The San Diego Padres clinched the fourth division title in their 37-year history on Wednesday, beating San Francisco 9-1 to return to the postseason for the first time since being swept by the New York Yankees in the 1998 World Series.
Midseason acquisition Pedro Astacio took a shutout into the seventh inning as the Padres clinched the National League West. Rookie Ben Johnson had three hits, scored twice and had an RBI, and Mark Loretta had three hits and two RBIs.
Trevor Hoffman, the only player who has been with San Diego continuously since 1998, pitched the ninth in a non-save situation. Hoffman earned saves when the Padres clinched in 1996 and '98.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Barry Bonds went 2-for-3, both singles, for the second-place Giants, who were eliminated with the loss.
San Diego's postseason drought included five straight losing seasons from 1999-2003 and an 87-75 finish last year, when the Padres were five games behind the wild-card winning Astros.
Now the Padres (79-79) need to win three of their last four games to finish above .500 for just the 11th time in their history. Since 1969, and excluding strike years, the 1973 New York Mets own the lowest winning percentage of a division champion by going 82-79 (.509) to win the NL East.
Astros 7, Cardinals 6
At St. Louis, -- Morgan Ensberg's tiebreaking double in the ninth inning, his fourth hit of the game, gave Houston the victory that maintained the Astros' 2 1/2-game lead over Philadelphia in the NL wild-card race.
With the score 6-6, Willy Taveras led off the ninth with his major league-leading 69th infield hit. He scored without a play on Ensberg's double into the left-field corner off Jason Isringhausen (1-2).
Houston swept a two-game series against the NL Central champions, finishing the season 5-11 against St. Louis.
Philadelphia beat New York 16-6 on Wednesday.
Lance Berkman and Mike Lamb homered for the Astros (87-71), who are a season-best 16 games above .500. Chad Qualls (6-4) worked a perfect eighth, and Brad Lidge finished for his 40th save.
Phillies 16, Mets 6
At Philadelphia, Chase Utley hit a three-run homer and drove in five runs, and David Bell and Kenny Lofton each had four hits to keep Philadelphia's postseason hopes alive with a win over New York.
The Phillies avoided a three-game sweep and remained 2 1/2 games behind the Astros, who beat St. Louis 7-6.
Jimmy Rollins extended his club-record hitting streak to 33 games with a leadoff single, and Shane Victorino and Pat Burrell each homered during a seven-run eighth inning. Utley drove in two runs in the eighth to give him 101 RBIs, and the Phillies had a season-high 20 hits. David Wright's two-run homer in the seventh off reliever Ryan Madson pulled the Mets within 9-6. Vicente Padilla (9-12) allowed five runs and eight hits in 6 1-3 innings.
Pirates 3, Cubs 2
At Chicago, rookie Nate McLouth homered for the third straight day to lead Pittsburgh past Chicago.
The Cubs finished the season 38-43 at Wrigley Field.
Paul Maholm (3-1), in his sixth major league start, outpitched Mark Prior (11-7), who lost to Pittsburgh for the first time in his career. Maholm gave up two runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings.
McLouth's fourth homer of the season, a solo shot, gave Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead in the fifth against Prior. Dropping to 6-1 in 11 starts against the Pirates. Prior allowed three runs -- one earned -- and six hits in five innings. Jose Macias hit his first homer of the season for Chicago.
Rockies 10, Braves 5
At Atlanta, Clint Barmes drove in the go-ahead run with a two-run double in the sixth inning and Colorado thrashed Atlanta.
Fourteen rookies started for the Braves and Rockies, including the starting pitchers for both. It was the most rookies to start a major league game since Sept. 24, 2003, when 14 started for Cleveland and Minnesota.
Jeff Francis (14-12) gave up seven hits and four runs, three earned, in five innings for Colorado.
Kyle Davies (7-5) gave up seven hits and five runs, two earned, in 5 2-3 innings for the Braves, who clinched the NL East on Tuesday.
Davies was a fill-in starter for John Smoltz, who is resting his stiff right shoulder the last week of the regular season.
Nationals 11, Marlins 7
At Miami, Preston Wilson homered and had five RBIs and Nick Johnson added a home run and four RBIs as Washington swept the three-game series against Florida.
Miguel Cabrera had three hits, including his 33rd homer, and four RBIs for the Marlins, who lost their season-high sixth straight and 12th in 14. Rookie Jeremy Hermida also had three hits, including his second home run.
Reds 11, Brewers 4
At Milwaukee, Adam Dunn hit his 39th home run and Felipe Lopez drove in three runs to lead Cincinnati over Milwaukee.
Chris Capuano (18-11) pitched five innings, giving up six runs and eight hits. It was the second straight game he allowed six runs, although he was able to get the win over St. Louis on Sept. 23. He was trying to become the first Brewer to win 19 games since Teddy Higuera won 20 games in 1987.
Aaron Harang (11-13) pitched 7 1-3 innings, giving up four runs and 14 hits.
Reds center fielder Wily Mo Pena hyperextended his lower back when he crashed into the wall diving for Bill Hall's line drive in the fourth.
Diamondbacks 4, Dodgers 3
At Los Angeles, Luis Gonzalez hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth inning and Arizona won for the seventh time in eight games.
The Diamondbacks have a seven-game winning streak against the Dodgers, and are 12-5 against them this year after going 3-16 against them last season.
The loss was the ninth in 12 games for the Dodgers, who need to win three of their last four games to avoid only their second 90-loss season since moving to Los Angeles in 1958. The 1992 team went 63-99.
Jose Contreras won his eighth straight start and Scott Podsednik had four hits, leading Chicago to an 8-2 win over Detroit and open a three-game lead for the White Sox in the American League Central on Wednesday.
Chicago would clinch no worse than a wild-card berth in the playoffs with one more victory.
With Chicago's win and second-place Cleveland's 1-0 loss to Tampa Bay, the White Sox lowered their magic number to two for clinching their first division title since 2000.
Chicago, which had lost its previous two games, led the division by 15 games on Aug. 1 -- no team with a lead of more than 13 games has ever failed to finish first.
Carl Everett's two-run triple broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth, and Juan Uribe and Aaron Rowand homered for the White Sox, who had 15 hits.
Carlos Pena homered for Detroit. Contreras (15-7) gave up two runs and seven hits in eight innings, walked none and struck out nine. Sean Douglass (5-5) allowed four runs -- three earned -- and nine hits in 5 2-3 innings as the Tigers had a four-game winning streak snapped.
Other Games
The Devil Rays beat the Indians 1-0 at Cleveland, the Yankees defeated the Orio, and the Blue Jays beat the Red Sox 7-2 at Boston.
At Minneapolis, the Twins defeated the Royals 6-3, while the Athletics clinched a 6-1 victory over the Angels.
The Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners 7-3.
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