NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP AND AFP, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Los Angeles Dodgers clinched their fourth Major League Baseball post-season berth in six years on Saturday with an 8-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Pinch-hitter Jim Thome singled in two runs in a four-run eighth inning for Los Angeles, whose manager Joe Torre is headed to the playoffs for a record-equaling 14th straight time, matching a mark established by Atlanta manager Bobby Cox.
Torre reached the postseason during all 12 years he managed the New York Yankees from 1996 to 2007, and now in two seasons with the Dodgers.
“I don’t know who I caught, but it’s satisfying ... to be able to go to the postseason the first two years here,” Torre said. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world because I don’t know if anybody could dream of doing stuff like this, much less doing it.”
The Dodgers guaranteed themselves at least a wild-card berth and their magic number for winning the National League West division title for a second straight season was reduced to two later on Saturday after St Louis beat Colorado.
Any combination of Dodgers victories and Rockies defeats adding up to two will give the Dodgers their first back-to-back division titles since 1977-1978.
The Dodgers didn’t celebrate on the field, shaking hands as usual after a victory.
“It’s going to be a lot more if we can clinch this division and secure home-field advantage,” Andre Either said.
Torre said the team wanted to note the significance of the occasion, without downplaying what remains to be accomplished.
“To me a celebration is saying we reached what we want to reach, but we knew we had to recognize getting to the postseason,” Torre said. “We didn’t want to let it go by without acknowledging it, celebrating so speak, but [there is] a lot more work to do.”
CARDINALS 6, ROCKIES 3
Jason LaRue homered off Ubaldo Jimenez to break a seventh-inning tie as the St Louis Cardinals clinched the National League Central crown with a win over the Colorado Rockies on Saturday.
Colorado’s lead in the NL wild-card race shrunk to two-and-a-half games over Atlanta.
The Cardinals, the first major league team to win its division, are headed back to the playoffs for the first time since winning the 2006 World Series.
They became the third team to secure a playoff spot, joining the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Adam Wainwright (19-8) allowed three runs, two earned, and 10 hits over eight innings, while also contributing a pair of two-out doubles. He walked one and struck out 11.
Ryan Ludwick pinch-hit for Wainwright in the ninth and cracked a two-run homer off Matt Daley, giving closer Ryan Franklin a three-run cushion to work with.
In other NL play, it was:
• Cubs 6, Giants 2
• Braves 11, Nationals 5
• Brewers 7, Phillies 5
• Marlins 9, Mets 6
• Reds 10, Astros 4
• Diamondbacks 8, Padres 5
AMERICAN LEAGUE
AP, NEW YORK
At Chicago, Miguel Cabrera got four hits and drove in four runs, giving him at least 100 RBIs for the sixth consecutive season, as Detroit rallied from a five-run deficit to beat Chicago.
Curtis Granderson, Placido Polanco and Gerald Laird each had three of Detroit’s 20 hits, including singles in the decisive seventh inning, to help the Tigers win for the fifth time in six games.
The first-place Tigers, two games ahead of Minnesota in the AL Central, host the Twins in a four-game series beginning tonight.
In other AL play, it was:
• Twins 11, Royals 6
• Athletics 15, Angels 10
• Rangers 15, Rays 3
• Indians 9, Orioles 8
• Blue Jays 5, Mariners 4, 10 innings
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