MILWAUKEE (AP) — It’s going down to the last day of the regular season to decide the NL Central.The Milwaukee Brewers moved into a tie for first place with the Chicago Cubs with one game remaining http://www.raysfanproshop.com/authentic-nathan-eovaldi-jersey , getting two homers from Triple Crown candidate Christian Yelich to beat the Detroit Tigers 6-5 on Saturday night.Yelich turned on an 0-1 pitch from left-hander Daniel Stumpf (1-5) and lined it into the second deck in right to break a 5-all tie in the seventh inning. The left-handed slugger also hit a two-run homer in the third inning of the Brewers’ sixth straight win.Seemed like a good time for the typically even-keeled Yelich to show some emotion in a curtain call.“First one ever, so. I don’t really know what to do,” Yelich said.The raucous fans at Miller Park chanted “MVP! MVP!” after Yelich’s go-ahead shot in the seventh. He obliged with a brief appearance, lifting his helmet in the air about halfway up the dugout steps.“Everyone was yelling at me to get up there, so I went up there really quick and went right back down,” he said.The Brewers (94-67) were already assured of making their first playoff appearance since 2011, the last time they won the NL Central. They sure would like to get into the postseason again as a division winner, and Chicago opened the door by losing 2-1 to St. Louis earlier Saturday.“Yeah I’m sure it will be pretty crazy,” Yeich said about what to expect on Sunday at Miller Park. “You play all those games and it still comes down to 162.”If the Brewers and Cubs are still tied after Sunday, the teams will face each other on Monday in Chicago for the title.The NL MVP race, on the other hand, may be over after Yelich’s September to remember.He extended his hitting streak to 10 games, going 2 for 3 and driving in three.The NL batting leader is also challenging for a Triple Crown , tied with St. Louis’ Matt Carpenter for the home run lead at 36. With 109 RBIs, Yelich is two behind the Cubs’ Javier Baez.“We’re sitting here every night and I say it’s reached a new level and then it reaches a new level. It’s just special, man http://www.raysfanproshop.com/authentic-daniel-robertson-jersey ,” manager Craig Counsell said.Joakim Soria (3-1) got the win with a scoreless seventh. Jeremy Jeffress picked up his 15th save, striking out the side in the ninth.The bullpen held the Tigers scoreless over the final three innings after a few shaky moments in the middle of the game.Seventh-place hitter Dawel Lugo lined a triple into the right-field corner to lead off the sixth. Pete Kozma, a .209 hitter, then drove in Lugo with a sacrifice fly to left to tie the game at 5.But the Brewers bounced back behind Yelich again.“I just went with what was feeling good tonight and I got ahead and I ended up spinning one up there. That one didn’t go in my favor,” Stumpf said.CALL IT A COMEBACKYelich also helped spark a comeback from a 3-0 hole in the third. He homered into the Brewers’ bullpen in left after leadoff hitter Lorenzo Cain hit an infield single to draw within 3-2. The Brewers strung together four straight hits in a three-run fourth, capped by Kratz’s two-run single.Niko Goodrum had an RBI single in the first and a two-run triple down the right-field line in third to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.Starter Daniel Norris retired eight of the first nine batters before running into trouble after giving up Cain’s infield single with two outs in the third.Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said the close games in an electric atmosphere will help his young team in the future.“You need to see what it’s like. It makes you hungry to get back,” he said.TRAINER’S ROOMTigers: After sitting out Friday, OF Christin Stewart was shut down for the final two games of the weekend with an abdominal strain.UP NEXTTigers: Rookie Spencer Turnbull (0-1) takes the mound for the season finale. The right-hander recorded his first quality start in the majors on Tuesday, allowing one run on six hits in six innings against Minnesota.Brewers: Counsell named LHP Gio Gonzalez (9-11) the starter for the finale. Gonzalez is 2-0 with a 2.66 ERA in four starts since being acquired in a trade with the Washington Nationals.“For me, I try to take it as just another day, give them whatever they need,” Gonzalez said, “and after that, rely on the team.” When Major League Baseball broke for the All-Star Game about a month ago, it seemed safe to take some things for granted about the National League.For one, the NL Central race was strictly between the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers. For another Matt Andriese Jersey , the NL MVP race was mainly between Nolan Arenado, Freddie Freeman and Javier Baez.Then Matt Carpenter happened.Thanks to a wayward fastball that struck his right hand on August 15, the St. Louis Cardinals' 32-year-old infielder has been quiet of late. Yet his numbers since the All-Star break still boggle the mind. In 31 games, Carpenter has put up a 1.106 OPS and slammed an NL-high 14 home runs.Couple this with the strong work that Carpenter was doing prior to the break, and he now boasts a .957 OPS and 33 homers. The latter is already a career high, as well as the most in the NL this year. The former translates to a 159 OPS+ that also leads the Senior Circuit.Meanwhile, the temperature of the Cardinals has mirrored that of Carpenter's bat.Their 20-11 record since the break is the best of any National League team, and it's done wonders for their standing in the NL playoff chase. At the break, the Cardinals were 7.5 games out of first in the NL Central and four games outside the second wild-card spot. Now, they're four games out in the division and a half-game out in the wild card.This isn't all Carpenter's doing. In retrospect, the firing of manager Mike Matheny looks like the removal of a weight off the team's back. Also, St. Louis' bullpen has shaped up with an MLB-low2.07 ERA in August.It's nonetheless fair to surmise that the Cardinals wouldn't be doing this without Carpenter. And while this isn't an altogether unfamiliar position for the three-time All-Star, it's to his credit that the driver's seat is now all his.Carpenter emerged as one of the NL's better hitters between 2012 and 2016, racking up a 130 OPS+. But he sunk to a 120 OPS+, and he began 2018 on track to decline even further. He had a .579 OPS at the end of April, and it was as low as .739 as late as June 7.But in 64 games since then? Try a staggering .306/.431/.711 slash line with 26 homers.The popular explanation for Carpenter's ongoing surge has something to do with homemade salsa鈥攚hich http://www.raysfanproshop.com/authentic-c.-j.-cron-jersey , to be fair, does look mighty tasty. Otherwise, the man himself can't really articulate how he's suddenly turned into a master slugger."It's not the hitter I was. It's not the hitter I've ever been. I'm just developing into somebody I've never tried to be. I don't really have an explanation for that," he said, according to Rick Hummel of theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch.From the outside looking in, however, the sluggerification of Matt Carpenter appears to be a case of a really good hitter deciding to assert himself.Salsa notwithstanding, Carpenter is probably best known for his fondness for efficiency. To wit, his 36.7 swing percentage since 2012 is the lowest of any hitter with at least 3,000 plate appearances. He also doesn't like wasting batted balls, preferring well-hit balls in the air.There's a fine line between patience and passivity, however, and Carpenter was on the wrong side of it earlier in 2018. His Swing% was down to 35.4, and that covered just a 54.7 Swing% against pitches in the strike zone.Carpenter hasn't exactly turned into Vladimir Guerrero since then, but those numbers are up to 38.9 and 60.2, respectively. His batted ball profile has also changed in ways that are conducive to maximum power:Carpenter has been better about getting the ball off the ground and hitting it hard. He's also been making more frequent use of his pull side Jesus Sucre Jersey , which is the best avenue for slugging.This isn't happening because he's been getting a curiously consistent diet of hanging breaking balls to feast on. Rather, it's happening because he's made mincemeat salsa of fastballs.Through June 7, Carpenter was swinging at just 31.9 percent of fastballs and hitting them at a 20.4-degree launch angle. Since June 8, he's up to a 39.2 swing percentage and a 21.7-degree launch angle against them.He's also gone from inside-outing fastballs to left-center field:Image courtesy of BaseballSavant.MLB.comTo driving them to right field:Image courtesy of BaseballSavant.MLB.comLo and behold, Carpenter has gone from slugging .435 against fastballs to slugging .772 against them. The latter is tops among all hitters since June 8.This doesn't mean Carpenter can't be stopped. Indeed, he's in the process of being stopped. He had been riding a five-game hitless streak before a 1-for-4 showing Sunday against the Brewers. The longer this slump continues, the more vulnerable the Cardinals' postseason odds and Carpenter's own MVP chances will become.But for now, both look pretty good.According to FanGraphs, St. Louis' postseason odds hit a nadir at seven percent on July 31. They've since shot up to 47.5 percent.For his part, Carpenter is front and center in the National League MVP race. He's been the NL's best hitter overall, as well as one of the hottest of the second half. As a bonus, eight of his 14 second-half homers have been either tying or go-ahead shots.If the next month-and-a-half is anything like the last month for Carpenter and the Cardinals, they're going to return to the postseason and he's going to have both numbers and a narrative going for him in the NL MVP race.Not bad for a player and a team that seemed dead and buried not too long ago. Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.