Division champions are crowned & set for the playoffs

Ryan Braun hit a three-run, go-ahead homerun in the 8th inning with chants of “M-V-P” ringing throughout the sellout crowd as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Florida Marlins, 4-1 on Friday night to win their first division title since 1982. Prince Fielder also homered for Milwaukee, which clinched the NL Central and reached the postseason at the earliest date in team history after waiting 20 minutes for the Chicago Cubs to finish off their 5-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. With most of sellout crowd still in its seats, fireworks went off again after the Cardinals lost and fans were showered with confetti and streamers.




With Detroit Tiger legends Kirk Gibson & Alan Trammel guiding them, the Arizona Diamondbacks completed an improbable run to their first NL West crown in four years, beating San Francisco, 3-1 Friday night when rookie Paul Goldschmidt lined a two-run triple off Sergio Romo in the 8th inning. The D-Backs completed their worst-to-first turnaround in raucous fashion, rallying to beat the Giants with Chase Field buzzing as it rarely did over the past couple of seasons.




Josh Hamilton and Adrian Beltre hit long homeruns and Craig Gentry had an inside-the-park homeru in a 5-3 victory over Seattle on Friday night. About two hours later, the Rangers officially claimed their second consecutive AL West division title after the Los Angeles Angels lost to Oakland. When Oakland's 3-1 victory was done, eliminating the Angels from the West race, the Rangers celebrated on their own field more than 1,400 miles away by spraying ginger ale on each other and some of the fans. That was reminiscent of last year, when they did that in deference to Hamilton’s well-documented substance abuse problems.


All that's left now are for the wild card spots in each league to be claimed. In the National League, the Atlanta Braves' magic number went down to 3 after defeating Washington while the Cardinals lost to the Cubs. Meanwhile in the American League, Boston's magic number goes down to 4 due to Tampa Bay losing to Toronto. The Red Sox were unable to take advantage because the game against the N.Y. Yankees on Friday was rained out. It will be made up as part of a day-night doubleheader on Sunday.