Strange Brew: Ryan Braun, Of All People, Keeps Milwaukee In The Chase

• Brewers 5, Pirates 1 (10 innings). Brew Crew Ball called it: This morning is the appropriate time for the untucking of shirts. Come on, untuck 'em! Wait ... is that, Brewers underwear? Oh Jesus. Well, tuck it back in, I guess. Ryan Braun was hitting .198 in September, with one home run and five RBI; not the most likely candidate to wind up as the hero. But his walkoff grand slam with two out in the bottom of the 10th gave the Brewers their fourth straight win, providing a moment of delirium for a Miller Park crowd which had been conditioned not to expect that kind of thing. Losing 15 of 19 to start the month will do that. But the Brewers stayed tied with the Mets for the wild-card lead, and all things are still possible. Rickie Weeks led off the bottom of the 10th with a single off Jesse Chavez, and Jason Kendall bunted him to second. Ray Durham was walked intentionally, Chavez struck out Mike Cameron, and Craig Counsell walked, and setting up Braun’s heroics. Remaining schedule(s): Three games versus the Cubs. • Mets 7, Cubs 6. So New York just might make the playoffs after all, and it would be a shame if Mr. Met caught a cold and missed it all. Carlos Beltran made sure that the final three regular-season games at Shea Stadium would be relevant with his two-out, game-winning single in the ninth — off the glove of first baseman Micah Hoffpauir — as New York remained in a tie with Milwaukee atop the wild-card standings. The Mets split the four-game series and moved within a game of idle Philadelphia for first place in the East. So, three game remaining at home with the Marlins, and they might have to put off the Shea demolition for a couple of weeks. One question though: Just how far out of the baseline are you allowed to go to avoid a tag at the plate? Can you actually go into the stands? Remaining schedule(s): Mets: Three games versus the Marlins. Cubs: Three games at Milwaukee. • Padres 7, Dodgers 5. Should a team be allowed to pop champagne after losing to the Padres? Please look into this, Mr. Selig. That's just what the Dodgers did on Thursday, backing into the NL West title after St. Louis beat Arizona 12-3 in an afternoon game. That clinched things for LA, which still had to wait until after its night game with San Diego to celebrate. And part of that celebration was on the field, which was weird. Oh, and then there's this: Following the game, Dodgers manager Joe Torre said he received a text message of congratulations from Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin. Dude. LOL. No word yet from Dodgers superfan Alyssa Milano, but if you want to ask her about it, she'll be at Busch Stadium in St. Louis tonight modeling clothes from her TOUCH collection.