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Rays continue wild card pursuit

Matt Joyce and Ben Zobrist homered Tuesday night, helping the surging Tampa Bay Rays continue their improbable chase for the AL wild card with a 5-3 victory over the New York Yankees on Tuesday night.

Tampa Bay 5 New York 3

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Matt Joyce and Ben Zobrist homered Tuesday night, helping the surging Tampa Bay Rays continue their improbable chase for the AL wild card with a 5-3 victory over the New York Yankees on Tuesday night.

The Rays, seeking their third playoff berth in four seasons, began the night tied with Boston after making up nine games in the standings since Sept. 4.

Joyce’s three-run homer off former teammate Rafael Soriano (2-3) was the all-star’s first in more than three weeks and wiped out a 3-2 deficit in the seventh. Zobrist hit a two-run drive off Bartolo Colon in the second, and the Rays kept the score close by turning the third triple play in franchise history after falling behind in the sixth.

Jake McGee (4-2) pitched one scoreless inning to get the win. With a crowd of 22,820 standing and cheering, Kyle Farnsworth got the final three outs for his 25th save in 31 chances. The victory was the fourth straight for Tampa Bay.

Russell Martin of Chelsea, Que., hit a solo homer for the Yankees, but also grounded into the triple play that helped Hellickson escape further damage after Nick Swisher’s RBI double gave New York a 3-2 lead in the sixth.

The Yankees, who clinched the division title and homefield advantage throughout the AL playoffs last week, rested Derek Jeter and plan to play most — if not all — of their regular lineup again on Wednesday. Manager Joe Girardi remained undecided on a starting pitcher for the finale, but it figures to be a reliever.

New York general manager Brian Cashman reiterated how nice it is to be in a position to not have to go down to the wire.

“I’m not pulling for anybody. I know I’m glad that we were able to do what we did,” Cashman said. “I know that both parties involved, Boston and Tampa Bay, are having sleepless nights. They’re hungry. Rather than have to live to through it, I think both want to fast forward it to see what happens. I’ve been there.”

Philadelphia 7 Atlanta 1

ATLANTA — 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 7-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies 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, sending them to the final day of the regular season perhaps tied and definitely no more than one game ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals, who were at Houston.

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, which would be Thursday night in St. Louis.

“It is what it is,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve played 161 games and it comes down to one. We’ve done it to ourselves. No excuses there. We’ve got to go get it tomorrow.”

Lowe (9-17) has been a US$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 centre-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 centre-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.”