MILWAUKEE ¨C An otherwise grand night for the Brewers was tarnished by a tinge of concern for one of their starting outfielders ¨C exactly the sort of thing they wanted to avoid with their postseason position set and Game 1 days away.

Sal Frelick, who grew up playing hockey in Boston and brings that all-out mentality to the baseball field, collided with the wall down the right-field line while chasing a foul ball at American Family Field in the third inning on Friday and had to leave Milwaukee¡¯s 8-4 win over the Mets.

Frelick underwent X-rays of his left hip but they were inconclusive, manager Pat Murphy said, so he was scheduled for an MRI scan on Saturday at 10 a.m. CT.

¡°I feel horrible for the young man, first and foremost, and it hurts our team because he's a Gold Glove outfielder and he's just a winning player,¡± Murphy said. ¡°He's a huge part of this thing, and that'll be a big blow if he can't play, which, you have to lean towards that right now.¡±

That unknown pales in comparison to the chaos that is the NL Wild Card race, where the D-backs, Braves and Mets are all in a virtual tie in the chase for two remaining NL Wild Card berths. One of those teams will match up against Milwaukee in a best-of-three NL Wild Card Series beginning Tuesday.

It was longtime Mets nemesis Rhys Hoskins who got the Brewers going when he smashed a grand slam in the first inning, tying Milwaukee¡¯s franchise record for individual slams in a season (three) and matching the team record (10) at the same time. The Brewers also got three hits, three runs scored and three stolen bases from Brice Turang, making him the fifth player in franchise history with 50-plus steals in a season.

"We know what's at stake this weekend for those guys [the Mets],¡± Hoskins said. ¡°Obviously, we're doing what we can to be as prepared as we can for Tuesday by playing good baseball, so just to get off on the right foot in the first game of the series was huge for us.¡±

The Brewers brought in Hoskins for his pop and he¡¯s been delivering of late, hitting .316/.422/.632 with six extra-base hits over his last 13 games and 38 at-bats.

¡°He's been getting on it, man,¡± Murphy said. ¡°You just watch him towards the end here. He's so motivated. He's such a leader, and a young man that just, he's done it before, so he wants to be in those situations.¡±

But it all happened amid worry for Frelick, the former first-round Draft pick whose value to the Brewers goes well beyond his .655 OPS. He is one of the Brewers¡¯ best outfield defenders, and plays every day in part because he has relatively even splits against right-handed and left-handed pitching. Murphy batted Turang and Frelick in the 1-2 spots in the order because he wanted to get them as many at-bats as possible against Mets lefty starter Sean Manaea, expecting Turang and Frelick to get at-bats against southpaws in the postseason.

Running at full speed, Frelick leaped for the baseball and happened to find a spot where the padded wall has a cutout, appearing to smash his left hip into a chain link fence. He stayed on the ground for several minutes while medical staff attended to him.

After walking from the right-field corner to the dugout under his own power, Frelick put an arm around head athletic trainer Scott Barringer to get down the dugout steps, then put the other arm around strength coach Jason Meredith to make it the rest of the way into the clubhouse, where the team has medical facilities.

¡°That stinks, just straight up,¡± Hoskins said. ¡°We have these couple days to use for whatever you need to use it for, so for him, it'll be rest. I think everybody's hopeful that he wakes up better tomorrow than he feels tonight.¡±

The Brewers have three other regular outfielders who are plus defenders in Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell and Blake Perkins. If Frelick is down, they have Isaac Collins on the active roster and he can play all over the infield and outfield. The others with outfield experience on the 40-man roster are Brewer Hicklen and Tyler Black.

¡°[Frelick] is one of those guys who will hurt himself to get you an out,¡± Brewers starter Frankie Montas said. ¡°That was the first thing when I came inside, I asked him, ¡®Hey, are you OK?¡¯ He said, ¡®Yeah, I¡¯ll be fine.¡¯ I was like, ¡®Man, you¡¯re a tough dude.¡¯¡±