The St. Louis Cardinals, before even playing an inning of baseball Sunday, became the 2014 NL Central champions. In a down-to-the-wire contest that helped avoid a tie-breaking Game 163 , the Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates by the score of 4-1 . The Pirates needed to win their final game of the regular season to potentially force a tie atop the NL Central. They didn't, so the Cardinals win the division and the Pittsburgh will now host the NL wild card game Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants. And with that, the NL playoff situation is cemented: The Cardinals will play the Los Angeles Dodgers in one NLDS, and the Washington Nationals await the wild-card winner in the other. Both series start Friday. Even though the Reds were long out of contention, it turned out that their ace Johnny Cueto played a big part in deciding the division. He pitched eight innings, striking out seven and allowing one run on six hits. Even more, though, Cueto did his best Clayton Kershaw impression at the plate — breaking up a 1-1 game in the eighth inning with an RBI single to center. Kristopher Negron followed Cueto with a two-run homer that gave the Reds their 4-1 lead. The...