Twins win, edge out Tigers

The Twins took home another AL Central championship yesterday and Joe Mauer became the first catcher to win an American League batting title by getting two hits in Minnesota's 5-1 victory over the visiting Chicago White Sox.

About 35 minutes after Minnesota's game ended, the Kansas City Royals completed a big comeback and beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-8, in 12 innings -- giving the Twins their fourth division title in five years.

After starting the season 25-33, they will open the playoffs at home tomorrow against AL West champion Oakland.

The Twins began the day tied with Detroit for first place, but they needed a victory and a Tigers loss to win the division title because Detroit won the season series, 11-8. The Tigers get the AL wild card and will begin the postseason tomorrow night at Yankee Stadium.

Mauer went 2 for 4 to finish the season at .347, beating out New York's Derek Jeter (.343), for the batting crown.

Royals 10, Tigers 8 -- Detroit wasted a chance to win the AL Central, blowing a six-run lead and then watching All-Star starter Kenny Rogers lose in relief to visiting Kansas City in 12 innings.

Padres 7, Diamondbacks 6 -- Visiting San Diego clinched the NL West as Trevor Hoffman held on in a rough ninth inning for a victory over Arizona. The Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers each finished with 88-74 records, and both teams had already clinched playoff spots. San Diego earned the division title and the Dodgers got the wild card because of the tiebreaker -- the Padres went 13-5 against LA this season.

Dodgers 4, Giants 3 -- Visiting Los Angeles beat San Francisco and Barry Bonds doubled in what may have been his final at-bat with the Giants.

Braves 3, Astros 1 -- Defending NL champion Houston came up short in its comeback and was eliminated from the Central race when John Smoltz pitched six shutout innings to lift Atlanta.

The Astros' loss clinched the division title for the St. Louis Cardinals, who lost to Milwaukee.

The Braves will miss the playoffs for the first time since 1990, but they knocked out Houston, which beat Atlanta in the 2005 and 2004 division series. Smoltz (16-9) gave up six hits and struck out five.

Brewers 5, Cardinals 3 -- Host St. Louis won its third straight NL Central title despite a loss to Milwaukee, backing into the playoffs thanks to Houston's loss.

The Cardinals, who lost nine of their last 12, avoided perhaps the biggest September collapse in major league history. The final out in Houston's game came with one out in the bottom of the fifth and the Brewers leading, 5-0, prompting a huge ovation from a sellout crowd. Relieved manager Tony La Russa handed out congratulatory hugs in the dugout.

Other games -- Freddy Sanchez had two hits in a win over Cincinnati while becoming host Pittsburgh's first National League batting champion in 23 years. Sanchez went 2 for 4 to finish with 200 hits and a .344 average, five points better than Florida's Miguel Cabrera. Sanchez's average was the highest by a Pirates everyday player since Roberto Clemente hit .345 in 1969 . . . Toronto ended its season with a win over the Yankees in New York to finish second in the AL East, ending a run of eight straight runner-up finishes by the Red Sox. The Blue Jays finished better than third place for the first time since winning the 1993 World Series . . . Juan Pierre hit a go-ahead single in a three-run seventh inning and host Chicago beat Colorado in what may have been Dusty Baker's final game as Cubs manager . . . Host Florida edged Philadelphia in 11 innings in what was likely the last game for Marlins manager Joe Girardi, who is expected to be fired because of a rocky relationship with owner Jeffrey Loria and general manager Larry Beinfest. Florida's Dan Uggla hit his 27th homer to set a Marlins rookie record and extended his major league record for the home runs by a rookie second baseman . . . After ceremonies to honor manager Frank Robinson before his final game, Washington, last in the NL East, went and played like it has for much of the season in closing out with a loss to the Mets. Robinson said he's done managing but would like to remain in the game in another capacity . . . Tim Salmon went hitless in four at-bats with a walk and a run scored in the final game of his 15-year career -- all with the Angels. He retires with franchise-record totals of 299 homers and 986 runs scored along with 1,674 hits and 1,016 RBIs . . . Major league hits leader Ichiro Suzuki got two more, including a leadoff home run, to jump-start host Seattle's win over Texas. Suzuki finished with 224 hits and a .322 average . . . Cliff Lee (14-11) finished with his first nine-inning complete game in host Cleveland's win.