan Gattis blasted a pair of home runs in a win over the A's to keep Houston tied with the Tigers at one game back of the second wildcard. Gattis' homers came in his final two at-bats.

SANCHEZ BREAKS RECORD

Yankees rookie Gary Sanchez hit two homers against the Rays to become the fastest player (45 games) to 19 homers in the modern era (1900).

INCIARTE SAVES BRAVES

Braves outfielder Ender Inciarte made a game-saving catch to rob the Mets' Yoenis Cespedes of a walk-off home run. Inciarte has 61 defensive runs saved over the last three seasons, the third-most among outfielders.

PRICE UP FOR RED SOX

Closing out an important four-game series with playoff implications, Boston send ace David Price (16-8, 3.91 ERA) to the mound looking for the sweep of the Orioles. Chris Tillman (16-6, 3.72 ERA) takes the mound for the O's hoping to continue his dominance of David Ortiz, who is batting just .194 in 36 at-bats against him in his career.