Flaherty fuels Cards to NL Central title

Nationals pull away to beat Indians 8-2

ST LOUIS, Sept 30, (RTRS): Jack Flaherty pitched seven strong innings as the hosts St Louis Cardinals captured the National League Central title with a 9-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

The Cardinals (91-71) will play the Atlanta Braves in the NL Division Series on Thursday. The second-place Milwaukee Brewers will face the Washington Nationals in the wild-card game Tuesday.

The third-place Chicago Cubs (8478) ended a disappointing season with a farewell loss for manager Joe Maddon, whose contract was not renewed after his five-year run.

The Cubs announced his departure before the game. Maddon led the team to postseason play in his first four seasons and won one World Series title, the franchise’s first since 1908.

In Washington, Kurt Suzuki hit a two-run homer in the third inning and Washington added four more runs in the sixth against visiting Cleveland for its season-high eighth straight win.

Suzuki gave the Nationals a 3-1 lead when he hit his 17th home run of the season, a two-out, two-run blast. John Ross (4-4) gave up one run in six innings to get the win for the Nationals, who will host the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday in the National League wild-card game.

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Joe Ross pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the

Cleveland Indians at Nationals Park on Sept 29, 2019 in Washington. (AP)

record.

Will Smith smacked a two-run home run and eight pitchers, including Clayton Kershaw in relief, combined on a threehit shutout. Reliever Dustin May (2-3) got the win, while Dereck Rodriguez (6-11) took the loss. Rodriguez didn’t make it out of the second, charged with five runs on five hits in 1-2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out two.

In Boston, Mookie Betts sprinted home from first base on a Rafael Devers single in the bottom of the ninth inning to allow host Boston to avoid a three-game sweep by Baltimore in each team’s season finale.

Betts’ mad dash after the ball deflected off shortstop Richie Martin and into right field. Orioles right fielder Stevie Wilkerson appeared to not notice Betts trying to score. An inning prior, Wilkerson had robbed Jackie Bradley Jr of what would have been a go-ahead two-run home run with an incredible leaping grab in right that saw Wilkerson roll over the top of the bullpen wall after making the catch.

Despite the win, Boston was unable to hold onto a 4-3 lead taken in the seventh inning that would have made a 20-game winner out of Eduardo Rodriguez. Matt Barnes served up a game-tying single to Jonathan Villar in the eighth inning.

In Toronto, Teoscar Hernandez hit a three-run homer, Breyvic Valera added a solo shot, Justin Smoak drove in three runs with two doubles and Toronto downed visiting Tampa Bay.

The Rays (96-66) lost their final two games of the regular season after clinching a wild-card spot Friday. Tampa Bay visits the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday to play the American League wild-card game.

The Blue Jays (67-95) finished the season by going 12-6. Right-hander Clay Buchholz (2-5) earned the win, allowing one run, four hits and one walk while striking out six in five innings.

St Louis Cardinals’ Marcell Ozuna hits an RBI single during the third inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs on Sept 29, 2019 in St

Louis. (AP)

In Anaheim, California, George Springer homered, doubled and singled twice to lead Houston past Los Angeles Angels in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Starting pitcher Gerrit Cole won his 20th game, and Aledmys Diaz and Yuli Gurriel also homered for Houston, which finished the regular season 107-55 for the best record in the majors and secured home-field advantage throughout the postseason.

The 107 victories are the most in franchise history and mark the club’s third consecutive 100-win season. From the franchise’s inception in 1962 through 2016, the team had only one 100-win season (102 in 1998).

In New York, Dominic Smith, making his first plate appearance in more than two months, hit a three-run walkoff home run in the 11th inning as New York completed a season-ending, three-game sweep of division champions Atlanta.

The Mets finished 86-76, a ninegame improvement over last season. The Braves, who won their second straight National League East crown, will face the NL Central champion St Louis Cardinals in the NL Division Series beginning Thursday.

Luis Guillorme singled leading off the 11th, and Wilson Ramos singled with one out before Smith, who hadn’t batted since July 26 due to a left foot injury, stepped up with two outs against Grant Dayton (0-1) and homered beyond the right field fence.

In Seattle, Kyle Seager belted a tworun homer and seven pitchers combined on a three-hitter as hosts Seattle defeated postseason-bound Oakland in the regular-season finale.

The Mariners also received a runscoring single from rookie Kyle Lewis as they won for just the second time in their final seven games.

The A’s edged out Tampa Bay by one game in the chase for the American League’s top wild card. Oakland will play hosts to the Rays on Wednesday in a one-game playoff.

In Phoenix, Tim Locastro beat out an infield single into the hole at shortstop to drive in the winning run with two outs in the ninth inning as Arizona beat San Diego to end the season on a five-game winning streak.

Eduardo Escobar singled to open the ninth inning but was thrown out attempting to stretch it into a double before Christian Walker blooped a double down the right field line off Matt Strahm (6-11).

Walker took third on Josh Rojas’ groundout and scored when shortstop Luis Urias’ throw to first on Locastro’s grounder was late and bounced past first base for Arizona’s eighth walk-off win of the year.

In Kansas City, Brett Phillips’ sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth led hosts Kansas City past Minnesota in Royals’ manager Ned Yost’s final game. It was Phillips’ first career walkoff RBI.

Humberto Arteaga led off the ninth with a double down the left field line. Nick Dini blooped a hit into short right, sending Arteaga to third, and setting up Phillips’ heroics.

With the Royals trailing 4-3, Hunter Dozier led off the eighth with his 10th triple of the season. He joined teammates Whit Merrifield and Adalberto Mondesi and Eduardo Escobar of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the major league lead in triples. Dozier then scored on Ryan O’Hearn’s double to tie the score.

In Philadelphia, Sandy Alcantara allowed one run in six innings, and Starlin Castro, Isan Diaz and Martin Prado homered to help visiting Miami defeat Philadelphia.

Alcantara (6-14) scattered eight hits, struck out five and walked one. He fanned pinch hitter Philip Gosselin with his 99th pitch to strand the bases loaded in the sixth inning. Harold Ramirez had two hits for Miami (57-105).

The Phillies (81-81) were trying to finish with a winning record for the first time since the 2011 season. Bryce Harper had two hits in the loss, ending with a .260 batting average, 35 home runs and a career-high 114 RBIs in his first season in Philadelphia.

In Pittsburgh, Aristides Aquino, Brian O’Grady and Alex Blandino hit solo homers as Cincinnati won their second straight and downed hosts Pittsburgh in both teams’ season finale.

The Pirates were managed by bench coach Tom Prince. Pittsburgh fired manager Clint Hurdle about 90 minutes before game time. Hurdle was 735-720-1 with three straight playoff appearances from 2013-15 after taking over in 2011.

Melky Cabrera had two of seven hits for the Pirates, who finished 69-93. Cincinnati starter Tyler Mahle (3-12) pitched five scoreless innings, giving up three hits, striking out five and walking none.

In Chicago, Welington Castillo homered to cap a four-run sixth, and Ross Detwiler pitched 5-1/3 strong innings to help host Chicago close the regular season with a win against Detroit.

Kelvin Herrera navigated a solo home run from Ronny Rodriguez in

“I couldn’t believe I did that. That was just so stupid,” Elliott said. “I don’t know that you could have done anything more stupid leading this race than what I did right there. Luckily our car wasn’t too bad ... fast enough to drive up through there, got the cautions at the right time, and just didn’t quit.

“If there’s ever a lesson to not quit, today was the example.”

Behind him, the race was for the final spot in the second round of the playoffs with Elliott’s teammate, Alex Bowman, desperately trying to hang on to the 12th slot. He finished second in the race – in a backup car because he crashed in final practice – but his fate was out of his control because he trailed Ryan Newman in the playoff standings.

But Newman, racing Aric Almirola over the final few laps for a shot at advancing, missed a chicane with two laps remaining and the error cost him his shot at advancing. The point difference swung to Bowman, who slumped to the ground next to his car after the race as medical attendants tried to help him recover from heat-related issues.

As Bowman was sitting there, Bubba Wallace approached him for Bowman deliberately spinning him in the race. Bowman had said when he spun Wallace that Wallace had been flipping him the middle finger for several laps and the contact was his retaliation.

They exchanged brief words and Bowman appeared to laugh at Wallace right before Wallace angrily splashed his bottle of water in Bowman’s face. Bowman was later taken to the infield care center for further treatment.

It was that kind of messy day on the hybrid road course/oval at Charlotte, where the championship chances ended for Newman, Almirola, Kurt Busch and Erik Jones.

A late caution led NASCAR to stop the race for a cleanup and the drivers had to sit inside their cockpits, where temperatures hovered around 120 degrees. NASCAR officials went car-to-car handing out water bottles, and Newman was among the many who radioed their crew asking for bags of ice to be waiting for him when the race ended.

Kyle Busch decided he wasn’t going to sit in the heat and drove his car to the ninth inning to notch his first save of the season for Chicago (72-89), which lost fewer than 90 games for the first time since 2016. The Tigers (47114) finished with the most losses in Major League Baseball for the third time in club history.

Chicago shortstop Tim Anderson won the American League batting title with a .335 average, becoming the first White Sox player to accomplish the feat since Frank Thomas in 1997.