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Diamondbacks 5, Cubs 1
From the first pitched at Wrigley Field Saturday evening, the Diamondbacks were ready to move on to bigger and better things. Outfielder Chris Young homered off Cubs starter Rich Hill on the very first pitch of the game, and the D-Backs never trailed the rest of the contest. The Arizona Republic’s Bob Young writes that starter Livan Hernandez (6.0 IP, 1 ER) stayed poised working out of tough jams throughout the night…Jay Mariotti of The Chicago Sun Times writes it’s almost sickening how the Cubs haven’t won in ‘one hundred freaking years‘.

Rockies 2, Phillies 1
The upstart Rockies rode youngster Ubaldo Jimenez’s outstanding pitching performance and pinch-hitter Jeff Baker’s tiebreaking single in the eighth to sweep the Phillies. A 14-mintue power outage affected the game in the second, but Woody Paige of The Denver Post writes that through the darkness, the Rockies achieved historic brilliance…Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Todd Zolecki writes that not even the resiliency that the team showed in the regular season could save the Phillies in this series.

The Rockies and Diamondbacks will play Game 1 of the NLCS on Thursday in Arizona.

Indians 2, Yankees 1
Cleveland took a commanding 2-0 series lead with a dominating pitching performance by youngster Fausto Carmona (9.0 IP, 3 hits, 1 run, 5 Ks) and some late inning heroics by Travis Hafner. With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th inning, Hafner lined the game-winning single off Yankees reliever Luis Vizcaino. Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com writes Hafner finally delivered on some of his enormous potential…Of course, Hafner might not have had the chance to knock in the game winning run if swarms of bugs didn’t attack Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain in a weird moment in the bottom of the eighth inning. Chamberlain, who gave up the tying run in the eighth, was obviously distracted by the pesky insects, but neither him nor NY Post columnist Joel Sherman are making any excuses for why the Yankees are on the brink of elimination.

Red Sox 6, Angels 3
With the score tied 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Angels decided to intentionally walk David Ortiz to get to Manny Ramirez. Bad idea – Manny hit a walk off three-run dinger to give the Sox a 6-3 victory and a 2-0 series lead. Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe writes that Ramirez’s ninth inning magic was just Manny being Manny…Bill Plaschke of The L.A. Times likens Ramirez’s dramatic home run to the Angels’ current mental state: crushed.