Rockies Outlast Cardinals In 15 Inning Win – MLB Roundup For Sept. 20th

UNDATED (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers are the first major league baseball team to pop champagne this season. The Dodgers clinched their first NL West title since 2009 by rallying past Arizona 7-6 behind a pair of home runs by Hanley Ramirez.

Despite an NL-high payroll of $214 million-plus on opening day, the Dodgers got off to a 30-42 start. They were last in the division, 9½ games behind the first-place Diamondbacks, before play on June 22. Los Angeles has gone 58-23 since.

In the rest of the NL:

__ The St. Louis Cardinals' lead over Pittsburgh in the NL Central is down to one game. Colorado outlasted the Cardinals 7-6 in 15 innings. Corey Dickerson's RBI triple with one out in the bottom of the 15th ended it.

—The Pirates have helped their cause with a 10-1 win over San Diego. Jose Tabata and Neil Walker led the attack for the Bucs with three runs batted in each and Pedro Alvarez hit his NL-leading 34th homer. Gerrit Cole got the win going six innings striking out 12. The Pirates open up a big weekend series against the third-place Reds Friday night in Pittsburgh. They sit a game ahead of Reds,

__ Washington got a first-inning three-run homer from Bryce Harper and beat Florida 3-2. The Nationals are five games back of Cincinnati for the final wild card berth with nine games left. Denard Span's 29-game hitting streak ended as he went 0 for 4.

— Madison Bumgarner struck out 10 in seven innings to lead San Francisco to a 2-1 win over the Mets. Bumgarner has gone 19 straight starts without allowing more than three earned runs.

— Luis Valbuena, Nate Schierholtz (SHEER'-holtz)and Brian Bogusevic (boh-guh-SEHV'-ihk) homered to lead the Cubs to a 5-1 win over Milwaukee.

In the AL:

__ Boston clinched a playoff berth by beating Baltimore 3-1 on a John Lackey two-hitter. Lackey didn't allow a hit until Adam Jones hit a one-out home run in the seventh inning. The Red Sox clinched at least a wild card berth and reduced their magic number to one for clinching the AL East.

__ Texas climbed into a tie with Tampa Bay for the two AL wild card spots with an 8-2 win over the Rays. Elvis Andrus had three RBIs.

__ Matt Carson hit a winning single with two outs in the 11th inning, and the Cleveland Indians beat the Houston Astros 2-1 Thursday night to close within a half-game in the AL wild-card race.

__ Toronto handed the New York Yankees their fifth loss in six games, 6-2. Hiroki Kuroda (hih-ROH'-kee kuh-ROH'-duh) lost his fifth straight decision to fall to 11-12.

— Coco Crisp hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning, and the Oakland Athletics lowered their magic number to clinch the AL West to four with a back-and-forth 8-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins. Jed Lowrie's three-run homer put the A's ahead 6-3 in the sixth after pinch-hitter Alberto Callaspo tied it with a solo shot, but the bullpen couldn't hold the lead.

— Prince Fielder had three hits and scored the tie-breaking run in the seventh inning to lead Detroit to a 5-4 win over Seattle.

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Mets report that third baseman David Wright is expected to return to the lineup Friday night in Philadelphia after missing seven weeks with a strained right hamstring. Wright, a seven-time All-Star and the team captain, has a .391 on-base percentage with 16 homers, 54 RBIs and 17 stolen bases.