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Russell Martin's home run beats Brewers, clinches playoff berth for Dodgers
Russell Martin once played for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He now plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Yet with one mighty swing on Friday night, he managed to improve the postseason outlooks for both.
With Pittsburgh trailing by two runs in the eighth, Martin muscled up and delivered an opposite field three-run homer off another former Dodger, Jonathan Broxton, which sent the raucous PNC Park crowd into a frenzy, and gave Pittsburgh its first lead of the game.
Neither Broxton or the collapsing Brewers would recover. Pittsburgh tacked on an insurance run in the inning and then wrapped up a 4-2 victory.
In doing so, Pittsburgh extended its lead over Milwaukee for the second wild-card spot to 4 1/2 games with only nine left to play. That essentially puts the Brewers in a position where they have to win the final two games in Pittsburgh to give themselves a realistic shot in the final week. A split doesn't work, and a sweep would be the death knell.
After dropping two of three in St. Louis, including a 13-inning heartbreaker on Thursday, it's reasonable to ask just how much Milwaukee has left in the tank. These losses are just physically draining, they're mentally draining as well, and with a roster that doesn't quite match up to its competitors, they're already fighting an uphill battle.
It's a test of their team's mettle. We'll know by Monday whether they've passed or failed.
Friday night's result also officially punched the Dodgers ticket to the postseason. Los Angeles, which defeated the Chicago Cubs 14-5 earlier in the day as ace Clayton Kershaw picked up his 20th win, is guaranteed to be one of the final ten. It's the Dodgers' second consecutive postseason berth. They advanced to the NLCS last season before falling to the Cardinals in six games.
Los Angeles still has work to do to wrap up the NL West, thus guaranteeing a spot in the NLDS, but they did receive some help from the San Diego Padres. San Diego defeated the Giants 5-0, which lowered the Dodgers magic number to six.
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is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
