Baseball around the World, 9/31/06

MLB

Two new pennant winners guaranteed as Astros hand division crown to 83-78 Cardinals - Perhaps Roger Clemens should have started on one days rest. EVERYONE KNOWS HE'S ON THE ROIDS AFTER ALL.

Tigers roll over, hand division to Twins, 1st pick to Devil Rays - There may be a day when a team gets back-to-back #1 overall picks, but not this year. A squad that consisted of David DeJesus batting third and Emil Brown hitting cleanup dropped four on Fernando Rodney in the eight and two on Kenny Rogers in the twelfth to allow the Royals to finish at exactly 100 losses.

Padres win division crown, set playoff date with St. Louis for second consecutive year - Brandon Webb was lit up for seven runs in four innings as the Padres took home the NL West crown for a second consecutive year, both with under 90 wins. Trevor Hoffman tried really hard to blow it by allowing 2 homers in the ninth, but with the aid of a questionable call at second, got his 46th save.

Playoff Matchups:
AL
Tigers @ Yankees G1 Tuesday 8 ET
Athletics @ Twins G1 Tuesday 1 ET

NL
Dodgers @ Mets G1 Wednesday 4 ET
Cardinals @ Padres G1 Tuesday 4 ET

Nippon Central League

Chunichi @ Hanshin - After a 7-1 win to bring the Chunichi Dragons lead back to 3 games yesterday, today's game was rained out. The Dragons magic number is 7.

Yakult 9, Yokohama 4 - Takumi Nasuno (3-8) got blown up, allowing the Swallows to romp to an easy win. The lone homer in the contest was by veteran SS Noriykui Shiroishi, it was his 21st career in over 10 seasons.

Hiroshima 3, Yomiuri 0 - A group effort by Hiroshimas pen after a spot start by Saitou (1-0), four other relivers combined on the six hit shutout. Yomiuri's promising young Chiang (3-2) went 8, allowing only 1 earned run, to take the loss. WBC Hero S Y Lee was held to a 1-4 by the Carp, dropping him to a tie for second in the batting race at .319 (well, it's not much of a race, Fukudome is batting .357).

Dutch Series

Pioneers scored one in the first, but Kinheim has turned this game into a laugher with two innings to play by dropping four in the second and six more in the third. Roger Kops is sure to take the loss after allowing six runs in two plus innings. Check it out live here.

Update: Despite lack of scoreboard updates, Kinheim has won the game 13-5 and are the Dutch League Champions. Congratulations, Dirk Van't Klooster!