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Friday 5 October 2012

NL: Nationals secure baseball’s best record












NL East champion Washington secured home-field advantage throughout the postseason by beating Philadelphia 5-1 on Wednesday for their major league-high 98th victory.

By winning their regular-season finale, the Nationals clinched top seeding for the NL playoffs and will open on the road Sunday at the winner of Friday’s wild-card game between Atlanta and St. Louis. Game 2 will also be at the wild-card winner’s stadium, before the best-of-five series shifts to Washington.

Ryan Zimmerman led off the fourth inning with his 25th homer off Cliff Lee (6-9). Michael Morse, the next hitter, doubled and scored. Rookie Tyler Moore’s solo shot in the sixth made him the seventh National with at least 10 homers this season.

Philadelphia finished third in the division at 81-81, ending a streak of nine straight winning seasons and five consecutive playoff appearances.

Braves 4, Pirates 0: Jason Heyward singled twice and scored two runs for Atlanta in the regular-season finale.

Chipper Jones added a pinch-hit single in his final regular-season at-bat for Atlanta, which hosts St. Louis in the wild-card playoff on Friday.

Cubs 5, Astros 4: Houston ended its National League tenure with a result that’s become familiar: a loss.

The Astros set a franchise record for losses in a season, finishing 55-107, one more loss than last year. The Astros split the final 30 games of the season, winning five of their final seven.

The Astros became the first team with 106 or more losses in consecutive seasons since the 1964-65 New York Mets.

Houston finished its NL tenure with 3,999 regular-season wins, 4,134 losses and five ties. The Astros are moving to the AL West next season, creating three divisions of five teams in each league.

Mets 4, Marlins 2: Ike Davis hit his 32nd homer and Scott Hairston got his 20th to help New York win its season finale.

The Mets (74-88) finished fourth in the NL East for the fourth straight year. The Marlins (69-93), touted as playoff contenders after an offseason spending binge, instead posted their worst record since 1999.

Rockies 2, Diamondbacks 1: Jeff Francis (6-7) earned his first victory in more than a month and Colorado used two unearned runs to beat Ian Kennedy to conclude disappointing seasons for both teams.

Kennedy (15-12) gave up no earned runs, striking out eight and walking none. He was 4-0 in his previous six starts.

Dodgers 5, Giants 1: Clayton Kershaw finished with a major league-leading 2.53 ERA, Adrian Gonzalez singled in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning, and Los Angeles ended its season a day after being eliminated from playoff contention for the third straight year by San Francisco.

Kershaw (14-9) allowed one run and three hits in eight innings, struck out eight and walked three in his 33rd start, tying a career high. The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner recorded 229 strikeouts, one behind NL leader R.A. Dickey of New York. The left-hander became the first pitcher to lead the league in ERA in consecutive seasons since Arizona’s Randy Johnson in 2001-02.

Giants catcher Buster Posey went 0 for 2, finishing the regular season with a .336 average to claim the NL batting title. He’s the first Giants player to win it since Barry Bonds in 2004 and the first Giants catcher to do so. The last catcher to win the NL title was Boston’s Ernie Lombardi, who hit .330 in 1942.

Padres 7, Brewers 6: Chase Headley drove in two runs, finishing the season with an NL-leading 115 RBIs for San Diego.

The Brewers went 83-79, a drop of 13 wins after reaching the NL championship series last year.

Cardinals 1, Reds 0: Rookie right-hander Shelby Miller took a no-hitter into the sixth inning in his first career start and Matt Carpenter had a run-scoring single for St. Louis.

The Cardinals, who won 12 of their final 16 regular-season games, clinched the second NL wild card spot Tuesday and will face the Braves in Atlanta on Friday.

Cincinnati, which has won four of seven, takes on NL West champion San Francisco in an NL division series beginning Saturday.

Miller gave up a two-out bloop single to Wilson Valdez in the sixth to end his no-hit bid. He struck out seven, walked two and allowed just one hit over six innings.

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