Baseball races set for wild finish

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.

With one game to go, the Braves’ season is on the brink after a potentially historic collapse.

“It’s like living out a bad dream,” Jones said.

Lowe surrendered 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 7-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night.

St. Louis beat Houston to pull even with the Braves, who had held sole possession of the N.L. wild-card lead since June 20.

“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 situation. “We’re pretty much all he has anyway.”

The Cardinals used a tiebreaking two-run triple from Ryan Theriot in the seventh inning to help beat the Astros 13-6 in Houston.

The Cardinals trailed 5-0 early, but scored five times in the fourth and erased a 6-5 deficit with a four-run seventh.

In the A.L., Tampa Bay continued its improbable bid for the wild card with a 5-3 victory over the visiting New York Yankees, getting home runs from Matt Joyce and Ben Zobrist and turning a triple play that helped the Rays stay in the game.

The Rays are tied with Boston after making up nine games in the standings since Sept. 4. The Red Sox beat Baltimore 8-7 on Tuesday.

“I think it’s really good for baseball, not so good for my stomach,” manager Terry Francona said of the race for the playoff spot. “It’s exciting. If you don’t want to show up (today) and play, you’ve got no pulse.

“My goodness, I can’t remember being that nervous in a long time.”