KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) ― Miguel Cabrera had four hits, including a homer during a five-run sixth inning, and the Detroit Tigers held off the Kansas City Royals 6-3 Monday night to clinch the AL Central title.

Gerald Laird added a bases-loaded double, Rick Porcello (10-12) pitched shutout ball into the sixth inning and Jhonny Peralta went deep off Bruce Chen (11-14) to help Detroit reach the postseason in consecutive years for the first time since 1934-35.

“We wanted to win this game. That was our goal, to win this one,” Cabrera said. “We did it.”

After hanging over the dugout railing the entire ninth inning, the Tigers streamed onto the field and behind the pitchers’ mound to celebrate their accomplishment the moment Jose Valverde got Alcides Escobar to ground out to shortstop with a runner on second for his 35th save in 40 chances.

The Tigers (87-73) will have the worst record among AL division champions, which means they’ll open the playoffs Saturday at home against the division winner with the second-best mark.

Not that when and where matters much to Jim Leyland’s bunch.

They’re just glad to be back in the playoffs.

“It was a rocky road, it was a tough season, but in this business, you have to be able to take some hits,” Leyland said. “This isn’t a place for the faint-hearted. Hell, we took a lot of punches, a lot of them justified, some of them maybe not. But hey, we can take a punch.”

After winning the division by 15 games last season and signing Prince Fielder in the offseason, the Tigers entered spring training with lofty expectations. But they got off to a surprisingly slow start and were below .500 in early July. They were still well behind Chicago early last month.

The White Sox faltered, though, and the Tigers took advantage.

“It wasn’t easy,” said Fielder, who also had four hits, “but we got it done.”

Now, with Cabrera closing in on baseball’s first Triple Crown since 1967 and Justin Verlander in contention for a second straight Cy Young Award, Detroit is the hottest team in the majors.

Right-hander Anibal Sanchez has been terrific down the stretch, Fielder and Austin Jackson are having big years at the plate, and the shoddy fielding that could have forced the Tigers to sit home in October has improved to the point that they’ll be pressing on into the postseason.

Nats take NL East title

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Thanks to strong pitching from Gio Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper’s burst of energy and Adam LaRoche’s slugging, the Washington Nationals won enough from April through September that even a loss on the first day of October could not stop them from clinching the NL East.

Despite being beaten 2-0 by the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night, the Nationals earned their first division title since moving from Montreal in 2005, because the second-place Atlanta Braves lost 2-1 at the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Washington, in first since May 22, leads Atlanta by three games with two to play in the regular season. The Braves’ loss finished as the top of the ninth inning ended in Washington, and the Nationals celebrated in their dugout with hugs, high-fives and spiked gloves.

When Michael Morse led off the bottom of the ninth, the PA announcer informed the crowd that the home team was the champion, and when the game ended red fireworks lit the night sky with the Capitol building off in the distance beyond left field. The scoreboard declared “NL East Division Champions.”

On Sept. 20, the Nationals assured themselves of no worse than an NL wild-card berth ― and guaranteed the nation’s capital of Major League Baseball postseason action for the first time in 79 years.

But even on that night of success, Washington manager Davey Johnson made clear he wasn’t all that interested in merely getting a chance to play in a one-game, in-or-out, wild-card playoff. No, he wanted his team to focus on bigger prizes at hand, including a division championship.

Chicago 11, Cleveland 0

NY Yankees 10, Boston 2

Pittsburgh 2, Atlanta 1

Toronto 6, Minnesota 5

Miami 3, NY Mets 2

Tampa Bay 5, Baltimore 3

Houston 3, Chicago Cubs 0

Milwaukee 5, San Diego 3

St. Louis 4, Cincinnati 2

Oakland 4, Texas 3

LA Dodgers 3, San Francisco 2

Colorado 7, Arizona 5

LA Angels 8, Seattle 4