The Milwaukee Brewers needed a dramatic home run from Prince Fielder and the New York Mets used a wacky hit from Johan Santana to end up with much-needed wins.

Fielder homered with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Milwaukee rallied twice to beat Pittsburgh 7-5 last night, keeping pace with New York in the National League wild-card race.

The Mets got a strong outing from Santana, who sparked the Mets’ offense with an unusual, broken-bat infield single to lead the team to a 6-2 victory over the Cubs.

The Mets remain a game in front of Milwaukee in the NL wild-card standings but cut their deficit in the NL East to 1½ games of Philadelphia, which lost 3-2 to Atlanta.

"That’s one of the biggest wins of the season for us," said Jose Reyes, who had a three-run triple for his 200th hit of the season that helped the Mets end a three-game skid reminiscent of last season’s epic collapse.

Milwaukee, which hasn’t been to the postseason since 1982 and came into September with a 5½-game lead for the wild card, is desperately trying to avoid a second collapse after squandering a big lead last year.

"These last five games or so, we really need to win as many as possible, so for me to do that was pretty awesome," said Fielder, who is hitting .412 with six homers and 17 RBI during his 13-game hitting streak. "The better part about it was just seeing my teammates. That was pretty cool."

In New York, Santana’s wacky hit got the Mets back on track after they struggled for much of the game against Sean Marshall.

With one out in the fifth, Marshall plunked Nick Evans and Santana followed with a grounder up the middle. Marshall eluded a piece of Santana’s bat, but the ball got past him and kicked off the broken wood, bouncing off the glove of shortstop Ronny Cedeno.

Reyes struck out, but Luis Castillo walked and David Wright lined a tying two-run single into left.

● Braves 3, Phillies 2: In Philadelphia, the Phillies twice had serious shots at big innings against the oft-injured Mike Hampton (3-3). They left the bases loaded in the third and ran themselves out of a rally in the sixth to lose for only the second time in 12 games.

● Dodgers 10, Padres 1: In Los Angeles, Nomar Garciaparra and Blake DeWitt hit three-run homers and Los Angeles reduced its magic number for clinching the NL West to three.

● Red Sox 5, Indians 4: Defending World Series champion Boston clinched a playoff berth.

Tim Wakefield outpitched Cliff Lee (22-3), and midseason acquisition Jason Bay hit the go-ahead single as Boston scored three times in the fifth to rally from a two-run deficit.

● Rays 5, Orioles 2; Rays 7, Orioles 5: In Baltimore, Tampa Bay reduced its magic number to win the American League East to two with a franchise first: a doubleheader sweep.

The Rays are three games ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East in pursuit of their first division title.

● Twins 9, White Sox 3: In Minneapolis, Jason Kubel went 3 for 4 with two homers and Minnesota moved within 1½ games of Chicago in the AL Central.

Chicago’s Ken Griffey Jr. passed Sammy Sosa for sole possession of fifth place on the career list with his 610th home run, a two-run shot off Matt Guerrier in the ninth.

● Royals 5, Tigers 0: In Detroit, Zack Greinke and Leo Nunez combined on a four-hitter to lift Kansas City.

Mike Aviles, Ryan Shealy and Alex Gordon homered for Kansas City, which has won 10 of its last 12.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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