Cardinals 13, Astros 6

After St. Louis was swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in late August, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa thought his team would fall short of the postseason once again.

Less than a month later, the Cardinals are tied with Atlanta for the NL wild-card lead.

Pinch-hitter Ryan Theriot delivered a tiebreaking two-run triple in the seventh inning, leading St. Louis to victory over Houston Tuesday night.

The sliding Braves lost 7-1 to Philadelphia, sending the race for the NL's final playoff spot to the last day of the regular season. If the teams are tied after Wednesday's game, St. Louis will host a one-game playoff on Thursday night.

"Yeah, when we got swept by the Dodgers," La Russa said when asked if he doubted his team could make such a run. "When I saw our schedule I said: 'We could finish under .500 if we don't start getting it back together.' And we did."

St. Louis has won 21 of 29 games since that sweep, moving to the brink of what not so long ago seemed like an improbable goal.

"It's kind of fed us here the last few days, 120 years of baseball and this is one of those historic runs to tie," La Russa said. "But there's a different story between tying and finishing it off. So tomorrow we'll see if we can go take another step."

The Cardinals trailed 5-0 early and appeared to be headed for a second straight loss to the Astros. But St. Louis scored five times in the fourth and erased a 6-5 deficit with a four-run seventh.

Lance Berkman hit a two-out single and scored on Allen Craig's tying double. Craig entered in the third inning when Matt Holliday departed with discomfort in his right hand.

Yadier Molina walked before Theriot hit his clutch triple to make it 8-6.

Nick Punto, who had four hits, doubled in Theriot in the seventh and had a solo homer in the ninth. Craig padded the lead with a three-run homer to the Crawford Boxes in left field in the eighth.

"You play all year for an opportunity to play in October," Theriot said. "So it's a good feeling to know that we put ourselves in a spot that we could possibly do that, to do what we've done this last month and keep playing."

Eduardo Sanchez (3-1) struck out two in 1 1-3 innings for the win in a game that included seven Cardinals relievers following an early exit by Jake Westbrook. It was Sanchez's first appearance since June 12 because of a shoulder injury.

Skip Schumaker drove in three runs in the fourth, and Berkman had three hits and scored three times. The crowd booed loudly when Berkman, the longtime Astros star, scored in the seventh.

The Astros jumped on Westbrook for seven hits and five runs in 2 1-3 innings to take the early lead.

Enerio Del Rosario (0-3) yielded two hits and three runs for the loss.

Brian Bogusevic singled to start the Astros' fifth before consecutive walks loaded the bases. Bogusevic scored when Jimmy Paredes grounded into a double play, giving Houston a 6-5 lead.

David Freese walked to start the big fourth inning by St. Louis. Berkman singled with one out, and the runners advanced on a wild pitch by Henry Sosa.

Craig then walked before Molina singled in a run and Schumaker cleared the bases with a double to center, chasing Sosa. David Carpenter came in and allowed Jon Jay's tying sacrifice fly later in the inning.

The Astros scored four times in the third. Brett Wallace had a two-run single and Paredes added a two-run triple that rolled up on the corner of Tal's Hill in center field.

Bogusevic was disappointed that Houston let its early advantage slip away.

"It's not over in the third or fourth inning, and we knew there was still a lot of baseball yet to be played," he said. "We tried to add on and hold them off, but it didn't work today."

Cardinals star Albert Pujols got hit on the right elbow by a ball that glanced off his bat for a foul in the seventh. He writhed in pain for a minute before trainers came and checked on him. He continued his at-bat after a short delay, flew out to left field and played the rest of the game.

Phillies 7, Braves 1

Dan Uggla drop-kicked his bat after striking out on three pitches. Chipper Jones slammed his bat into the dirt after popping up. Derek Lowe just trudged off the mound to another round of boos from the home crowd, wondering how it all went wrong.

The Braves are mad and frustrated heading to the 162nd game.

Their season is on the brink after a potentially historic collapse.

"It's like living out a bad dream," Jones said.

Lowe had another miserable outing, surrendering five runs in four-plus innings, and the Braves took another step toward giving away a playoff berth that seemed certain just a few weeks ago with an ugly loss to Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

Chase Utley, Hunter Pence and Jimmy Rollins homered to back a three-hit outing by Roy Oswalt (9-10), who tuned up for the playoffs with a strong performance in a largely disappointing season.

"We've got one game to play in the month of September, then October comes around and it's a new month," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "There's not a person in that locker room who I wouldn't want to be on my team to play that game."

"I would hope so," Jones said, trying to make light of the grim situation. "We're pretty much all he has anyway."

Certainly, that team is really, really struggling.

The Braves lost their fourth in a row and eighth in 11 games.

Atlanta, which had an 8 1/2-game lead just three weeks ago, will send its ace to the mound on Wednesday. Sixteen-game winner Tim Hudson will try to wrap up the wild card or at least force a one-game playoff against Cardinals.

Lowe (9-17) has been a $15 million bust for the Braves, losing all five of his September starts and drawing the ire of Atlanta fans. They cheered lustily when Gonzalez popped out of the dugout to make a pitching change after Lowe gave up a leadoff single in the fifth, then heckled the high-priced right-hander as he trudged to the dugout — and straight to the showers without so much as a pause.

"When you're 9-17 with a (5.05) ERA, come on, there's really nothing you can say to sugarcoat it," Lowe said. "I'm man enough to say I've had a terrible year. But we've still got a chance. Our best pitcher is going tomorrow. This isn't about me. This is about this organization and how much hard work these guys have put in this season."

The NL East champion Phillies, winning their 101st game of the season, jumped ahead on the eighth pitch of the game. Lowe served up one to Utley, who drove it into center-field seats for his 11th homer.

An uneasy feeling settled over Turner Field. It would only get worse.

The Phillies extended the lead to 3-0 in the third on Rollins' run-scoring and Pence's sacrifice fly, the inning helped along by Lowe's ill-advised decision to try to get the lead runner at third on Oswalt's sacrifice. Carlos Ruiz beat the throw and everyone was safe.

The advantage grew to 4-0 in the fourth when two singles set up another sacrifice fly, this one by Placido Polanco.

Philadelphia finished off Lowe in the fifth. When Rollins led off with a single, rookie Arodys Vizcaino was summoned from the bullpen. But the youngster gave up a towering two-run homer to Pence, his 22nd, that turned the game into a full-fledged rout.

Rollins added his 16th homer in the seventh off another Braves rookie, Julio Teheran.

The Braves fans stopped booing long enough to cheer on the last-place Astros from afar, breaking into periodic chants of "Let's Go Houston!"

"I heard it," said Braves center fielder Michael Bourn, who was acquired from the Astros at the trade deadline. "I was actually bobbing my head to it. I'm right there with 'em. Let's go Astros. You can't be against that."

Mets exercise Collins' option

Terry Collins is getting more time to turn around the New York Mets.

The Mets exercised the 2013 option on their manager Tuesday, announcing the move shortly before their next-to-last game of the season.

"He's done just a terrific job," general manager Sandy Alderson said. "He's earned it."

The record may not totally reflect that: The Mets are 76-84 this season after going 79-83 last year before firing Jerry Manuel.

But Alderson and Mets management liked what they saw from Collins, who came in with the reputation of having a hot temper yet never boiled over in the midst of a trying situation.

The team has money woes because of the Bernard Madoff scandal, lost ace Johan Santana and other top players to the disabled list and dealt away All-Stars Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez.

After getting off to a poor start, the Mets rallied and actually were 55-51 in late July — on the day they traded Beltran. Missing banged-up Jose Reyes and David Wright, the Mets struggled the last two months.

"He never used injuries or trades as an excuse for the performance of the team," Alderson said.

Collins was not available for comment after the extension was announced. The Mets were set to play the Cincinnati Reds.

Told that Collins had been hired through 2013, rookie pitcher Dillon Gee welcomed the news.

"He's a real good communicator," said Gee, a bright spot at 13-6 this season. "He tells you exactly where you stand, you don't have to read about it before he tells you."

"He's fiery. He knows when to yell and not to, he doesn't pull any punches," he said.

The Mets gave Collins a two-year contract with a team option when they hired him in November, choosing him over fellow Mets employees Bob Melvin, Chip Hale and Wally Backman.

Collins had not managed in the majors in the previous 11 years. But he had been the Mets' minor league field coordinator in 2010 and the team management liked his familiarity with the young players.