Burke entered the game in the 10th inning as a pinch-runner. He came up with one out in the 18th against rookie Joey Devine, and launched a drive over the left-field wall.

Burke was mobbed his teammates at the plate after only the sixth series-ending home run in history, and the first since Aaron Boone sent the Yankees over Boston in the 11th inning of Game 7 in the 2003 ALCS.

Batting just before Burke, Clemens took a mighty swing and missed against Devine before striking out. Clemens has never hit a home run in the majors.

Clemens first entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the 15th, and had a sacrifice bunt after a leadoff walk by Biggio. But after another walk, Morgan Ensberg grounded into an inning-ending double play.

“It was kind of a microcosm of our season,” Burke said. “Started out slow, finished strong.”

The Astros started off 15-30 before rallying to claim the wild-card spot, though they finished 11 games behind St. Louis in the NL Central.

About three hours before the game finally ended, Ausmus hit his unlikely homer off Kyle Farnsworth. In the eighth, Farnsworth — the latest in a long line of Atlanta relievers to fail in the postseason — gave up the grand slam to Berkman after replacing Tim Hudson.

Ausmus, with just three homers in 134 regular-season games, hit a ball that ricocheted off a column in left-center field — just above the yellow line signifying a home run. Had it hit about a foot more to the left, the ball would have still been in play and Ausmus held to a double.

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The Astros thought they had another homer to win it in the 10th, but Luke Scott’s drive down the left-field line curled just left of the pole. The crowd was already in a frenzy before realizing the ball had been called foul — TV replays confirmed that it was. Scott grounded out on the next pitch.

Atlanta led 6-1 when Hudson, the Game 1 loser pitching on three days’ rest, allowed the first two hitters to reach in the eighth and was pulled. Biggio reached on a fielder’s choice grounder and Scott walked before Berkman’s grand slam, an opposite-field shot into the seats in left.

Farnsworth managed to preserve the lead then, getting Ensberg on a called third strike before Mike Lamb’s flyball that right fielder Jeff Francoeur caught on the warning track. He didn’t have the same success against No. 8 hitter Ausmus an inning later.

LaRoche hit a grand slam in the third off Astros starter Brandon Backe, who loaded the bases after walking two batters and hitting another. Andruw Jones added a sacrifice fly to put the Braves up 5-0 in the fifth.

Brian McCann, the rookie catcher whose three-run homer off Clemens was the big blow in Game 2, put the Braves up 6-1 when he led off the eighth with a homer. McCann grounded out leading off the 17th in a rematch against the future Hall of Famer.

Notes: There were 553 total pitches. Clemens threw the last 44 of Houston’s 299 pitches. ... Nicole Oswalt, the wife of Astros pitcher and Game 3 winner Roy Oswalt, sang the national anthem before Sunday’s game and “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch.

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