Rockies edge closer to first division title

David Dahl homered for DENVER the fourth straight game and the Colorado Rockies opened a onegame NL West lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies Thursday that extended their winning streak to seven.

Trying for the first NL West title in team history, Colorado closes at home with three games against Washington and is already assured of its winningest season since going 92-70 in 2009.

The second-place Dodgers (8871) are one game ahead of St. Louis (87-72) for the second NL wild card berth and finish with a threegame series at San Francisco. Both teams were idle Thursday.

In St. Petersburg, Fla., CC Sabathia got his 246th win and moved the New York Yankees closer to hosting next week’s AL wild card game, but may have cost himself a US$500,000 bonus.

Sabathia was ejected from Thursday’s 12-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in the sixth inning for hitting Jesus Sucre on the leg in retaliation for Tampa Bay reliever Andrew Kittredge throwing a pitch behind Austin Romine.

Making his final regular-season start, Sabathia had thrown 55 pitches over five innings to raise his season innings total to 153, two shy of a $500,000 performance bonus in his contract.

New York (98-61) moved two games ahead of Oakland (96-63) for hosting the Oct. 3 wild card game. The Yankees hold the tiebreaker, which means one more Yankees win or Athletics loss ensures the winner-take-all game will be in the Bronx.

At Chicago, Jon Lester combined with three relievers on a four-hitter, David Bote hit an early two-run triple and the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0 on Thursday night to open a one-game NL Central lead over Milwaukee heading into the final weekend of the season.