Atlanta, GA (Sports Network) - The Philadelphia Phillies reached several milestones Tuesday and continued the wild card-leading Braves' freefall with a 7-1 drubbing in the penultimate game of the regular season.
The NL wild card race is now all even as a result of the Braves tripping to a 9-17 mark in September, including losses in seven of their last nine.
The Cardinals rallied from a 5-0 deficit to beat the Astros 13-6 in Houston on Tuesday night putting the Cards and Braves into a tie for the Wild Card spot in the National League.
Philadelphia, responsible for five of its division rivals' losses in the last month, matched a club record with 101 wins, set a franchise mark with 49 road victories and saw manager Charlie Manuel match Gene Mauch for first place on the club's all-time wins list.
Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Hunter Pence all homered for the five-time NL East champions, while Roy Oswalt (9-10) hurled six scoreless innings.
Derek Lowe (9-17), the embodiment of Atlanta's collapse, was tagged for five runs on six hits in four-plus innings, falling to 0-5 in September with an 8.75 earned run average.
The Braves and Phillies play again Wednesday night while the Astros and Cardinals close out their series in Houston.
If a playoff game is necessary, it would be played Thursday night in St. Louis.
The Sports Network