Padres Win Again, Take Race To Last Day

National League

The San Diego Padres sent the N.L. West down to the final day and clinched their first playoff spot in 12 years.

Tony Gwynn’s two-out, bases-loaded single broke a tie in the eighth inning Saturday at Los Angeles, giving the Padres a 4-2 win over the Dodgers and leaving the teams tied.

Today’s winner will play N.L. Central champion St. Louis in the first round of the playoffs. The loser becomes the wild card and faces the World Series champion Atlanta Braves.

San Diego’s win eliminated Montreal from the wild-card race.

Gwynn snapped a 2-2 tie with his single off Mark Guthrie. Gwynn went 2 for 5, raising his average to .356. Although he will finish a few plate appearances short of the minimum needed to qualify for the batting title, adding phantom at-bats to make up the difference is not likely to drop his average below that of runner-up Ellis Burks of Colorado.

Cardinals 5, Reds 2 St. Louis

Ozzie Smith contributed an RBI single a couple hours after St. Louis retired his No. 1 jersey and Danny Jackson allowed one hit in seven innings to beat Cincinnati.

The Reds didn’t get a hit off Jackson until Hal Morris singled to start the seventh inning, extending his hitting streak, which matches the longest in the major leagues this season, to 28 games.

Giants 8, Rockies 5 Denver

Kim Batiste hit a two-run homer, helping San Francisco beat Colorado for the sixth straight time.

Ellis Burks hit his 40th home run for the Rockies. He and Hank Aaron are the only major leaguers to hit 40 homers, steal 30 bases and have 200 hits in a season.

The Rockies became the first team in big-league history to hit 200 home runs and steal 200 bases when Burks stole second base in the third inning.

Braves 4, Expos 0 Montreal

A few hours after Montreal was eliminated from the postseason race, Jermaine Dye and Mike Mordecai homered in a four-run fifth inning to spark N.L. East champion Atlanta.

Pirates 8, Cubs 7 (10) Chicago

Pittsburgh second baseman Tony Womack atoned for his ninth-inning error with a two-out RBI single that beat Chicago in the 10th.

Mets 4, Phillies 2 New York

Robert Person scattered five hits over eight innings, and New York beat Philadelphia behind Butch Huskey’s go-ahead, two-run double in the seventh.

Astros 5, Marlins 1 Houston

Orlando Miller connected off Felix Heredia (1-1) for his 15th homer and drove in two runs for Houston, stopping Florida’s winning streak at seven.

Ozzie Smith flips

It’s not every day that an athlete gets his jersey retired. Especially one who’s still playing.

At emotional pregame ceremonies before the Cardinals-Reds game, retiring shortstop Ozzie Smith received two new cars, one from an auto dealer friend and one from the Cardinals’ owners, plus a baby grand piano from his teammates.

“I’ve often been asked what is my greatest highlight?” Smith said. “Being here today with my family and 50,000 of my closest friends has to be the highlight.”

After the ceremonies, Smith headed for his position with his trademark backflip.

Lankford may be out

St. Louis center fielder Ray Lankford’s availability for the playoffs is in question because of a torn left rotator cuff.

Lankford hurt his shoulder making a diving catch of a fly ball in the 10th inning of Friday’s win over Cincinnati.