NATIONAL LEAGUE
Dale Sveum was unable to prevent the reeling Milwaukee Brewers from suffering a fifth straight National League defeat, the interim manager’s first game in charge ending in a 5-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday.
C.C. Sabathia (9-1) lost his first game since joining the Brewers in July, bringing an end to his 12-game winning streak as Milwaukee slipped a half-game behind the New York Mets in the National League wild card race.
Sveum replaced Ned Yost, who was surprisingly fired on Monday, despite the fact that the Brewers (83-68) were tied for the wild card lead and 16 games over .500.
“We’ve been in that [wild card] position for quite a long time and we lost it tonight,” Sveum told reporters. “We have 11 games left to get it back.”
Milwaukee’s late-season tailspin has resulted in 12 losses in their last 15 games but their new manager was more relieved to have his first game out of the way.
“I had a lot of anxiety all day long, as well as yesterday,” Sveum said. “It was actually kind of cool getting to manage.”
Sabathia lost for the first time since June 5, a defeat to Texas while still pitching for the Cleveland Indians. He allowed four runs on nine hits over seven innings, striking out five and walking none.
“Tonight I needed to be better than I was,” Sabathia said.
Ryan Dempster (16-6) allowed two runs on seven hits over six innings for the Cubs, striking out nine and walking one.
Four relievers finished up with Kerry Wood picking up his 31st save despite allowing one run on three hits in the ninth.
Chicago (91-58) has a nine-game lead in the NL Central on the Brewers and reduced its magic number for clinching the division crown to four.
“That’s huge, to beat a guy who hadn’t lost in our league this year,” Dempster said.
Alfonso Soriano hit his 29th homer of the season for the Cubs while Aramis Ramirez had three hits and drove in a pair of runs.
Prince Fielder hit his 31st and 32nd homers among his three hits for the Brewers, but struck out with two-out and two-on in the ninth against Wood to end the game.
PHILLIES 8, BRAVES 7
Ryan Howard rallied Philadelphia back into the National League East lead, hitting a go-ahead homer in the eighth for his fourth hit in an 8-7 victory over Atlanta on Tuesday.
Brad Lidge escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth for his 37th save in as many chances and Philadelphia moved a half-game in front of fading New York, which lost 1-0 at Washington.
After trailing the Mets by 3 1/2 games going into last Thursday, Philadelphia leads the division for the first time since Aug. 26.
Howard had a run-scoring triple as the Phillies scored twice in the seventh. He leads the majors with 45 homers and 136 RBIs. He was 4-for-5 with three RBIs.
NATIONALS 1, METS 0
At Washington, Odalis Perez shut down slumping New York and scored the only run of the game.
The Mets lost for the fourth time in five games and dropped one-half game behind Philadelphia in the NL East.
A day after John Lannan held the Mets to one hit over seven innings, New York mustered just two in the first seven innings against Perez (7-10).
The lefty retired 13 straight between the hits — which came in the first and sixth innings — and never let a runner advance beyond second. Perez struck out six and did not walk a batter in seven-and one-third innings, his longest outing since Aug. 11, 2005.
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