Dodgers claim 6th straight division crown

LOS ANGELES — What a day for Walker Buehler. The rookie with the preternatural calm pitched the Dodgers to a record sixth consecutive NL West title.

Buehler tossed one-hit ball into the seventh inning, and Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy launched tworun homers to beat the Rockies 5-2 in a tiebreaker Monday.

“It’s a normal baseball game. It’s hyped up, there’s an adrenaline, but you got to execute,” Buehler said.

The defending NL champion Dodgers became the first major league team to win six straight division crowns since the Yankees captured nine AL East titles in a row from 1998-2006.

“It doesn’t get old,” ace Clayton Kershaw said.

The Dodgers next face the Braves Atlanta in the best-of-five NL Division Series beginning Thursday in Los Angeles.

Pitching in 90-degree heat, Buehler was cool in closing out a regular season that ended with Game 163 after both teams had identi- cal records of 91-71.

The 24-year-old from Lexington, Ky., has been so steady of late that manager Dave Roberts had no qualms about giving Buehler the ball.

“He’s ready for this moment,” Roberts said, “and he responded.”

Buehler (8-5) had his no-hit bid broken up in the sixth on Charlie Blackmon’s single.

Buehler helped himself offensively, hitting a single in the sixth for his first RBI and extending the Dodgers’ lead to 5-0.

Bellinger got the Dodgers on the board with his 25th homer in the fourth, a two-out shot to left that made it 2-0. Muncy struck out leading off but was safe at first on a passed ball. After Manny Machado and Yasmani Grandal struck out, Bellinger connected on a 1-0 pitch from German Marquez (14-11).

Joc Pederson doubled to deep right-center leading off the fifth. One out later, Muncy hit his 35th homer to left-center, extending the lead to 4-0 and chasing Marquez.