Cubs, Diamondbacks clinch playoffs spots

CINCINNATI -- With their two biggest investments paying off Friday night, the Chicago Cubs are back in the playoffs.

Alfonso Soriano hit another leadoff homer, Carlos Zambrano yielded six hits in seven innings and the Cubs clinched the Central Division with a 6-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

The Cubs earned their first playoff spot since 2003 when Milwaukee later lost to San Diego, 6-3.

The Cubs weren’t the only team to clinch a berth in the playoffs. The Arizona Diamondbacks joined them by beating the Colorado Rockies, 4-2.

Arizona, which stopped Colorado’s team-record winning streak at 11, won’t find out until this weekend whether its going in as a wild card or the West Division champion

“This one was very important to me,” said Zambrano, who lost the season opener in Cincinnati. “We started the season here. Before the game, I was thinking, Here we started, and here we finish.”

Soriano was the centerpiece of the Cubs’ $300 million off-season splurge, a big-budget solution to their last-place finish in 2006. The outfielder got an eight-year, $136 million deal that was the fifth-largest in baseball history.

Since returning from a strained thigh that sidelined him for most of August, Soriano has gone on a tear unsurpassed in Cubs history. He has 13 homers in September, matching Ernie Banks’ record of 50 years ago.