The St. Louis Cardinals clinched the NL Central on the final day of the regular season, behind Jack Flaherty’s seven shutout innings to clinch their first division title since 2015 with a 9-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs, who announced before the game that Joe Maddon would not return as their manager.
Matt Carpenter led a three-homer attack with a three-run drive. Paul Goldschmidt and Dexter Fowler also homered for St. Louis. The Cardinals advanced to the NL Division Series, starting Thursday at Atlanta. The second-place Milwaukee Brewers will play at Washington in the NL wild-card game Tuesday night, with the winner going on to play Los Angeles in the NLDS. Former Mizzou star Max Scherzer will start that game for Washington.
St. Louis (91-71) finished three games better than last season (88-74). The Cubs finished in third with an 84-78 record.
