O’s, Cards advance to next round

ARLINGTON, TEXAS — The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Texas Rangers 5-1 in the American League wild-card game to advance to the Divisional playdowns for the first time since 1997.

The O’s host the AL East champion New York Yankees in the best-of-five series that begins Sunday in Baltimore. The other AL matchup features Central champion Detroit Tigers hosting AL West champion Oakland.

J.J. Hardy hit a run-scoring single in the first inning and then scored on Adam Jones’s sacrifice fly in the sixth to give the Orioles a 2-1 lead at Rangers Ballpark. Nate McLouth hit a one-run single in the seventh and Manny Machado drove in Lew Ford and Robert Andino reached home on McLouth’s sacrifice fly in the ninth.

O’s stopper Jim Johnson survived a bases loaded scare in the ninth, retiring the Rangers without a run scored. Cardinals 6 Braves 3

Talk about a wild card. This one was just plain wild.

Chipper Jones played his final game. Atlanta fans turned Turner Field into a trash heap and the St. Louis Cardinals did what they always seem to do in October: Celebrated another post-season triumph.

Matt Holliday homered and the Cardinals rallied from an early deficit, to beat the Braves 6-3 in a winner-takeall wild-card playoff Friday.

In the eighth, an irate crowd littered the field to protest an infield fly ruling — the ball landed at least 50 feet beyond the infield dirt — that went against the Braves. The Cardinals fled for cover, the Braves protested and the game was halted for 19 minutes.

The infield fly is a complicated rule, designed to prevent infielders from intentionally dropping a popup with more than one runner on base and perhaps get an extra out. No one could ever remember it being applied like this. The play will lead to another slew of October cries for more instant replay.

MLB executive Joe Torre said the protest was denied. St. Louis advances to face Washington in the best-of-five division round, beginning Sunday at Busch Stadium.