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Padres Win NL West for 2nd Straight Year

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

On Tuesday, the Padres will open the playoffs at home against St. Louis in a rematch from last year that the Cardinals swept. The Dodgers will start the postseason Wednesday at New York.

Hoffman, the major league saves leader with 482, gave up consecutive home runs to Chad Tracy and Conor Jackson. Hoffman wound up with his 46th save in 51 chances when the game ended on an odd play.

Arizona's Chris Young was on first base when Alberto Callaspo hit a two-out grounder to second baseman Josh Barfield, whose throw pulled first baseman Adrian Gonzalez off the bag.

But Gonzalez alertly threw to second in time to get Young, who held up to let the grounder get past him. Second base umpire Larry Poncino originally signaled safe, then changed the call on a forceout when San Diego manager Bruce Bochy protested.

Tracy homered twice in the loss.

After scoring a run in the first on Mike Piazza's RBI double, the Padres jumped on Brandon Webb (16-8) for six runs in the fourth inning to take a 7-0 lead.

Geoff Blum and pitcher Woody Williams singled home runs, Brian Giles drew a bases-loaded walk and Gonzalez hit a two-run double. Another run scored on a wild pitch.

Williams (12-5) allowed four runs on six hits in 6 2-3 innings, with no walks or strikeouts.

Webb, a Cy Young Award candidate, turned in his worst outing of the season. He allowed seven runs in four innings, his shortest start of the season. He gave up eight hits, walked two and struck out five.

Webb entered the game with a league-best 2.88 ERA. He left with a 3.10 ERA, which ranks third behind Houston's Roy Oswalt (2.98) and St. Louis' Chris Carpenter (3.09).

It was an emotional day for the Diamondbacks, who said goodbye to fan favorite Luis Gonzalez after eight seasons. The club announced last month it would not exercise its $10 million contract option on the 39-year-old Gonzalez, the Diamondbacks' leader in most lifetime batting categories.

A sellout crowd of 48,946, the largest regular-season crowd in team history, turned out to honor Gonzalez, whose bloop single drove home the winning run in the 2001 World Series.

The team painted a purple "20" in left field and showed tributes from fans on the center-field video board between innings.

There was also a "4" painted on the dirt behind second base to honor shortstop Craig Counsell, who is also not expected to return in 2007.

Gonzalez, Counsell and pitcher Miguel Batista, who is also unlikely to re-sign with Arizona, are the last remaining roster links to the 2001 World Series champions.

Manager Bob Melvin recognized the three players by having them deliver the lineup card to the umpires.

Counsell left on a high note, hitting a 3-2 pitch from Williams into the right-field seats for his fourth home run, prompting a curtain call from the fans.

Notes:@ The Diamondbacks finished the season with a losing record for the third straight year. Their only other losing season was 1998, their inaugural season. Arizona posted winning records from 1999-2003. ... Williams, a .176 hitter, singled twice in three at-bats.

Source: www.intwebnews.com

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Padres Win NL West for 2nd Straight Year

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