NEW YORK-- The Houston Astros blasted into the next round of the Major League Baseball postseason with a 3-0 shutout of the New York Yankees in their Wild Card playoff game on Tuesday.
Solo home runs by Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez backed the superlative pitching of Houston starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel, who blanked the Yanks on three hits over six innings with seven strikeouts.
  Keuchel, 20-8 this season and pitching on three days' rest for the first time, silenced the New York crowd of 50,000 by running his scoreless streak against the pinstripes to 22 innings in 2015.
  "I didn't think we would play that well," Keuchel said in a televised post-game interview.
  "I thought we'd play a bit better than average but I didn't think we'd come to Yankee Stadium and play that well."
  Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka took the loss, giving up first-pitch home runs by Rasmus in the second inning and by Gomez in the fourth, in his five innings of work.
  The victory lifted the Astros, appearing in the playoffs for the first time since 2005, into a best-of-five American League Division Series against the Kansas City Royals, starting Thursday.
  On Wednesday, the National League Wild Card game will be contested in Pittsburgh, with the Pirates taking on the Chicago Cubs in a showdown between NL Central clubs.
  The other AL Division Series will see the Toronto Blue Jays, back in the postseason for the first time in 22 years, at home to the Texas Rangers.

CUTTACK, India-- South Africa's fiery bowling and electric fielding restricted India to their second-lowest score in Twenty20 internationals as the visitors won the second match by six wickets amid crowd trouble to bag the series on Monday.
  All-rounder Albie Morkel marked his return to the South Africa team after 18 months with bowling figures of 3-12 as the hosts were skittled for 92 in the 18th over, their lowest after being bundled out for 74 against Australia in Melbourne in 2008.
  The match suffered a delay of close to an hour after fans, angry about the performance of the home team, started hurling plastic bottles on to the ground.
  Supporters at the sold-out Barabati Stadium threw bottles during the change of innings and again when South Africa were batting, forcing the players off with the visitors 70 for three in 13.2 overs and closing in on victory.
  The match resumed after police cleared an upper stand of the stadium and South Africa returned to complete their win on the first delivery of the 18th over with the fall of another wicket.
  Earlier, South Africa won the toss and opted to field first and, although India got off to a decent start, the visitors reined them in with some hostile but accurate bowling.
  Rohit Sharma, the centurion from the last match at Dharamsala, and India's test captain Virat Kohli were run out to some brilliant ground fielding by South Africa which compounded the hosts' batting woes.
  Morkel, added to the squad in place of paceman David Wiese who suffered a fractured hand, was the only change for South Africa for Monday's match and the 34-year-old celebrated the occasion with his career-best bowling figures.
  He was ably supported by paceman Chris Morris and leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who took two wickets each for South Africa.
  Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin picked up three wickets to give India hope of an unlikely victory but the target was too easy for South Africa to chase down despite the early hiccups.
  The third and final T20 match will be played in Kolkata's Eden Gardens on Thursday.

AMSTERDAM-- Netherlands striker Robin van Persie believes Turkey, where he plays his club football, will drop points in their last two Euro 2106 qualifiers giving the Dutch the chance of a playoff spot.
  "Don't ask me why but they are surely going to drop points," Fenerbahce's Van Persie, who is on the verge of playing his 100th game for his country, told reporters on Tuesday.
  The Netherlands are preparing for two vital Group A games against the bottom team Kazakhstan on Saturday and already-qualified Czech Republic on Tuesday.
  The Dutch are fourth, two points behind Turkey in the race for third place and a spot in next month's playoffs.
  Iceland and the Czechs have already claimed the top two places and qualified for the finals in France.
  Van Persie and his team mates must hope the Turks, who also have a better head-to-head recover against the Dutch, drop points away to the Czech Republic and at home to Iceland.
  "I've noticed at Fenerbahce that my Turkish team mates have no doubt they'll progress," said Van Persie.
  "But believe me, I think they'll slip up. Then it is up to us to win twice. We must do everything to do that. How we get there doesn't really matter."
  Van Persie could win his 100th cap against Kazakhstan, though since Danny Blind became Netherlands coach the ex-Arsenal and Manchester United forward has been largely sidelined.
  "It would be great to play but that's up to the coach," Van Persie added. "I had pictured a different circumstance in which to win my 100th cap. But all I'm concerned with now is winning."

TEXAS-- The Texas Rangers put their personal victory cigar on the mound in the biggest game of the season Sunday at Globe Life Park.
  Cole Hamels did not disappoint.
  The veteran left-hander pitched a complete-game three-hitter, and Texas clinched the American League West title with a 9-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
  With its first division title since 2011, Texas heads to Toronto, where it will begin the American League Division Series against the Blue Jays on Thursday. The result eliminated the Angels from playoff contention.
  The Rangers will do so knowing they have an ace in Hamels (7-1), who did not allow a hit after the second inning and struck out eight. Texas won each of the past 10 games started by Hamels, none bigger than Sunday.
  "All I was thinking about was trying to manage the game and limit baserunners and go as deep as I could go," Hamels said. "I knew we were going to score runs. It was just a matter of time."
  The time came in the seventh inning with the Rangers leading 3-2. Texas sent 10 hitters to the plate and scored six runs as the Angels were forced to use five relievers to get through the 37-minute half-inning.
  Five consecutive Rangers hitters picked up RBIs. The surge started with a bases-loaded walk from designated hitter Prince Fielder and ended when shortstop Elvis Andrus ripped a two-run double to left.
  One day after the Rangers could not hold a four-run lead in the ninth inning, they did not have that problem with Hamels on the mound. The last hit the Angels had against him was a one-out double by left fielder Shane Victorino in the second.
  Hamels, who collected his second complete game of the season, retired 23 of the final 26 batters he faced. He threw 108 pitches one day after the Rangers had to use eight relievers in their 11-10 loss.
  "That's why he is an ace," said Los Angeles center fielder Mike Trout, who doubled off Hamels and came around to score on designated hitter Albert Pujols' homer in the first.
  "He's pitched in big games before, knows how to handle himself. We scratched some runs against him early and just fell short."
  The Rangers had a bullpen plan constructed in case Hamels struggled. Luckily for them, they did not need it.
  "This game has a cruel sense of humor," Texas manager Jeff Banister said. "From what happened yesterday, we got punched in the mouth. When that happens, you find out what you are made of, and you saw that in everything they did today."
 
  MLB results
  Cards 0 Braves 6
  Yankees 4 Orioles 9
  Marlins 2 Phillies 7
  Reds 0 Pirates 4
  Rockies 7 Giants 3
  Tigers 6 White Sox 0
   Red Sox 1 Indians 3
  Cubs 3 Brewers 1
  Royals 6 Twins 1
  A’s 2 Mariners 3
  Padres 3 Dodgers 6
  Nationals o Mets 1
  Astros 3 D’backs 5
  Jays 3 Rays 12