Indians, Angels clinch AL divisional crowns
The Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland Indians can rest their stars, set their rotations and put up the playoff bunting.
After clinching division titles Sunday, they only had a few questions left about the postseason. As in: Who, when and where do we play?
Right after the Indians beat Oakland 6-2 to win the AL Central, ace C.C. Sabathia and his teammates headed out toward center field at Jacobs Field. There they watched as a 2007 championship banner was hoisted atop the center-field scoreboard.
"Goosebumps," Sabathia said. "It was so good to do it at home. I had no doubt that we would win it."
Hours later, a sellout crowd waving rally monkeys watched the Angels win their third AL West title in four years with a 7-4 victory over Seattle.
The Angels have one goal remaining — earning home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs by finishing with the league's best record. They're currently bunched near the top with the Indians, Boston and the New York Yankees.
That race could go down to the final game Sunday, and it likely will determine the playoff pairings.
"We hope to get it, but it's more important for us to have our team as a whole ready to go," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We're going to try to win every game out there, but not at the expense of a having a fractured team that isn't where it needs to be. We have a huge challenge ahead of us."
Already assured at least a wild-card spot, Boston's AL East lead was cut to 1Z\x games by the Yankees.
Boston lost 5-4 at Tampa Bay while the Yankees beat Toronto 7-5. The Yankees' magic number for clinching the wild-card spot is two over the defending AL champion Detroit Tigers.
The final week of the regular season will give Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez more time to recover. He missed his 24th straight game because of a strained muscle on his left side and manager Terry Francona isn't sure when the slugger will return.
"I don't know," Francona said. "He said he had a better day yesterday, which is good. I'd rather hear him say that than say it's getting worse. He seems real upbeat, but he's not ready to play. Just keep plugging away."
In other AL games, Detroit defeated Kansas City 7-2, Minnesota beat Chicago 7-1 and Texas topped Baltimore 3-0.
Rafael Betancourt closed out the clincher for Cleveland, jumping into the arms of catcher Victor Martinez after striking out Mark Ellis to end it.
A year after finishing in fourth place and 18 games behind Detroit, the Indians returned to the postseason for the first time since 2001. A crowd of 40,250 got an early start on the celebration as Cleveland took an early 6-0 lead.
Jake Westbrook (6-9) struck out a career-high nine and Grady Sizemore had four hits. Betancourt got his second save.
Dallas Braden (1-8) took the loss for an Oakland team that reached the AL championship series last October.
A sellout crowd watched John Lackey, Francisco Rodriguez and the Angels win the West in their final home game of the regular season.
