Brewers blow 3-run lead, fall 3½ back in Central

Braves 7, Brewers 4

ATLANTA (AP) -- After manager Ned Yost lost his cool, the Milwaukee Brewers lost more ground in the NL Central.

Yost was ejected during Atlanta's four-run rally in the seventh inning, and the Braves sent the wobbling Brewers to their fourth loss in five games, 7-4 on Sunday.

The Brewers dropped 3½ games behind division-leading Chicago. The Cubs beat Pittsburgh 8-0.

Atlanta won for the seventh time in eight games in a late playoff push. The Braves moved within 3½ games of San Diego in the wild-card race and remained 5½ games in back of New York in the NL East.

The Brewers took a 4-1 lead into the seventh. Edgar Renteria doubled and scored on a two-out wild pitch by Claudio Vargas (11-5).

Mark Teixeira barely beat out an infield hit, Jeff Francoeur walked and Andruw Jones blooped an RBI single that made it 4-3. Francoeur rounded second base, made a headfirst dive back into the bag and was called safe by second base umpire Chris Guccione.

Yost argued that call and was tossed. He then gestured and appeared to vent anger at first-base umpire Jerry Layne, who made the call on Teixeira's infield hit.

Yost focused his postgame comments on what he said was poor umpiring throughout the series.

"With games of the implication of this right here, and we get this kind of effort," Yost said. "It's been the whole series. There's been a number of calls. Not one call has gone our way."

Francoeur thought that Guccione made the right call.

Division Magic Numbers
The magic number is derived by adding one to the number of remaining games and subtracting the number of games ahead in the loss column from the second-place team. Here's where the leaders stand:
AL EAST
x-Red Sox	6
AL CENTRAL
x-Indians	Won division
AL WEST
x-Angels	Won division
NL EAST
Mets	5
NL CENTRAL
Cubs	4
NL WEST
D-backs	5
x-clinched playoff spot

"He had a great angle," Francoeur said. "He was right there in front. I slipped my hand in there. The throw definitely beat me. I made a little juke move with my hand."

Matt Diaz hit a tying single that finished Vargas, and pinch-hitter Martin Prado's RBI single off Ray King put Atlanta ahead.

"I wasn't trying to get a big hit. I was just trying to get a good at-bat," Prado said.

Teixeira added a two-run double in the eighth.

The Braves' rally ruined a chance for Brewers starter Chris Capuano to end his franchise-record streak of 12 straight losses.

Capuano gave up one run in five innings while filling in for ace Ben Sheets, who is recovering from a hamstring injury. Capuano began the season 5-0 with a 2.20 ERA.

"I felt good out there throwing the ball. I've been working on stuff lately. I've been having problems all year missing spots and keeping the ball up, so I've been using my time in the bullpen to try and kind of get my mechanics going good," Capuano said. "I feel like I made a little progress."

Rookie Manny Acosta (1-1) pitched a scoreless seventh for his first win in the majors. Rafael Soriano, the sixth pitcher used by Atlanta, worked the ninth to earn his ninth save in 12 chances.

Ryan Braun hit his 32nd home run in the fourth. In the sixth, he chased starter Jo-Jo Reyes with an RBI single.

Royce Ring replaced Reyes and walked Prince Fielder. Reliever Peter Moylan gave up Corey Hart's RBI grounder that made it 4-1.

Corky Miller gave the Braves' 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the second.

After the victory gave his team a chance to enter the season's final week with slim playoff hopes, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox praised his players.

"We're still alive," Cox said. "Even if we weren't, they'd be playing the same kind of ball. I never doubted that for one minute."

Game notes
The Braves announced that over 2.7 million tickets were sold in 2007, the most since 2001 when they drew over 2.8 million. ... The Brewers, who begin a three-game series against St. Louis on Monday, have lost six straight to the Cardinals. ... Milwaukee C Mike Rivera replaced Johnny Estrada (knee) in the third.