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After seven seasons in charge, Don Mattingly won’t return as Marlins manager

Don Mattingly's only season above .500 with the Marlins came in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

Don Mattingly will not be back as manager of the Miami Marlins next season, saying Sunday that he and team officials have decided a new voice is needed to lead the club.

Mattingly’s contract expires when the season ends. He said he met with Marlins principal owner Bruce Sherman and general manager Kim Ng to talk about the future, and that “all parties agreed” that it’s time for a change.

“I am proud and honored to have served as manager of the Marlins for the past seven years and have enjoyed my experiences and relationships I’ve developed within the organization,” Mattingly said. “I look forward to spending time with my family in Evansville (Indiana), and to any future endeavors.”

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Mattingly, the club’s all-time leader by a wide margin in managerial wins, is finishing his seventh season with the Marlins. Following Sunday’s 6-1 loss at home to the Nationals, he has a 437-584 record in Miami, with one winning season — a 31-29 mark in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season when the team made its first playoff appearance since 2003.

And it means that a season that started with a big shakeup for Miami now ends with another. In February, Hall of Famer Derek Jeter — who had been Miami’s CEO, the first Black person to hold that role with a major league franchise — announced a surprise departure after 4½ mostly unsuccessful years that didn’t come remotely close to matching his success as a player for the Yankees.

The 61-year-old Mattingly has managed for 12 seasons, the first five with the Dodgers. All five of those clubs had winning records, the last three making the playoffs.

The Marlins were hoping for similar success, but it didn’t happen as planned. Mattingly was the NL’s manager of the year in 2020 after getting Miami to the playoffs, but other than that, the franchise has been in a mode of constant rebuilding.

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“We are fortunate to have had Don Mattingly leading our team on the field over the last seven years,” Sherman said. “He has represented the Marlins, our players, our fans, and the South Florida community with unmatched dignity and pride.”

Sunday’s news came on the sixth anniversary of the darkest day in team history, when Marlins ace Jose Fernandez and two other people died when their 32-foot boat slammed into a jetty off Miami Beach on Sept. 25, 2016, near the end of Mattingly’s first season.

“Donnie’s just the consummate professional and a tremendous person,” Ng said. “He’s led the organization through some pretty tough times, particularly early in his tenure then in the last couple of years with the pandemic and the lockout.”

Ng said the decision came after a series of conversations between Mattingly and the front office, with the soon-to-be-former skipper deciding not to pursue a new contract and the team deciding it wouldn’t be offering one.

“This year was very disappointing,” Ng said. “We had a lot of bad luck in terms of injuries. The record is not indicative of the talent that we have. We have to do a lot of introspection in terms of our processes and operations on how we fix that. I’m still optimistic about what we’ve got here.”

Dodgers clinch top seed in National League

Will Smith had two hits and Michael Grove pitched five solid innings to pick up his first career victory as the host Dodgers clinched the No. 1 seed in the National League with a 4-1 win over the Cardinals.

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Grove (1-0) gave up one run and three hits to help the Dodgers tie a club record with their 106th win. Andre Jackson pitched the final three innings for his first save.

Los Angeles scored twice in the first. After Freddie Freeman’s run-scoring double, Adam Wainwright walked Joey Gallo with the bases load.

Yadier Molina had an RBI single in the second to pull St. Louis to 2-1, but Smith’s RBI single in the bottom half restored the Dodgers’ two-run lead. Cody Bellinger added an RBI double in the third.

Wainwright (11-11) allowed four runs and six hits with three walks in three innings. He and Molina made their 327th career start as batterymates, extending their MLB record.

Blue Jays power up to beat Rays

George Springer homered twice, Alejandro Kirk and Teoscar Hernández also went deep, and the Blue Jays beat the Rays, 7-1, to gain a four-game split at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Toronto (86-67) opened a two-game lead over Tampa Bay (84-69) for the top American League wild-card spot. Seattle (83-69) is 2½ games back after a 13-12 loss at Kansas City. The Mariners scored eight runs in the fifth and had an 11-2 lead before the Royals erupted for 11 in the sixth.

Blue Jays righthander Ross Stripling (9-4) allowed one run and six hits in five innings. Zach Pop, Adam Cimber, Trevor Richards, and Yusei Kikuchi combined to give up one hit over four innings.

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Rays All-Star Shane McClanahan (12-7) gave up four runs and six hits, including a career-high three homers, over five innings.

Springer had a two-run shot in the third, and added a fifth-inning solo drive as the Blue Jays took a 4-1 lead. Kirk had a solo homer in the second, and Hernández a two-run shot in the eighth.

Tampa Bay righthander Tyler Glasnow is scheduled to rejoin the rotation Wednesday night at Cleveland, his first start since undergoing Tommy John surgery Aug. 4, 2021.

Rays manager Kevin Cash said Glasnow will throw around 45 pitches, which should allow him to go two or three innings.

“Two innings of Glasnow is still a huge plus for our team,” Cash said.

Guardians capture AL Central crown

Five of rookie Steven Kwan’s career-high five RBIs came on his first career grand slam in the eighth inning and Aaron Civale allowed two runs on three hits in five innings as the Guardians beat the Rangers,, 10-4, at Arlington, Texas. Kwan also singled in the third and seventh.

Cleveland had clinched the AL Central title about 15 minutes before the game ended, when the second-place White Sox lost to Detroit, 4-1. Dylan Cease pitched six scoreless innings for Chicago, but the White Sox bullpen got tagged and Jonathan Schoop hit a tiebreaking single in the eighth

Cleveland scored four runs in the third inning on four singles plus a throwing error and added two in the sixth on Gabriel Arias’s triple following infield errors by Corey Seager and Marcus Semien.

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Civale (3-6) struck out seven and walked none. This is Cleveland’s 11th Central title since the division’s inception in 1994 and its fourth in 10 years under manager Terry Francona.

Astros score four in 11th to beat Orioles

Christian Vázquez hit a bases-loaded two-out, two-run single to cap a four-run 11th inning for Houston, and the Astros went on to a 6-3 victory at Baltimore.

The Orioles’ postseason hopes took another blow, missing a chance to move up in the AL wild-card standings. They remained four games behind Seattle for the third and final spot.

Keegan Akin (3-3) retired only one hitter in the 11th for Baltimore, and that was Yordan Alvarez on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly that put the Astros ahead, 3-2. Akin then hit Alex Bregman to reload the bases and walked Kyle Tucker to make it 4-2.

Cedric Mullins singled home a run in the bottom half, but that was all the Orioles could manage.

Max Scherzer helps Mets maintain NL East lead

Pete Alonso homered, doubled, and drove in five runs to set the team record for RBIs with 128, Max Scherzer pitched six sharp innings, and the Mets routed the host Athletics, 13-4, to hold their NL East lead. The Mets remained 1½ games ahead of Atlanta. New York has won eight of 10, and plays a three-game series at the Braves next weekend. Scherzer (11-4) allowed one run and four hits, striking out seven with one walk. This was Scherzer’s second appearance since exiting his start on Sept. 3 with fatigue on his left side. Alonso had four hits, including his 39th home run, a two-run shot in the fourth, and a three-run double during a five-run eighth … Ronald Acuña singled home the go-ahead run in the 11th and the Braves outlasted the host Phillies, 8-7, in a game that took over six hours to complete because of a two-hour rain delay. Kyle Schwarber extended his NL-leading home run total to 42 with a pair of solo drives while scoring three times for the Phillies. Philadelphia holds a 1½-game lead over Milwaukee for the third NL wild-card spot and the head-to-head tiebreaker … Spencer Steer hit a go-ahead home run to start the eighth, and Nick Lodolo pitched six strong innings as the Reds beat the Brewers, 2-1, in Cincinnati. Hunter Renfroe homered on the first pitch of the second to put the Brewers ahead, 1-0. Cincinnati tied it when Aaron Ashby hit Austin Romine with the bases loaded in the fourth … The Padres, sitting in the second NL wild-card spot, beat the Rockies, 13-6, on the road behind a three-run homer by Manny Machado, a two-run blast by Wil Myers, and a solo shot by Brandon Drury Mike Trout had three hits, including his 37th homer, and the Angels beat the Twins, 10-3, at Minneapolis. Trout doubled twice, walked, and scored three runs. Shohei Ohtani had two hits, including an RBI single in the ninth that keyed a five-run rally that broke open the game. José Suarez (7-8) allowed two runs on eight hits with six strikeouts over 5⅔ innings. Twins catcher Caleb Hamilton homered in the eighth for his first major league hit.