Washington – Down a game with one to play, the Philadelphia Phillies will have to win and hope for help.
Chase Utley homered twice, Ryan Howard hit an upper-deck shot and a three- run double, and Philadelphia beat the Washington Nationals 8-4 on Saturday to send the NL wild-card chase down to Game 162.
“We’ve got to keep going,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “We’ve got one more game in the regular season, and we’ve got to win tomorrow. That’s all.”
Philadelphia (87-74) trails Houston (88-73) by one game; the Astros stayed ahead by beating the Cubs 3-1 on Saturday. A Houston victory today would give it the league’s final playoff spot, no matter what Philadelphia does.
“The scoreboard is very hard not to look at. It’s sitting right up there in front of you. I find myself just kind of staring at it,” Manuel said. “They can cut it off if they want to, but then I’d probably ask somebody to go up there and see what the scores of the games are.”
Jon Lieber (16-13) is scheduled to start today for Philadelphia against Hector Carrasco (5-3), a career reliever making his fifth start of 2005.
If the Phillies and Astros finish tied, they would meet in a one-game playoff Monday at Philadelphia. The Phillies last reached the postseason in 1993.
“They’re a talented enough team to play in the playoffs. They look like they’re at the top of their game right now,” Nationals manager Frank Robinson said.
Brett Myers (13-8) had a career-high 12 strikeouts while limiting Washington to three runs on six hits over 6 2/3 innings.
He departed with runners on the corners after David Bell’s fielding error, but reliever Ryan Madson got Jamey Carroll to ground out.
Myers got ahead of hitters, throwing 86 of his 127 pitches for strikes as the Nationals struck out a season-high 17 times.
“Everybody coming back to the dugout was just like, ‘Wow,”‘ said Washington outfielder Ryan Church.
Jimmy Rollins slapped a double just inside the bag at first on the game’s first pitch to extend his hitting streak to 35 games, tied for the ninth-longest in major-league history.
Cardinals 9, Reds 6
St. Louis – Larry Walker hit two home runs and St. Louis moved within a game of becoming baseball’s only 100-win team.
Albert Pujols hit a two-run homer, his 41st, with one out in the first, and Walker followed with a drive off Cincinnati starter Ramon Ortiz. Walker connected off Ortiz again leading off the fourth.
Randy Flores (3-1) got the final out of the seventh for the win and Jason Isringhausen loaded the bases in the ninth before striking out Adam Dunn for his 38th save.
D-backs 2, Giants 1, 11 innings
San Francisco – Royce Clayton lined a tiebreaking double for his fourth hit of the day, and Arizona got its season-best seventh straight victory.
Pirates 5, Brewers 1
Pittsburgh – Kip Wells allowed just an earned run in 6 2/3 innings to avoid becoming the Pirates’ first 19-game loser in 20 years.
Milwaukee (81-80) must win today for its first winning season since 1992.
Dodgers 2, Padres 1
San Diego – Edwin Jackson and five relievers combined on a three-hitter as Los Angeles ended San Diego’s four-game winning streak.
Marlins 6, Braves 4
Miami – Josh Willingham and pinch-hitter Lenny Harris each had two-run singles in the eighth inning, rallying Florida in a game that included a rain delay of more than three hours.
