The Washington Nationals beat Philadelphia Phillies 5-1 to register their 98th win this season, the best in the Major Leagues. With their victory, the Nationals also get home-field advantage for the entire playoffs.
It is very exciting to see a team passing through worst phase in the years 2008 and 2009, to bounce back and register 98 wins in one season. They had finished previous season with 80-81 record.
They will open the playoffs Sunday against the winner of the wild-card game between Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals Friday.
The Associated Press quoted third baseman Ryan Zimmerman as saying: "It's quite an accomplishment. Obviously winning the division was a goal and now we've done that and we have a chance to go do some stuff in the playoffs.
"This is a great season, a great team, a good group of guys, and we accomplished a lot that we should be proud of. But we have a lot more to accomplish, hopefully."
The only disappointment for the Nationals on Wednesday was that their manager Davey Johnson left for some treatment following some numbness in his left leg. He missed the action toward the end of the game. He is however, expected to be fit for the playoffs. Mike Rizzo, Nationals general manager later confirmed that there were no concerns about Johnson's health.
Ever since moving from Montreal, when the club finished 3rd place, this is the first time they have the division title in a complete season. The 37,000-strong crowd enjoyed every bit of the drama.
All players made significant contributions. Zimmerman demonstrated remarkable performance with the baseball bat and smashed 25 homers this season, while rookie Tyler Moore hit as many as 10 of them. Edwin Jackson (10-11), became the fifth member of the rotation with at least 10 wins; he threw 6 and 2-3 innings.
Left fielder Jayson Werth said: "I like where we're sitting headed into the postseason."
The Phillies, on the other hand, finished in third place in the NL East at 81-81. They had won the division title five times consecutively between 2007 and 2011.
After their loss to the Nationals on Friday, the Phillies announced they had fired Sam Perlozzo- the first base coach, Pete Mackanin - the bench coach and Greg Gross - the hitting coach. More changes are expected.
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said: "We're definitely going to have some changes on our roster. How many or what, I don't really know."
Meanwhile Zimmerman, when asked whether he had been motivated by the result of the mascot race, he said: "I am so glad Teddy won, so we can stop talking about Teddy. People get more excited for a mascot race than a game. Yes, I'm excited Teddy won. I'm ecstatic."
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