Braves Clinch NL East Title

Tom Glavine was on hand for Atlanta's first division title of the 1990s. Appropriately, he played a key role Monday night when the Braves made it seven in a row.

Already the only team with six consecutive division titles, Atlanta added another to its collection when Glavine fought through control problems to become the NL's first 19-game winner, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 to clinch the East.

"It's fun," said Glavine, his championship hat and T-shirt soaked with champagne in the clubhouse celebration.

Chipper Jones homered over the center-field wall leading off the sixth after Michael Tucker hit his first homer in over a month to tie the game 2-2 in the fifth.

Glavine (19-6) allowed two runs in six innings, moving within one victory of his fourth 20-win season. Dennis Martinez, John Rocker and Kerry Ligtenberg pitched one scoreless inning apiece, with Ligtenberg earning his 28th save.

"It's another notch in the belt, so to speak," Glavine said. "We're doing something that nobody in the history of baseball has ever done. ... It's a tremendous accomplishment."

Division titles have become so routine in Atlanta that the clincher drew only 33,367, the second-smallest crowd at Turner Field since May 28. Even the celebration at the end of the game seemed blasé, though the players made up for it with their revelry in the clubhouse.

"It was another great year," manager Bobby Cox said. You never get tired of celebrating. We play a lot of games all year long and, by golly, we're going to celebrate."

Glavine, who allowed eight hits and walked three, and John Smoltz are the only players remaining from Atlanta's first division winner of the decade in 1991.

Tom Glavine became the NL's first 19-game winner this season. (AP)

But while most of the names have changed, the Braves remain on top - an amazing stretch of consistency in the free-agent era. Just look at the Phillies, who beat the Braves in the 1993 NL championship series but haven't been a contender since then.

"Obviously, the people expect it," Cox said. "But certainly it's not that easy."

The Braves won three consecutive NL West titles before switching to the East in 1994. That season was halted by a strike, which may have helped extend Atlanta's streak; Montreal led the division by six games when play stopped Aug. 12.

Since the strike ended the following spring, Atlanta has cruised to four more division titles. The closest margin over the last three years was eight games, and the second-place New York Mets trailed by 12 prior to Monday's play.

The Braves became only the seventh franchise among the four major sports to win seven straight division titles. The NBA's Boston Celtics (1957-65) and Los Angeles Lakers (1982-90) lead with nine in a row.

Atlanta won another division title in spite of its worst slump in two years, a 2-8 skid through the middle of last week that cost the Braves, for now, the best overall record in the National League.

After the Phillies went ahead in the first on Rico Brogna's RBI double off the center-field wall, the Braves evened it in the fourth on doubles by Chipper Jones and Ryan Klesko.

Philadelphia reclaimed the lead in the fifth on Wendell Magee's run-scoring single, but Tucker's 13th homer -- his first since Aug. 9 -- tied the score again.

Jones hit his 33rd homer in the sixth, then added his second double of the night in the eighth. On that hit, Walt Weiss scored all the way from first when Magee bobbled the ball in the left-field corner for an error.

Curt Schilling (14-14) took the loss despite giving up only six hits and striking out 12 -- his 15th game with double-figure strikeouts. Andres Galarraga was the victim four times.

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