The defending National League-champion Houston Astros came up short in their comeback and were eliminated from the Central Division race Sunday when John Smoltz pitched six shutout innings that gave the Atlanta Braves a 3-1 victory.
The Astros' loss clinched the division title for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Houston trailed the Cardinals by 8{ games Aug. 19, but pulled to within a half-game of the lead with a nine-game win streak that ended Friday night here.
The Astros went into the final day trailing St. Louis by 1{ games. If Houston had won and St. Louis had lost to Milwaukee, the Cardinals would've had to play a makeup game Monday against San Francisco.
Chris Sampson and five Houston relievers combined to give up only three hits, but the Braves capitalized on two errors for runs in the first and third innings.
Jeff Francoeur's 29th homer gave Atlanta its other run.
The Braves will miss the playoffs for the first time since 1990, but they knocked out Houston, which beat Atlanta in the 2005 and 2004 division series.
Smoltz (16-9) gave up six hits and struck out five. He walked three and also hit a batter.
Smoltz left runners stranded in scoring position in the second, third, fifth and sixth innings.
Bob Wickman pitched the ninth for his 18th save in 19 chances with Atlanta. Traded from Cleveland late in the season, he wound up with 33 saves overall.
Marcus Giles led off the Atlanta first with a grounder to second baseman Chris Burke, whose throw to first sailed over Lance Berkman for an error. Giles later scored from third on Chipper Jones' grounder, beating Berkman's throw to the plate.
Francoeur's homer in the second inning pushed the lead to 2-0.
A throwing error by third baseman Mike Lamb gave Atlanta another unearned run in the third inning. With one out, Edgar Renteria walked and moved to second on Jones' single. Andruw Jones followed with a grounder to Lamb, who stepped on third for the force out on Renteria before throwing wide of first base for the error, allowing a run to score.
Despite having runners on second and third with none out in the second inning, the Astros couldn't score.
Aubrey Huff led off with a walk and moved to third on Burke's bloop double to shallow left field. Adam Everett hit a soft popup to second base for the first out. Humberto Quintero followed with a fly ball to right and Francoeur made a sliding catch, quickly springing to his feet to throw out Huff at the plate.
Sampson (2-1) gave up only two hits and three runs _ one earned _ in four innings.
The Astros got a run in the seventh against Macay McBride on singles by Willy Taveras, Lamb and Berkman, cutting Atlanta's lead to 3-1.
Notes: Smoltz moved into 19th place on the all-time strikeout list, breaking a tie with Frank Tanana, when he fanned Taveras in the first inning for No. 2,774th.
