MILWAUKEE - In an unprecedented move, the Milwaukee Brewers fired manager Ned Yost on Monday, hoping to pull out of another late-season slump that has jeopardized the team's chance of making the playoffs for the first time since 1982.

Third-base coach Dale Sveum will take over as interim manager for the remainder of the season. The Brewers have lost seven of eight and fallen into a tie with Philadelphia for the NL wild-card lead.

It marked the first time in major league history - except the strike-split 1981 season - that a manager was fired in August or later with his team in playoff position, the Elias Sports Bureau said.

At 83-67, the Brewers have just 12 games to rebound.

Milwaukee came into this month with a 5.5-game lead in the wild card, but since has lost 11 of 14 - including a four-game sweep completed by the Phillies over the weekend.

“(Yost) didn't have all the answers for what is going on the last two weeks and I'm not sure I have all the answers,” general manager Doug Melvin said during a news conference at a hotel in Chicago. “I'm not sure this is the right one, either.”

Melvin met with principal owner principal owner Mark Attanasio, Monday morning and the decision to fire Yost was made. Melvin acknowledged it was an unpredecented move but one that “shows we're serious about winning.”

“We just felt a managerial change at least gives us a chance to see if we can turn it around,” he added.

The Brewers were idle Monday, and was scheduled to begin a three-game series with the Central-leading Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Tuesday.

Yost did not immediately return a message left on his cell phone by The Associated Press.

Members of NL Central rivals Chicago and Houston, who played another neutral-site game in Milwaukee on Monday after Hurricane Ike made it too difficult to play their scheduled series in Houston over the weekend, expressed surprise at the move.

“That was a shocker,” Astros owner Drayton McLane said. “Has a team ever done that at this point of the season this close to the playoffs?”

During the rejiggered 1981 season, the Montreal Expos fired future Hall of Fame manager Dick Williams in early September. The Expos went 16-11 under Jim Fanning to win the second-half title and make the playoffs.

In 1983, Philadelphia fired Pat Corrales in early July when it was in first place with a 43-42 record. Under Paul Owens, the Phillies reached the World Series.