The Milwaukee Brewers needed a dramatic home run from Prince Fielder and the Mets used a wacky hit from Johan Santana to end up with much-needed wins.

Fielder homered with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Milwaukee rallied twice to beat Pittsburgh 7-5 on Tuesday night, keeping pace with New York in the NL wild-card race.

The Mets got a strong outing from Santana, who sparked the Mets’ offense with an unusual, broken-bat infield single to lead the team to a 6-2 victory over the Cubs.

The Mets remain a game in front of Milwaukee in the NL wild-card standings, but cut their deficit in the NL East to 1 1/2 games of Philadelphia, which lost 3-2 to Atlanta.

“That’s one of the biggest wins of the season for us,” said Jose Reyes, who had a three-run triple for his 200th hit of the season that helped the Mets end a three-game skid reminiscent of last season’s epic collapse.

Milwaukee, which hasn’t been to the postseason since 1982 and came into September with a 5 1/2-game lead for the wild card, is desperately trying to avoid a second collapse after squandering a big lead last year.

“These last five games or so, we really need to win as many as possible, so for me to do that was pretty awesome,” said Fielder, who is hitting .412 with six homers and 17 RBIs during his 13-game hitting streak. “The better part about it was just seeing my teammates. That was pretty cool.”

In other NL games, it was: Los Angeles 10, San Diego 1; St. Louis 7, Arizona 4; Cincinnati 2, Houston 1; Washington 9, Florida 4; and Colorado 9, San Francisco 4.

Braves 3, Phillies 2

At Philadelphia, Casey Kotchman homered and Mike Hampton won for the first time in a month for Atlanta.

The Phillies twice had serious shots at big innings against the oft-injured Hampton (3-3). They left the bases loaded in the third and ran themselves out of a rally in the sixth, to lose for only the second time in 12 games.

Hampton allowed two runs in six innings to win for the first time since Aug. 16, against San Francisco. Kelly Johnson extended his career-best hitting streak to 21 games.

Mike Gonzalez worked the ninth for his 14th save.

Cole Hamels (14-10) committed a throwing error that led to an unearned run in the third.

Dodgers 10, Padres 1

At Los Angeles, Nomar Garciaparra and Blake DeWitt hit three-run homers and Los Angeles reduced its magic number for clinching the NL West to three.

Manny Ramirez added a two-run double, making him the second player in major league history to record at least 50 RBIs in each league during the same season.

The Dodgers’ victory, combined with Arizona’s 7-4 loss at St. Louis, drew them closer to their first division title since 2004 and first under new manager Joe Torre. They lead the Diamondbacks by three games with five to play.

The Dodgers sent 10 men to the plate during a six-run first against Wade LeBlanc (1-2), who was charged with seven runs and seven hits in 2 2-3 innings, as the Padres’ three-game winning streak ended.

Cardinals 7, Diamondbacks 4

At St. Louis, Kyle Lohse won his 15th game, and St. Louis clobbered Randy Johnson for the second time this month.

Ryan Ludwick hit a three-run homer in the first and Albert Pujols had two hits, two RBIs and reached 100 walks for the first time in his career for the Cardinals, who won for the third time in 13 games.

Reds 2, Astros 1

At Houston, Edinson Volquez pitched 7 1-3 strong innings and Cincinnati scored two unearned runs to push Houston to the brink of playoff elimination.

Volquez (17-6) won in his fifth attempt to get his 17th victory. He had three no-decisions and a loss since winning Aug. 29. He allowed one run, struck out nine and scattered six hits in the longest outing of his career.

Nationals 9, Marlins 4

At Washington, Florida’s playoff hopes officially ended at the hands of a team simply trying to avoid 100 losses.

Alberto Gonzalez went 4-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs, and Shairon Martis got his first major league win as Washington broke a five-game losing streak.

Washington’s loss tally remained at 98. The Nationals need to go 4-1 the rest of the way to avoid the franchise’s first 100-loss season since 1976.

Martis (1-3) went a career-high 5 1-3 innings, allowing five hits and three runs.

Scott Olsen (8-11) gave up Ryan Zimmerman’s two-run homer in the first.

Rockies 9, Giants 4

At San Francisco, Troy Tulowitzki had four hits and Seth Smith added three, including a home run, for Colorado, which won on the road for the first time in September, snapping a five-game road losing streak.

Tim Lincecum (17-5) struck out nine in 4 1-3 innings to set the San Francisco season record with 252. He allowed six runs and five hits with five walks.