NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Henneman Stops Cubs, Keeps Astros Alive for Wild Card, 9-8

Recent failure fresh in his mind and a flutter of fear in his heart, Mike Henneman took the mound with a one-run lead and the Houston Astros’ season in his right hand.

One day after blowing a three-run lead in a crushing loss to the Chicago Cubs, Henneman got out of ninth-inning jam Saturday to seal the Astros’ 9-8 victory at Chicago and eliminate the Cubs from the NL wild-card race.

“You’re supposed to forget the past, but you know what happened yesterday and you don’t want it to happen again,” Henneman said. “There’s a little more pressure this time. We needed to have this one.”

John Cangelosi’s RBI single snapped a seventh-inning tie and Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Derrick May and Rick Wilkins homered for the Astros, who must beat Chicago in today’s regular-season finale and hope the Colorado Rockies lose to San Francisco. That would set up a one-game playoff for the wild-card spot.

Even had Chicago rallied for the third day in a row, the Cubs wouldn’t have qualified for the playoffs because of the Rockies’ 9-3 victory over the Giants.

“You look at the Colorado game on the scoreboard and you realize that no matter what we did, it didn’t look good,” Chicago’s Mark Grace said after the Cubs’ eight-game winning streak was snapped. “Hats off to Houston. They battled us for three of the most fun games I’ve ever played in. This one, even though we lost, was a lot of fun.

“When I got that hit in the ninth, I was thinking, ‘Here we go again, boys!’ But Sammy [Sosa] just missed, and Henneman started making some pitches.”

After Grace lined Henneman’s third pitch to center for a single, Sosa hit a liner that was caught in deep center field. Henneman then retired Luis Gonzalez on a weak grounder, with Grace advancing to second, before striking out Shawon Dunston on a nasty slider in the dirt.

“We’re relieved that we won,” said Houston Manager Terry Collins, who was ejected in the third inning for arguing with third base umpire Charlie Williams.

In other games, the Mets extended their winning streak to five by beating the Atlanta Braves, 8-4, at New York; Alan Benes picked up his first major league victory, striking out 10 as the Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-1, at St. Louis; the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Florida Marlins, 3-2, at Miami, to clinch a share of second place in the NL East, and the Montreal Expos defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 6-1, at Montreal.