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Anaheim Angels 9-5 NY Yankees

The Anaheim Angels ended 42 years of frustration in stunning fashion, blowing out the New York Yankees to take their American League division series 3-1.

Shawn Wooten homered and hit an RBI single during an eight-run fifth inning as the wild-card Angels beat the Yankees 9-5 on Saturday.

Anaheim took advantage of another collapse by Yankees pitching - this time, David Wells got roughed up - and ended New York's four-year run as AL champions.

Photo gallery: Saturday's play-off action

It was the Angels' first post-season series success, and they will play at either Oakland or Minnesota in Game one on Tuesday night.

A roaring crowd of 45,067 cheered as the Angels became the first team since 1997 to deny the Yankees play-off success.

Wooten, who had only three home runs during the regular season, hit a 2-0 pitch over the left-field fence for the Angels' ninth homer of the series to make it two all.

Gil singled one out later - the first of five straight singles. With two outs, Scott Spiezio's RBI single made it 6-2 and chased Wells, who was charged with eight runs in 4 2-3 innings.

Ramiro Mendoza allowed a single by Wooten and a two-run double by Bengie Molina, and Orlando Hernandez gave up a single by Gil before retiring David Eckstein - the 13th batter of the inning - on a fly ball.

St Louis Cardinals 6-3 Arizona Diamondbacks

The Cardinals quickly finished off the defending World Series champions, Miguel Cairo driving in two runs as they completed a three-game sweep in the NL division series.

Arizona Diamondbacks Miguel Batista could not spur his team to victory

Playing an inspired post-season following the deaths of pitcher Darryl Kile and broadcaster Jack Buck, the Cardinals advanced to the NL championship series for the second time in three years.

And they did it by defeating the team that chased them in a tense, Game five of the opening round last season.

Pitcher Matt Morris carried Kile's jersey into a group celebration near second base after the final out. St. Louis now will play either Atlanta or San Francisco starting Wednesday.

The Diamondbacks, minus injured star Luis Gonzalez, totalled a mere six runs and 18 hits in the series.

Without the Diamondbacks or the Yankees, baseball fans are assured of seeing two new teams in the World Series for the first time since 1998.

Twins 11-2 Athletics

The Twins scored seven runs in the fourth to rout the A's 11-2, forcing a deciding fifth game in their American League Division Series.

After losing in the Metrodome for just the second time in 13 post-season games, the Twins bounced back on Saturday with a huge effort.

They erased an early deficit and broke open a tight contest by scoring seven unearned runs in the fourth.

By staving off elimination, the Twins earned the right to head back to Oakland.

The heavily favoured Athletics now face a game five in the Division Series for the third straight year, and Oakland have lost both of those previous contests.

San Francisco Giants 2-10 Atlanta Braves

Greg Maddux shone as Atlanta moved within one win of another trip to the National League championship series.

Greg Maddux shone for the Atlanta Braves

He banished the memory of his past play-off blunders, winning his first post-season game in three years, as the Braves took a 2-1 lead in their division series.

Vinny Castilla hit a two-run single and Keith Lockhart added a three-run homer in Atlanta's five-run sixth inning.

Aside from another late-inning homer from Barry Bonds after Atlanta had already taken control, Maddux allowed only four other hits and just one for extra bases in six innings.


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