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Weeks Helps Brewers Take Wild-Card Lead

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 27, 2008

MILWAUKEE - The Brewers control their own destiny again.

Rickie Weeks hit a three-run homer in the seventh, Seth McClung pitched four scoreless innings in relief and the Brewers rallied to beat the Cubs 5-1 on Friday night for their fifth straight win and the lead in the NL wild-card race.

With the Mets losing 6-1 to Florida, Milwaukee leads New York by a game with two to play.

Weeks, who has been relegated to a bench role but replaced Ray Durham after the sixth, drove reliever Chad Gaudin's pitch deep to left field, flipping 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 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 race by 5 1/2 games.

But Milwaukee dropped 15 of 19 to begin the regular season's final month. Manager Ned Yost was fired and replaced with Dale Sveum, leaving the Brewers in a desperate scramble to reach the postseason for the first time since 1982.

Now Milwaukee is a win away from at least a spot in a play-in game, but the Brewers would have to go on the road in every tiebreaker scenario and would rather just keep beating the Cubs.

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 today, when All-Star Ben Sheets (sore elbow) starts for the first time since Sept. 17.

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