Reds clinch NL Central title on Jay Bruce’s home run

They started the season with a roster full of prospects and castoffs. A team of up-and-comers and down-and-outers.

But Tuesday, a leadoff ninth-inning home run by 23-year-old Jay Bruce, the team’s youngest regular, gave Cincinnati a 3-2 victory over the Houston Astros, clinching the National League Central Division title and sending the Reds to the postseason for the first time in 15 seasons.

“It’s unbelievable,” Bruce said after his long homer, his 22nd, erased nine consecutive losing seasons for the Reds. “It’s a great team. I’ve been so happy to be around it. It’s been awesome.”

The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays clinched playoff berths in the American League with wins, although it will be a couple of days before they learn exactly which spots they’ll get. And in the National League, the San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves continue to pull away from San Diego in the battle for the two remaining postseason invitations.

They’ll have plenty of time to worry about all that later in Cincinnati. Tuesday was all about celebrating.

And, fittingly, the win that triggered that celebration came like so many others this season, in the Reds’ final at-bat. Cincinnati has won 22 games in its last at-bat this season, second-most in the majors. And Bruce’s home run marked only the fifth time a team advanced to the postseason on a walk-off home run.

Under former St. Louis general manager Walt Jocketty, the Reds have built a winner from a roster full of castoffs (Jonny Gomes, Orlando Cabrera) and budding All-Stars (Bruce, Joey Votto). They started the season with a rookie in their rotation, Mike Leake, and clinched their title with another rookie on the mound, Aroldis Chapman.

But if their success surprised anyone, that person wasn’t in the Reds’ clubhouse Tuesday.

“To win it in the bottom of the ninth to clinch a playoff berth, it’s fantastic,” Votto said. “We’ve shown a lot of resiliency and done a lot of coming back. Today doesn’t really surprise me.”

Tampa Bay and New York rode their aces to their victories, which eliminated Boston from playoff contention. For the Rays, David Price dominated the Orioles for eight innings to notch his 19th win in a 5-0 victory and the Yankees’ CC Sabathia improved his league-leading record to 21-7 by holding Toronto to a run and three hits through 81/3 innings.

Still to be decided is which team will open the postseason at home as the East champion and which will travel to Minnesota to start the playoffs as the league’s wild card. The Rays lead the Yankees in that race by half a game. The regular season ends Sunday.

In the NL, the Giants increased their lead over San Diego in the West to two games by beating Arizona, 4-2, and the Chicago Cubs’ Alfonso Soriano drove in three runs to help beat the Padres, 5-2.

San Diego also lost ground in the wild-card race when Atlanta beat the Florida Marlins, 3-2.

The victories by Atlanta and San Francisco eliminated Colorado from playoff contention.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com