"There's no such thing as too soon to clinch," Hunter said. "We've been going hard to get to this point. It doesn't matter if we clinch early or late, as long as we clinched."

Los Angeles wrapped up the division without starters Chone Figgins (injured), Mark Teixeira (ill) and Hunter, who was suspended for helping trigger a bench-clearing scuffle with Yankees catcher Ivan Rodriguez on Monday.

The Angels will try to do something that none of their previous division-winning teams accomplished — reach the World Series. They won their first and only World Series title as a wild-card team in 2002, the year they knocked Hunter's Minnesota Twins out of the playoffs.

Perhaps, there might even be the first Freeway Series this year — the Dodgers lead the NL West.

Like Hunter, Teixeira was thrilled to come to the Angels after years of playing with the Rangers in the same division.

"I've always been jealous of the Angels," he said. "Some great players play their entire careers without ever getting a taste of the postseason, and I'm going to have that opportunity this year."

Inside the clubhouse, manager Mike Scioscia grinned when pitcher Ervin Santana delighted in dumping more booze on his head. A couple players returned to the dugout, alternately spraying champagne on fans and chugging from the bottle.

"You can't minimize how important this is," Scioscia said. "It happened a little earlier than it has in other seasons, but it's not easy getting to that first step, so we're excited about going to the playoffs and we're going to keep going."

Robb Quinlan hit a go-ahead, two-run single in the fifth inning for the Angels.

Rodriguez pitched a scoreless ninth and moved within one save of Bobby Thigpen's 18-year-old major league record. He threw a called third strike past Hideki Matsui with runners at first and third for the final out.

Dustin Moseley (2-4) allowed two runs and three hits in five innings while making a spot start for Weaver, whose injured fingers pushed him back to Thursday. Moseley struck out six and walked three in winning for the first time since April 9 against Cleveland.

Andy Pettitte (13-13) lost for the sixth time in his last nine starts. The left-hander gave up four runs and nine hits in 4 2-3 innings, tying his second-shortest outing of the season.