ST. LOUIS (AP) -- In Tony La Russa's version of the NL standings, the St. Louis Cardinals still have to win one more game to clinch the Central division title.
The Cardinals manager refused to acknowledge his team already had clinched the division, both before and after Sunday's 3-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
St. Louis ensured its third division title in five seasons on Saturday when the Cardinals beat Arizona 7-0, and San Francisco and the Chicago Cubs both lost.
Those results guaranteed that St. Louis will finish no worse than tied at 97 wins with the Cubs, who also would be guaranteed a playoff berth. Under baseball's rules, St. Louis would be awarded the Central title because it won the season series 11-8 and Chicago would get the wild-card spot.
La Russa wants to clinch it on the field. He stormed out of his postgame news conference after angrily responding to a question about delaying the traditional champagne celebration.
``Yeah, we're celebrating,'' La Russa barked. ``What the hell kind of question is that? That's a rule for the thing when you're tied at the end of the season. We've got another 14 games to go, man.''
The clubhouse was unusually quiet and subdued after the game. The Cardinals start a 10-game trip Monday in Milwaukee.
``The formula says we clinched, we clinched,'' pitcher Jason Marquis said. ``You've got to be happy about that. But it does seem a little depressed in here.''
Drew Baur, one of the Cardinals' owners, said simply: ``No shampoo today.''
Before the game, even though T-shirts commemorating the achievement already were on sale outside the ballpark and public address announcer John Ulett referred to the clinching of a playoff spot, La Russa preferred to ignore the mathematics.
On the message board just inside the clubhouse door, La Russa wrote: ``Magic # Is 1. Championship Won On Field. Not Some Formula!!''
``It's legitimate,'' La Russa said before the game. ``You don't win things because of a formula, only if it comes down to the fact that you can't do it on the field. We can do it on the field.''