Sweet home, Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE - The place was the same. Just the opponent was different.

Just as he did back on Sept. 15 against the Astros at Miller Park, Ted Lilly took a no-hitter into the seventh inning Saturday against this ballpark's rightful tenants, the Milwaukee Brewers.

Lilly didn't get the no-hitter, but he got his 17th victory of the season, and a makeshift Cubs lineup knocked off the Brewers 7-3, sending the National League's wild-card race down to the final Sunday - and maybe longer.

The Phillies won Saturday to clinch the NL East, but with the Mets winning in New York, both the Mets and the Brewers have 89-72 records. The Cubs will send rookie Angel Guzman to the mound today against Brewers ace CC Sabathia.

Lilly was happy to play a part in tightening the race.

"We want to win," he said. "We knew that. Heading into the playoffs, we need to be aggressive. We need to play hard and have that kind of mentality and aggressiveness."

The Cubs jumped on Brewers starter Ben Sheets, who lasted only 2 innings in his first start since coming out early against the Cubs on Sept. 17 with forearm tightness. Daryle Ward, a last-minute starter in left field, hit a 2-run homer in the first.

"They approached me during batting practice," said Ward, who subbed for Jim Edmonds. "They asked, me, 'Do you want to play?' Yeah. I'm not going to say no. That's good. It was nice to get in there. It was last minute, but it worked."

Mike Fontenot made it 4-0 in the third with a 2-run single, and Lilly kept cruising. He didn't give up a hit until Ryan Braun lined a sharp single to left leading off the seventh. By that time, Reed Johnson had replaced Ward. Johnson slipped, but Braun's ball probably was hit too hard to be caught.

After Prince Fielder's high flyball somehow dropped in front of Felix Pie in center for a hit, Lilly was done. Just as Ryan Dempster did Friday, Lilly threw 80 pitches, and he insisted going deeper with a no-hitter wouldn't have been a priority.

"I don't think so," he said. "I don't think there's any need to do that. Obviously, it would have been fun to try and take that a little bit deeper and make it a little more interesting."

Lilly will be the Game 4 starter in the National League division series, despite his 17 wins tying Dempster for the team lead. He said where he pitches doesn't matter, and he gave credit to his offense for the support this year.

"It's a special honor to be tabbed the Game 1 starter," said Lilly, who finishes with a 4.09 ERA. "We'd all like that, and I think we know that Ryan's earned that.

"But after that, you get that first game out of the way and the playoffs start rolling, you don't know what's going to happen from then. Rich Harden could start the first game of the next series, or Z (Carlos Zambrano) could, or I could.

"I've had opportunities to win a lot of games with this lineup. - I've been able to take advantage of a really good club."