Cubs win decisive game

ATLANTA -- Ninety-five years of frustration. Ninety-five years of ridicule. Put it all to rest. The Chicago Cubs are postseason winners.\nKerry Wood pitched another dominating game and Aramis Ramirez began the celebration with a mammoth home run, pushing the Cubs past Atlanta 5-1 Sunday night for their first postseason victory since the 1908 World Series.\nThe franchise that endured the College of Coaches and the curse of a goat moves on to play Florida in the NL championship series. Game 1 is Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.\nThe Braves suffered another heartbreaking loss in the postseason, going down for the second year in a row in Game 5 of the division series.\nTwelve straight division titles have produced only one World Series championship, and the Braves face an uncertain future. Gary Sheffield, Greg Maddux, Javy Lopez and Vinny Castilla are all in the last year of their contracts.\nA couple of ex-Pirates helped the Cubs break through in the postseason. Kenny Lofton led off the game with a double and came around to score the first run. Ramirez put the Cubs up 4-0 with a two-run homer in the sixth -- a massive, 439-foot shot over the center-field wall.\nBraves pitcher Mike Hampton didn't even turn around after Ramirez connected. With Wood on the mound, the Cubs could have popped the champagne right then and there.\nWood won for the second time in the best-of-five series with a performance that matched his effort in Game 1.\nA disputed call by the umpires -- is that becoming a theme of this postseason? -- led to the only Atlanta run.\nThe big Texan went eight innings, giving up just five hits before giving way to Joe Borowski, an ex-Brave who finished off Atlanta in the ninth.\nOnce again, thousands of Cubs fans were on hand to cheer their beloved team, ignoring years of heartache to provide some Chicago hope. The crowd of 54,357 was a Braves franchise record.