re denied a goal after a review in the first period, but tied i

No matter what happens in the postseason, David Ortiz is capping his career with quite a slugging display.Bostons 40-year-old designated hitter finished the regular season with a .315 average and 38 home runs, and he tied for the American League lead with 127 RBI. His OPS of 1.021 was the fourth-best of his career.Ortizs powerful finale is noteworthy -- often, when a player is on the verge of retirement, its easy to see why. His bat speed (or his fastball) has slowed to the point where hes no longer capable of performing at the high level fans are accustomed to seeing.The best final season of any player in the modern era, as measured by Baseball-Reference.coms wins above replacement stat, belongs to Sandy Koufax, who was worth 10.3 WAR in 1966. He went 27-9 with a 1.73 ERA and 317 strikeouts, winning his third Cy Young Award.Thats an outlier, though, because Koufax retired in his prime. Ortiz is the rare case of an older player going out with this kind of production when it was not necessarily expected.Here are a few other terrific swan songs:- Ted Williams, 1960. Williams famously homered in the final plate appearance of his career, and he was productive in general that season, hitting .316 with 29 home runs and 72 RBI. Williams only played 113 games in 1960, but his OPS of 1.096 was pretty close to his career average.- Will Clark, 2000. Clark hit .319 with 21 homers in 2000, and he hit .345 in 51 games for St. Louis after being traded there from Baltimore. That was his fourth consecutive season hitting over .300, and the 36-year-old Clarks retirement announcement that November came as something of a surprise.- Barry Bonds, 2007. Bonds broke the career home run record in his final season, finishing with 762. On the year, he hit .276 with 28 home runs in 126 games -- and he led the majors with 132 walks.- Mike Mussina, 2008. Mussina was approaching age 40 when he won 20 games for the first time in his career in 2008. Hed won 19 twice and 18 three times. His 20-9 record in 08 was no fluke. He posted a 3.37 ERA and walked only 31 batters -- the fewest of his career over a full season.- Mariano Rivera, 2013. Riveras numbers during his farewell season looked pretty normal for the star closer: 6-2 with a 2.11 ERA and 44 saves.Ortizs numbers this year did dip a bit after the All-Star break, but hell be a formidable presence in Bostons lineup for the Division Series against Cleveland.Here are a few other developments from the regular seasons final week:TRIVIA QUESTIONWhich team has the most victories in the American League since 2012? (Answer below)SPOILERSThe Atlanta Braves finished last in the NL East, but they were a different team down the stretch, going 18-10 after the start of September. The Braves took two of three from Detroit in the final series to knock the Tigers out of postseason contention. It was a 10-strikeout performance Saturday by Atlanta right-hander Aaron Blair -- who finished the year with a 7.59 ERA -- that Detroit will look back on with exasperation.TRIVIA ANSWERThe Baltimore Orioles have the most wins in the AL since the start of 2012, and the Orioles and New York Yankees are the only teams in the league that have not had a sub-.500 season in that span. Baltimore is headed to the postseason for the third time in five years after missing out for the previous 14.LINE OF THE WEEKSan Diego rookie Hunter Renfroe made a nice early impression Tuesday when he drove in all of his teams runs in a 7-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Renfroe, who was drafted in the first round by the Padres in 2013, hit a grand slam and a three-run homer. He also hit the first ever homer to the top of the Western Metal Supply Co. building at Petco Park the next night. Orlando Cepeda Cardinals Jersey . Laudrup revealed Thursday he was notified of his dismissal in "the briefest of letters which gave no reasons why such hasty and final action was deemed necessary. Enos Slaughter Cardinals Jersey . Hargreaves began his career in 2008 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and has played with the Edmonton Eskimos and last season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. http://www.authenticcardinalspro.com/cardinals-steve-carlton-jersey/ .J. -- New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on his left knee. Vince Coleman Cardinals Jersey . Their experience showed Tuesday as the No. 10 Badgers blunted a Saint Louis surge to win 63-57 and advance to face West Virginia in Wednesdays finals of the Cancun Challenge. Matt Wieters Cardinals Jersey . Bryant, who signed a five-year, $34 million contract as a free agent with Cleveland in March, reported symptoms on Monday morning, a team spokesman said. GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Arizona Coyotes escaped a loss by less than a tenth of a second, then turned to their go-to guy in the overtime shootout for another win over the Edmonton Oilers.Radim Vrbatas 43rd career shootout goal and another from Oliver Ekman-Larsson helped give the Arizona Coyotes a 3-2 comeback victory over the Pacific Division leaders Oilers on Friday night.Vrbata has the all-time NHL record for shootout goals, passing Detroits Frans Nielsen with Fridays tally.If you do it right theres a high percentage chance that it will work, Vrbata said of his goal, which preceded Ekman-Larssons winner. When it goes to a shootout and youre successful, you get a point that you might need at the end of the season.Ekman-Larsson said he isnt very comfortable in shootouts.I closed my eyes and shot it, he said. I got lucky.Mike Smith made 32 saves to help the Coyotes improve to 20-0-4 in the last 24 meetings with Edmonton. Its a run that goes back to 2011.Smith is 14-1-1 in his career against the Oilers.The three-on-three overtime saw the Oilers go on a power play and fail to score, but Connor McDavids shot beat Smith as time expired. The goal was disallowed on review, however, when officials deemed it did not cross the goal line before time ran out.Thats about as close as Ive ever seen, Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said of McDavids no-goal. We were fortunate to get the extra point. You know your backs against the wall, youve got to leave it all out there and our guys did.McDavid, who lost the puck on his shootout attempt, continued his productive season with a goal for his NHL-leading 28th point of the season. The 19-year-old McDavid, last seasons first overall draft pick, has nine points over those four games, five on goals.Max Domi and Shane Doan scored for Arizona.Adam Larsson also scored for the Oilers.Arizona took a season-high 40 shots and played its sixth one-goal game of the past seven. The Coyotes have three overtime points from that span of games.Cam Talbot finished with a season high 38 saves for Edmonton. The Oilers haad won three in a row.ddddddddddddThe Coyotes peppered Talbot with 20 first-period shots, the most they have had in a period this season. All but one were on net, and one of those finally went in with 2:22 left in the period.They were a lot sharper than we were in the first period and they gained some confidence and momentum off it, Oilers coach Todd McLellan said.We gave up way too many chances, way too many shots on net, McDavid said. (Talbot) was great back there.Domi lifted a shot over Talbot after a faceoff and four passes, 9 seconds after Edmonton had taken a 2-0 lead.Larsson gathered in Oscar Klefboms pass, with teammate Ryan Nugent-Hopkins letting the puck go past him to an open Larsson for the Oilers second goal. McDavid scored just 1:31 into the game on a rush, taking Jesse Puljujarvis pass, skating ahead of defenders and beating Smith 1-on-1 stick-side.The Coyotes were denied a goal after a review in the first period, but tied it at 8:06 of the third period. Doan tipped in Anthony DeAngelos shot after Doan won a face-off and got to the front of the net for the deflection.That goal was also reviewed on replay but stood. Doan is two goals away from 400 for his career and scored his first goal since the season opener last month.Game notes Arizona called up G Justin Peters from Tucson of the AHL on an emergency basis to back up Smith, with Louis Domingue dealing with a lower-body injury. ... The Coyotes wore throwback kachina original uniforms from the late 1990s. ... Oilers F Patrick Maroon drew a two-minute penalty for boarding near the end of the first period when he crunched a bent-over Connor Murphy, prompting a brief scuffle. Murphy left the ice for the locker room but returned to action in the second period. ... Coyotes C Laurent Dauphin left the ice after getting hurt blocking a shot in the third period, but Tippett said Dauphin is OK.UP NEXT: The teams meet again Sunday in Edmonton. ' ' '