HOUSTON -- George Springer, Justin Verlander and the Houston Astros put a check mark in the September box.

And amid the celebration of clinching their third straight American League West title, they were already thinking ahead to what they might achieve in October.

"You can't ever take the first goal for granted," Verlander said. "I know everybody says we're going to win the World Series, but you can't do that without this first. So, step one complete. Now we have the divisional round coming up and we'll ... prepare for that and try to win 11 games."

Springer hit a career-high three homers, Verlander posted his MLB-leading 20th win and the Astros secured the division crown in grand fashion, routing the Los Angeles Angels 13-5.

A crowd at Minute Maid Park that was cheering from Verlander's first pitch got even louder as Springer homered three times in the first four innings. The Astros kept breaking away and improved to 102-54, a half-game ahead of the New York Yankees for the best record in the majors.

After the final out, the Astros held a bouncing group hug in the middle of the diamond and posed for a team picture. It hasn't been determined who they will face in the playoffs as they try for their second World Series championship in three years.

Would run through several brick walls for @ajhinch. pic.twitter.com/HGu3mofN7p

— Houston Astros (@astros) September 22, 2019

Manager AJ Hinch spoke to the team in the clubhouse as the players broke out the bubbly and began a spraying celebration.

"I don't ever want to disrespect the things we've already accomplished, but when you're in the moment everything feels like it's the best of all time," Hinch said. "We've done a lot of good things around here over the last five years that I've been here. Every accomplishment seems to be building and building to being better. I like hanging flags; flags for divisions matter, flags for the World Series matter, and I want our guys to appreciate that."

Springer, the MVP of the 2017 World Series, had two chances to tie the big league record for home runs in a game. He popped up with the bases loaded in the fifth and grounded out in the seventh.

Verlander (20-6) yielded six hits and two runs in five innings to reach 20 wins for the second time in his career and the first since winning the AL MVP and Cy Young Award in 2011, when he went 24-5 for Detroit. This year's AL Cy Young front-runner struck out five to leave him six strikeouts shy of becoming the 18th pitcher in MLB history to reach 3,000.

The 36-year-old righty has fanned 288 this season, second most in his career and second in the majors behind teammate Gerrit Cole.

Verlander, who leads the AL with a 2.53 ERA, is the first Astros pitcher to win 20 games since Dallas Keuchel went 20-8 during his Cy Young campaign in 2015.

It's the second time Verlander has started a game in which the Astros clinched the division after he did it soon after he was acquired from Detroit in 2017.

"The last time I clinched the division for the Houston Astros we went on to do some pretty special things that year," he said. "Glad to be out there. These moments as an organization are so special. I'm just so happy to be a part of it."

The Astros won their ninth division title. They took the NL West in 1980 and 1986, the NL Central in 1997-99 and 2001 and their three most recent titles in the AL.

Springer homered in his first three at-bats to help Houston take a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning. The Astros added six runs in the fifth, highlighted by a two-run homer from Alex Bregman to make it 10-2.

"The first at-bat was huge just because we're all waiting to get the lead so we can feel like we're going to clinch," Hinch said. "George does it within the first couple of pitches. He followed it up with a couple more homers. ... Our vibe was really good today. We wanted to celebrate today."

The Astros added six runs in a fifth, highlighted by a two-run homer from Alex Bregman to make it 10-2.

Springer, who has a career-best 38 home runs this season, got to work immediately, sending Jose Rodriguez's first pitch into left-center field for his franchise-record 12th leadoff homer this season. That left him one shy of the MLB record for leadoff homers in a season, set by Alfonso Soriano with the Yankees in 2003.

Jared Walsh and Michael Hermosillo hit back-to-back triples with two outs in the second to tie it up.

Los Angeles manager Brad Ausmus was asked if seeing the Astros celebrate on Sunday could provide motivation to his team.

"You hope for the younger guys," he said. "Older guys probably just look the other way. ... It's a lot more fun to be on that side."

Aledmys Diaz singled with no outs in the second and Springer connected off Rodriguez (0-1) again with two outs to put the Astros up 3-1.

There were two outs in the fourth when Springer sent a fastball from Jose Suarez into the seats in left field to make it 4-2.

The record of four homers has been done 18 times, mostly recently by J.D. Martinez for Arizona in 2017. This was the 14th time in a regular-season game in franchise history that an Astros player has hit three homers and the second time this season after rookie Yordan Alvarez also did it.

Alexander Zverev won a deciding rubber against Milos Raonic in Switzerland to earn Team Europe a dramatic 13-11 win over Team World in the Laver Cup.

Zverev beat Raonic 6-4 3-6 10-4 for Team Europe's third victory in a row.

Team World were 7-5 down overnight but John Isner and Jack Sock overcame Roger Federer and Stefanos Tsitsipas 5-7 6-4 10-8 in the doubles to put them 8-7 up.

Taylor Fritz beat Dominic Thiem to make it 11-7 but Team Europe won after Federer beat Isner and Zverev also won.

Fritz secured a narrow 7-5 6-7 (3-7) 10-5 victory over Thiem, while 20-time Grand Slam winner Federer, playing in his home country, claimed a 6-4 7-6 (7-3) win over Isner in Geneva.

Both sides had player withdrawals for injuries on the final day, with Rafael Nadal pulling out for Team Europe and Nick Kyrgios for Team World.

Nadal was supposed to partner Federer in the doubles and face Kyrgios in a singles tie.

The Spaniard was replaced by Tsitsipas in the doubles, while Thiem came in for him in the singles ties - in which Fritz stood in for Kyrgios.

Team World have yet to win the competition since its inception three years ago.

"I'm very proud of my team," said Team Europe skipper Bjorn Borg. "I'm a very happy captain."

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Michael Cooper completed a weekend sweep of Pirelli GT4 America Sprint competition on Sunday at Road America.

Sunday’s Pirelli GT4 America Sprint race saw the green flag waved under wet and rainy conditions as Saturday’s race winner and championship leader Michael Cooper lead the field to the green flag in his No. 10 Blackdog Speed Shop McLaren 570S GT4.

At the start, Spencer Pumpelly and the No. 66 TRG Porsche 718 Cayman CS MR fell to fourth from second, but quickly moved back into the third position as the field went to turn five. Pumpelly continued his charge past Shane Lewis and the No. 72 Robinson Racing Camaro GT4 at Canada Corner for second and went into pursuit of Cooper for the lead.

While Drew Staveley and the No. 12 Ian Lacy Racing Ford Mustang GT4 pulled away from the rest of the Am field, Alan Brynjolfsson and the No. 7 Park Place Porsche 718 Cayman CS MR got past Tony Gaples in the No. 11 Blackdog Speed Shop McLaren 570S GT4 for second position in class, as the owner/driver continued to fall through the order in the wet conditions, ending up fifth.

With 13 minutes off the clock, Staveley was spun out of the class lead after contact with Jarrett Andretti and the No. 18 Andretti Autosport McLaren 570S GT4 at Canada Corner. Staveley was able to continue but would fall to second place, handing the class lead to Brynjolfsson. A full course caution was called shortly after as rain continued to pound the circuit.

With 23 minutes remaining on the clock, the race was red flagged and would not restart, handing the weekend sweep to Cooper.

IRWINDALE, Calif. – Gio Scelzi’s name has made headlines over the past year for his prodigy-like sprint car exploits, but last Saturday the 17-year-old found himself in the news for a different type of victory.

Scelzi powered to the win in his pavement racing debut, making waves in a spec late model at Irwindale Speedway owned by Tim Huddleston, the promoter who saved the historic California half-mile in 2018.

The 40-lap affair, a combination event between Irwindale’s spec late model and Lucas Oil-sponsored truck divisions, saw Scelzi charge through the field and take the lead from Andrew Porter with 14 to go.

From there, Scelzi pulled away from his nearest pursuers and beat eventual runner-up Lucas McNeil to the checkered flag by .830 seconds for his first asphalt win in his first appearance on the blacktop.

It was a banner moment, if a little surprising for many, including the driver himself.

“I can’t say I was necessarily expecting it right out of the box, but I thought it went really well,” Scelzi said. “It took me a while to get comfortable and to find the edge. I pretty much threw everything I knew away and started fresh. It was different, but I really enjoyed it.

“Having a spotter was different, but it was cool to have a new challenge like this.”

Scelzi was quick to note that, aside from the roughly 150 laps he turned during two days of practice prior to the event, he had “zero pavement experience” going into the weekend.

He was a quick study, however, soaking in everything he could and making changes as he went along.

“I think the biggest thing for me was finding the limits of a pavement car,” Scelzi explained. “In the sprint car, it’s just a very different kind of racing. With the dirt car, you’re wide open most of the time and you hit the brakes to slow the car down … because with dirt cars if you’re all the way off the gas, the race car’s not happy. You have to be on the gas, whether it’s half throttle or quarter throttle or wide open. You have to be on the gas to keep the car loaded all the time. It’s not like that on pavement as much.

“On pavement you’re at the edge where it’s fast and then you cross it and you spin out, and you’re off the gas and off the brakes just rolling through the corner; that was a very uncomfortable sensation for me, being used to dirt and always sliding with the right rear stuck out,” Scelzi added. “It took me a while to find that edge, but once I did, then we started moving forward.”

With one asphalt race under his belt, would Scelzi do it again in the future?

“Oh yeah,” he replied. “I want to see where this road will take me. It’s something that I’ve talked about with Andy and Jack. We’ll just see what happens … but this is a great start in that world, I’d say.”

MONTEREY, Calif. – Braden Eves had only one thought on his mind entering Sunday’s Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca: He needed to win.

Eves trailed New Zealander Hunter McElrea by 12 points entering the season finale. He was well positioned on the starting grid, lining up third, while the unfortunate McElrea was 18th and last after being hobbled in qualifying by a broken throttle position sensor.

While many of the front-runners had the advantage of a fresh set of Cooper tires on a track that is notoriously hard on tires, Eves would have to make do with used rubber.

Undaunted and completely fired up, Eves vaulted from third to first on the opening lap, then held off a series of challenges throughout a thrilling 20-lap contest to claim the victory – his sixth of the season – and put the championship beyond the reach of McElrea, who could manage no better than seventh.

Saturday’s winner Christian Rasmussen drove another excellent race to climb from 10th on the grid to second for Jay Howard Driver Development, while McElrea’s Pabst Racing teammate, Colin Kaminsky, capped a strong season with another third-place finish.

Remarkably, Eves’ crown was the record-extending ninth in a row for Florida-based Cape Motorsports, although Pabst Racing gained some consolation by securing its third-straight team championship.

The initial start was clean with Kaminsky – on pole for the third time this season – maintaining his advantage as the field headed downhill toward Turn Three. Eves tucked in behind Kaminsky, edging ahead of first-time front row starter Eduardo Barrichello, then dived boldly to the inside in the middle of the corner to wrest away the lead. It was a forceful maneuver but crucial to Eves’ title aspirations. Kaminsky was forced to run wide over the exit curbs which enabled Barrichello to regain second place.

The yellow flags waved shortly thereafter following an incident in turn three involving Jak Crawford, who had started fifth but was obliged to restart well adrift of the field. After one more lap behind the Pace Car, Eves continued to lead from Barrichello and Kaminsky, although it wasn’t long before Rasmussen entered the picture, too, after a typically bold opening few laps which saw him gain four positions on the opening lap and then two more at the restart.

Eves remained under intense pressure, initially from Barrichello and then from Kaminsky, who dived past the Brazilian under braking for turn two on lap eight, with Rasmussen also following suit. Two laps later, Rasmussen displaced Kaminsky from second and then posted the fastest lap of the race as he closed onto Eves’ tail. It seemed to be only a matter of time before the Dane would make his move but Eves was up for the challenge and Rasmussen held enough respect not to attempt anything too rash.

Kaminsky, though, remained right behind in third, and on Lap 14 managed to sneak back past Rasmussen at Turn three. By now there were five cars in the lead train, with Eves battling for his life to fend off Kaminsky, Rasmussen, Barrichello and Zach Holden, who had made good progress from eighth on the grid.

Rasmussen was the next to make a move, diving past Kaminsky under braking for turn two. The pass initially cost him a little ground to Eves, but he was back on the leader’s tail with three laps still remaining. Eves, though, was up to the task. The Ohioan was inch perfect, despite the pressure, never allowing Rasmussen to get close enough to make a late lunge, and the victory – and the championship – was his.

“That was the hardest race of my life, without a doubt. Everyone around me [at the start] had new tires. I had used tires, but I had to win to win the championship,” said Eves. “I had to go for the lead in the first corner, and the guys behind put pressure on me the entire race. I’m so happy to finish with the form we had earlier in the season. We started off so well, but it felt like it was slipping away, which put so much pressure on me. I got a stroke of luck, with the issue he had in qualifying, but Hunter did an incredible job. I have so much respect for him, he really pushed me. This was the hardest year of my life by a mile.

”This is everything I’ve dreamed about all my life. I have to pinch myself, to make sure I’m not still dreaming! I’ve been trying to make a career in racing and the Road to Indy is how you do it, it gives opportunities to people with talent who earn their way up the ladder. All that matters now is that I’ll be racing next year in Indy Pro 2000.”

Second place for Rasmussen – his seventh podium in the last eight races – was enough to secure third place in the championship over Kaminsky on a tie-break.

BARRE, Vt. – Scott Dragon won the battle on Barre Granite Ass’n Championship Day on Sunday, but Jason Corliss won the war.

Dragon captured his fourth win of the season in the 60-lap Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Model feature a Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl while Corliss did just enough to edge Dragon to claim the King of the Road title.

Corliss entered the final feature of the regular season with a 10-point edge over Shelburne’s Trampas Demers and 19 points over Dragon, who was aiming to continue his reign as track champion.

However, both Corliss and Demers were caught in the wrong lane early on and got shuffled to the back. Corliss was eventually able to find his way into clear traffic but already found himself needing to make a run through the field.

At the front, Phil Scott grabbed the lead from Ricky Roberts on lap seven. Kyle Pembroke and Dragon followed him around the outside two laps later for second and third. As Corliss tried to fight his way out of the back and Demers remained stuck there, the top-three pulled away in what ended up being a caution-free race.

Pembroke eventually got his nose inside Scott and took the lead just prior to the halfway point and took the lead. Dragon filled the hole for the second spot, then swung to the outside of Pembroke, swiping the lead away for himself on lap 34.

One circuit later, Corliss moved into the eighth position, putting him into a tie with Dragon as they ran – but with Dragon holding the potential tiebreaker on account of more point-counting wins. Corliss kept it rolling on the outside groove, passing Matthew Smith with 20 laps to go for the spot he needed. The veteran got around Marcel J. Gravel for sixth seven laps later to get some insurance. Dragon pulled away from Pembroke down the stretch, and he and Corliss eventually crossed the line in those positions, unofficially giving Corliss the championship by just four points.

Pembroke finished second and unofficially moved up to third in the final standings as Demers struggled to a 12th-place result. Scott completed the podium in third. Brendan Moodie, Matt White, Corliss, Gravel, Smith, Joel Hodgdon and Nick Sweet rounded out the top-10. Hodgdon’s result came in a substitute driving role for Cody Blake.

Jason Woodard took home all the marbles in the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers with his third victory of the season. Woodard, who only needed to start the 60-lap main event to clinch his third Flying Tiger track championship, had charged from 19th on the starting grid to third just past the 40-lap mark. However, he was well behind Colin Cornell and Sid Sweet, and the veteran needed a caution in order to have a shot at the race victory.

Woodard got the help he needed when Kevin Streeter spun to the turn-two infield with four laps to go and was unable to re-fire, bringing out the event’s only caution. When the green came back out, Woodard went underneath Sweet for second, then went to the outside of Cornell and grabbed the lead as they took the white flag. The soon-to-be champion then won a scramble back to the checkered and yellow flags after three cars tangled entering turn one on the final lap.

Cornell settled for second after leading the first 58 laps. Rookie Logan Powers made a late charge of his own to take third. Danny Doyle, Brett Wood, Micheal MacAskill, Sam Caron, Sweet, Brandon Lanphear, and Mike Martin completed the top-10. Despite being involved in the last-lap accident, Stephen Martin clinched the Rookie of the Year Award.

Tyler Pepin capped the Allen Lumber Street Stock regular season with his fourth win of the year. Pepin started on the pole of the 30-lap feature and led a three-car breakaway with Kyle MacAskill and Dean Switser Jr. for much of the event. MacAskill made a run at Pepin late in the going but could not catch him by the time the checkered flag flew.

The rookie MacAskill finished runner-up for the second straight event while Switser took third. Gary Mullen, Juan Marshall, Tim Hunt, Jamie Davis, Kasey Beattie, Bryan P. Wall, and Tommy Smith finished fourth through 10th.

Jeffrey Martin secured his first Allen Lumber Street Stock championship with an 11th-place finish. An emotional Martin thanked Pepin in victory lane, has Pepin had voluntarily done a last-minute substitution for Martin earlier in the season to help keep his title hopes alive. Meanwhile, Keegan Lamson earned enough point to be the Street Stock Rookie of the Year

Chris Davis picked up his first feature victory in the Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors. Davis grabbed the lead from fellow Dan Garrett Jr. on lap nine of the 30-lap feature and was never headed from there. James Dopp came from 13th on the starting grid to make a run at Davis late in the event, but Davis was able to keep Dopp in his rear-view mirror for the win.

Dopp finished second while Garrett held off another Berliner, Eric Chase, for a season-best third-place effort. Kylar Davis, Anthony Campbell, Brian Putney, Fred Fleury, Mike Mitchell, and Josh Vilbrin also earned top-10 finishes.

MONTEREY, Calif. – Josef Newgarden is a two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion.

By virtue of a series-high four wins, seven podium finishes and two poles, including a eighth-place finish in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Newgarden drove the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet to his second championship in three years.

Newgarden’s first title came in 2017, his first season driving for Team Penske. Newgarden’s title is the 16th NTT IndyCar Series championship for team owner Roger Penske.

The 28-year-old native of Hendersonville, Tenn., started his run to the championship with a decisive victory in the season-opening race on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. Newgarden went on to score victories in race one of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, Texas Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway.

He led the point standings the entire 17-race season except for leaving Indianapolis after the Indianapolis 500 was won by teammate Simon Pagenaud. Newgarden quickly regained the top spot following his victory in race one in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix and never looked back.

“My team did such a great job today and all year long.  Tim (Cindric) called a great race,” said an elated Newgarden. “I tried to be as smart as I could today. Team Chevy has done a great job. Won the Indy 500 with Simon (Pagenaud) and now this championship. It’s about all you can ask for in one season. I’m just so thankful to everyone who has helped me. It’s been a heck of a year.”

Colton Herta earned his second NTT IndyCar Series victory of his rookie season in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. A complete report will be available soon.

VIRGINIA WATER, England – If ever you wanted to see the content look of relief and self-realization it was painted across Danny Willett’s face in good times and bad Sunday at the BMW PGA Championship.

It was there when he teed off tied for the lead with Jon Rahm in a cold, steady drizzle at the biggest tent in the European Tour circus. It was there when his title hopes were ping ponging off the towering trees on Wentworth’s 11th hole. And it was unmistakably there when the 31-year-old spied his family adjacent the 18th green with victory in hand.

Perspective means so much to so many it’s impossible to completely explain its elements for a player like Willett, but the picture was worth a thousand words as he savored the moment of his seventh European Tour victory. 

After everything Willett has been through remaining upright for 72 holes would have been worth celebrating not that long ago, so by comparison his triumph at the circuit’s flagship event was nothing more than another step in the process, albeit a healthy move back toward becoming a world-class player.

For Willett, beating one of the deepest fields ever at Wentworth is more the byproduct of his remarkable transformation. He missed the cut last year on the West Course, and Sunday he was asked if that event was a “false bottom” following what he stoically refers to as “the dark times.”

“I don't think it was the lowest I've been. I've been lower,” he admitted.

The truth is, last year’s missed cut was because of a vasectomy Willett had just days before the championship. “It hurt to walk,” he explained. For the Englishman, rock bottom had been reached long before that 2018 BMW PGA Championship.

After winning the 2016 Masters, Willett seemed poised to take his place among the game’s best players until an assortment of injuries intervened. There was a shoulder ailment followed by a knee issue. There was a wrist injury and a bad back. It all added up to one of the most rapid plunges in golf.

From ninth in the world to 462nd in a little over two years of non-stop pain and poor play.

This is where the perspective begins to interject. Willett and his wife, Nicole, have had two children since that Sunday at Augusta National in 2016, and he’s learned that what happens on a golf course doesn’t define him away from the golf course. But that didn’t complete the transformation. Not for a competitor like Willett.

“Obviously when [his first son] was born, the perspective of good days, bad days were different,” Willett said. “But still very hard to separate it because a bad day on the golf course, when this is what you're longing to do, day in, day out, is a pretty strange one.”

Professionally, he embraced change with swing coach Sean Foley and, perhaps most importantly, he found a way to stay out of the doctor’s office and off the physio’s table.

Some would say Willett’s epiphany moment came last fall when he won the DP World Tour Championship on the European Tour, but it was difficult to ignore the moment, if not the degree of difficulty, Sunday at Wentworth.

After pulling away from Rahm early with birdies at Nos. 2 and 3, Willett made the turn two strokes clear in what had essentially become a two-man race. If you’re inclined to search for perspective it was at the 11th hole that Willett’s play transformed this victory into something special.

Having played nearly flawlessly off the tee the entire day, Willett’s drive sailed into the woods left of the fairway and an overly-bold recovery shot clipped a tree and burrowed into the deep grass. His next shot came out awkward and he winced and grabbed his right wrist.

“It was a little bit funky for 20 minutes, so I popped a couple [Advil] and did some stretches that would somewhat ease it off, but it was a little sneaky for a little bit there,” Willett said.

Willett avoided injury at No. 11 and he also avoided a potential two-stroke swing when he converted from 45 feet for bogey and Rahm missed his birdie attempt.

“I believe that 11th hole was the key moment of the match,” Rahm said. “That was at least a one-shot swing right there and if he doesn't make it, I'm putting more relaxed without the whole crowd going crazy. That was a key moment of the match.”

If you’re scoring at home, this victory with all of the elements, from potential injury to style points, felt like a mission accomplished moment in the arch of Willett’s comeback. But then that ignores all the little victories that added up to Sunday’s big triumph.

“The comeback for me wasn't complete when I won. It was complete for me when I didn't have to lie on a physio bed for two hours a day. When I stood on a tee box and didn't have all sorts of things going on in my head and this and that,” Willett smiled. “The comeback happened a long time before I won, within myself.”

It was a smile of conviction and the look of content relief.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Rocco Mediate birdied his last two holes for a 6-under 64 and won the Sanford International on Sunday when Ken Duke took double bogey on the final hole.

Mediate won by two shots for his first PGA Tour Champions title in three years.

Duke was tied for the lead until taking four shots to reach the green on the closing hole at Minnehaha Country Club. He closed with a 69 and tied for second with Colin Montgomerie and Bob Estes, who each shot 67.

Mediate finished at 9-under 201. It was his fourth PGA Tour Champions victory, and first since the Senior PGA Championship in 2016.

Duke started the final round tied for the lead with Kirk Triplett, who faded to a 71.