Cardinals Clinch the Division

The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks, 7-0, at St. Louis on Saturday, making the Cardinals the first team to clinch a playoff spot.

St. Louis (97-50) can only be matched in the National League Central Division by the Cubs (81-65), who lost the season series with the Cardinals, 11-8. In addition, the second-place teams in the NL East and NL West will have 96 wins or fewer.

Because of that, if the Cardinals and the Cubs were to finish in a tie, both would be guaranteed playoff berths. Under baseball’s rules, St. Louis would be awarded the division title because it won the season series.

As for the game, 15-game winner Chris Carpenter felt a twinge in his biceps and called it a day after pitching only three-plus innings. He and the Cardinals thought a serious injury probably was avoided by the decision.

Carpenter is expected to miss only one start, partly because he didn’t try to gut it out.

“It’s against normal pitching, they keep going,” catcher Mike Matheny said. “Fortunately, I think he stopped in time to give us a chance to let the trainers get him right. Hopefully, that’ll be the case.”

Carpenter has become the Cardinal ace after missing last season because of a pair of elbow operations. He has pitched seven or more innings in 16 starts.

Four relievers helped complete a six-hitter.

Houston 4, Milwaukee 3 -- Jeff Bagwell homered and drove in three runs at Houston, becoming the 29th player to score and drive in 1,500 runs, and the Astros rallied to beat the Brewers.

Bagwell had a run-scoring single in the third inning, and his two-run homer in the fifth gave him 1,502 runs batted in and 1,500 runs scored.

Cincinnati 6, Chicago 5 -- Wily Mo Pena hit two home runs for the Reds at Cincinnati to offset a pair by Moises Alou.

Pena also helped preserve Cincinnati’s lead in the eighth when he threw out Mark Grudzielanek trying to score from second on a single.

Atlanta 4, Florida 2 -- Jaret Wright gave up only three hits in 8 1/3 innings at Miami, and the Braves dealt another blow to the Marlins’ fading hopes in the wild-card race.

Wright (15-7) gave the crowd of 34,714 little to cheer about. He struck out five, walked one, hit a batter and won for only the second time in nine outings against the Marlins.

Montreal 6, Philadelphia 5 -- Tony Batista’s two-out, run-scoring single in the 14th inning lifted the Expos at Philadelphia.

Batista finished four for six, falling a home run short of the cycle. Terrmel Sledge homered and drove in three runs for Montreal.

The Phillies, barely in playoff contention, are 7 1/2 games behind San Francisco in the NL wild-card race.

New York 8, Pittsburgh 7 -- Mike Cameron’s sacrifice fly in the 10th inning drove in the go-ahead run at Pittsburgh.

Todd Zeile made his first start at catcher in 14 years, playing the first six innings behind the plate before moving to first base for the Mets in the seventh. He also had one hit, leaving him one shy of 2,000 in his career.