Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder Starling Marte (left), centre fielder Andrew McCutchen (centre) and right fielder Marlon Byrd celebrate after beating the Chicago Cubs 8-2 during their MLB National League game in Chicago, yesterday. RIGHT: A New York Yankees fan holds up a Mariano Rivera bobble-head doll during an MLB American League baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium in New York.
MINNEAPOLIS: The Detroit Tigers claimed a playoff berth and moved another step closer to clinching a division title by beating the Minnesota Twins 4-2 yesterday.
“We are not celebrating because we haven’t done what we want to do,” said Tiger manager Jim Leyland.
“This is fourth time in the post-season in eight years, so I am proud of that.”
Detroit could have wrapped up the AL Central title with a victory and an Indians’ loss, but Cleveland beat Chicago on a Jason Giambi home run in the ninth inning.
The Tigers’ magic number to win the division is at one with four games left in the regular season.
Victor Martinez led off the fourth inning with a solo shot down the line in left field for the Tigers who clubbed three homers in the frame.
Omar Infante followed with a blast to left field and with two outs and with Ramon Santiago on first base, Austin Jackson belted a two-run home run to centre for a 4-1 advantage.
Doug Fister was awarded the victory after holding Minnesota to two runs while striking out seven over 6 1/3 innings.
Jackson and Torii Hunter each had three hits for the Tigers.
Chris Parmelee singled home a run in the third inning, giving the Twins an early 1-0 lead before the Tiger’s fourth-inning explosion swung things in their favour.
Ryan Doumit started the Twins’ half of the seventh inning with a homer to left field off Fister. It was Doumit’s 14th homer of the year.
Parmelee and Eduardo Escobar then singled, but Drew Smyly and Al Alburquerque each retired a batter to maintain the Tiger’s two-run lead. Tigers pitchers Bruce Rondon and Joaquin Benoit each struck out the side in the eighth and ninth innings. Benoit recorded his 23rd save of the season. Twins pitcher Scott Diamond surrendered all four runs on nine hits in 6 1/3 innings of work to take the loss.
Meanwhile, a day after clinching their first play-off berth since 1992, the Pirates won at Wrigley Field and edged ahead of Cincinnati by one game in the NL wild-card race. Pittsburgh remains two games behind Central-leading St Louis.
Japan’s Yu Darvish struck out nine batters as the Texas Rangers stayed in the hunt in the race for the AL wild card berth by beating Houston 3-2 yesterday.
Adrian Beltre hit a go-ahead solo homer in the sixth inning for the Rangers, who have taken the first two meetings of this three-game series.
They remained one game adrift of the Cleveland Indians for the second wild card spot with five contests to play. Geovany Soto went two-for-four with an RBI in the win, which was credited to Neal Cotts for pitching a scoreless inning of relief behind Darvish in front of a crowd of 42,267 at Rangers Ballpark.
AGENCIES
