Nationals bag home edge

SEAN Doolittle (left) and Yan Gomes celebrate the Washington Nationals’ clinching of playoff wildcard game. AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Gerardo Parra smacked a grand slam home run Saturday and the Washington Nationals clinched home-field advantage in Major League Baseball’s National League (NL) wildcard playoff game by beating Cleveland 10-7.

The Nationals will host the one-game showdown on Tuesday against either the Milwaukee Brewers or St. Louis Cardinals, whichever does not capture the NL Central division title.

The Cardinals have a one-game lead over the Brewers with two to play before Sunday’s completion of the six-month regular season.

The wildcard winner will face the Los Angeles Dodgers, seeking their third consecutive World Series appearance, in the best-of-five NL division series while the Atlanta Braves will face the Central division champion.

Washington opened the scoring with a nine-run second inning, topped by Parra’s blast over the centrefield wall. The Nationals also plated runs on bases-loaded singles by Patrick Corbin, Adam Eaton and Asdrubal Cabrera and a two-run double by Anthony Rendon.

The Indians answered in the fourth on Eric Haase’s three-run homer and Jordan Luplow’s round-trip blast.

Ryan Zimmerman singled in a run for Washington in the fourth but Cleveland answered in the fifth on a two-run homer by Franmil Reyes, closing the gap to 10-6.

Cleveland’s Jordan Luplow smacked a solo homer with two outs in the ninth but Ryan Flaherty followed with a game-ending fly out to shortstop.