Weeks, McClung give Brewers wild-card lead, BBN

Rickie Weeks showed resiliency after being sent to the bench. Seth McClung came out of the bullpen and showed some grit of his own.

Together they put the Milwaukee Brewers in front of the NL wild-card race.

Weeks hit a three-run homer in the seventh, McClung pitched four scoreless innings, and the Brewers rallied to beat the Chicago Cubs 5-1 on Friday night for their fifth straight win and a one-game lead over the New York Mets in the wild-card standings.

"It's a good feeling when you have destiny in your hands," Brewers interim manager Dale Sveum said. "We don't have to chase anybody, we're not tied, we're not anything. It's in our hands now."

With the Mets losing 6-1 to Florida, Milwaukee can wrap up a spot in the postseason on Saturday with another win and another New York loss.

"We really, really have put ourselves in a tough spot," Mets manager Jerry Manuel said. "We're the only ones to blame. We had opportunities and we didn't get it done."

The Mets' loss also gave Philadelphia a commanding two-game lead in the NL East with two games to go, after the Phillies beat Washington 8-4. The Houston Astros were eliminated from playoff contention even though they beat Atlanta 5-4.

In other NL games, it was St. Louis 7, Cincinnati 6; Arizona 6, Colorado 4; Pittsburgh 6, San Diego 3; and San Francisco 6, the Los Angeles Dodgers 5 in 10 innings.

One of the Brewers' top prospects, Weeks has struggled with a .236 average but replaced veteran Ray Durham after the sixth. He drove reliever Chad Gaudin's pitch deep to left field and flipped his bat as his shot cleared the wall to score McClung and Mike Cameron.

Corey Hart added a two-out, run-scoring single in the sixth, and Jason Kendall had a two-out RBI double in the second to put the Brewers back on top of a race they seemed likely to win at the start of September, when they led the wild-card standings by 5½ games.

"Anybody can win a game for us at any time," said Weeks, who has just 19 at-bats in the last two weeks after being relegated to a bench role. "It's the first time we've been in this atmosphere, I think, a playoff situation like this."

The Brewers got yet another victory despite a shaky starting rotation that's held up to every move Sveum's made. The next risk comes Saturday, when All-Star Ben Sheets (sore elbow) starts for the first time since Sept. 17.

Jeff Suppan, 0-3 with a 10.47 ERA in his first four September starts, allowed eight hits and a walk over five innings for the Brewers. McClung (6-6) did the rest, striking out six and retiring 10 of the final 11 Cubs.

"Dale said that we were going to go out there and play with kind of a football mentality as far as showing your emotions," McClung said. "That just fits me perfect."

Sean Marshall (3-5) took the loss in relief of Ryan Dempster, who threw five innings in his final tuneup before starting Game 1 of the National League Division Series.

"I felt really good, prepared physically and mentally," Dempster said. "I did what I needed to do, and now I have another start five days from now. I will be ready for that one."

At Philadelphia, Ryan Howard hit his major league-leading 48th homer, Joe Blanton pitched six effective innings and the Phillies moved closer to clinching the NL East title.

Their magic number for winning their second straight division championship was reduced to one. The Phillies reached 90 wins for the 12th time in the franchise's 126-year history and first time since winning 97 games in 1993.

The Mets' offense fizzled and Mike Pelfrey lost to Florida for the fourth time this season, putting New York's postseason chances in peril in the final regular-season games at Shea Stadium.

Josh Willingham homered and Hanley Ramirez had four hits for the Marlins, who knocked New York out of the playoff race on the final weekend last season.

Pelfrey allowed three runs in six innings, falling to 0-4 in five starts against Florida this year. Johan Santana will go to the mound on three days' rest for the Mets on Saturday.

At Houston, pinch-hitter Darin Erstad hit a game-ending home run in the ninth inning, but the Astros were eliminated from playoff contention when the Brewers beat the Cubs.

Erstad's third career winning homer bailed out closer Jose Valverde, who gave up the tying run in the top of the ninth.

Troy Glaus drove in the winning run at Busch Stadium with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, and Albert Pujols homered and ran his streak to seven straight hits.

Felipe Lopez singled off Bill Bray for his third hit with one out in the 10th, Pujols walked and Mike Lincoln hit Ryan Ludwick with a 1-2 pitch before Glaus drove in the winner.

At Phoenix, Chad Tracy's pinch double drove in two runs in the eighth inning for Arizona.

Juan Cruz (4-0) pitched a scoreless eighth to get the victory. Chad Qualls threw a perfect ninth for his sixth straight save since becoming Arizona's full-time closer.

Ryan Doumit hit a three-run homer, and Freddy Sanchez added a solo shot to help Pittsburgh snap a nine-game road losing streak.

Doumit's 15th homer to right off reliever Mike Ekstrom broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth.

Bengie Molina was awarded a two-run homer after an instant replay reversal and Dave Roberts' RBI gave the Giants a victory over the newly crowned NL West champion Dodgers.

Tyler Walker pitched the 10th for the win in San Francisco.

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