MLB Selecciones
PIT

4

78-83
Final
STL

10

86-76
CronicaNumeritos
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
PIT 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 4 9 2
STL 0 0 1 0 0 3 6 0 - 10 13 0

W: Broxton (4-2)

L: Nicasio (10-7)

Busch Stadium, St. Louis
Associated Press 7y

Cardinals pop Pirates but miss playoffs for 1st time since 2010

ST. LOUIS -- All season long, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny set 10 games over .500 as a target for his team.

St. Louis, on its 10th try, finally reached that mark with a 10-4 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday, but the Cardinals still missed the playoffs for the first time since 2010.

Matt Carpenter homered, and Randal Grichuk keyed a six-run seventh-inning with a two-run double to lead St. Louis to its fourth win in a row. But the Cardinals (86-76) were eliminated while still on the field when San Francisco (87-75) beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-1 and earned the second NL wild card.

"That's the danger when it's not in your hands anymore," Matheny said. "Our focus was to take care of our own business, and we did that."

St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright allowed two runs and six hits in six innings. He did not get a decision.

"To miss the playoffs by one game, that's tough to swallow," Wainwright said. "You think about how many times you could've won games or just one or two games, and you didn't. It gets you to thinking back a little bit."

St. Louis outfielder Matt Holliday was briefly brought into the game to play left field in the ninth inning. He was given a standing ovation and taken out before the first pitch. The Cardinals announced Friday that they plan to decline his 2017 option and allow him to become a free agent.

"How special was that?" Matheny said. "What instigated it was the response of the fans, so badly they wanted to see him one more time."

St. Louis was a big league-best 100-62 last year but lost to the Chicago Cubs in the division series. The Cardinals never led the NL Central at any point this season and finished with a losing record at home (38-43) for the first time since 1999.

"Anytime you don't win the World Series, it's disappointing," infielder Aledmys Diaz said. "But we kept coming and never let down."

"To get close, it definitely makes it a little more disappointing," Carpenter said. "But that's the nature of the business. There's only [one] team that doesn't have this day."

After making the playoffs in three straight seasons, Pittsburgh dropped from 98-64 to 78-83.

Yadier Molina had three hits for the Cardinals. Stephen Piscotty singled in Molina to break a 4-4 tie in the seventh. Carpenter hit his 21st homer of the season off Antonio Bastardo for a 4-2 lead. Jonathan Broxton (4-2) won despite allowing two runs in one inning of relief.

Juan Nicasio (10-7) gave up three runs without recording an out in the seventh. Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run single in the fifth to give his team a 2-1 lead.

Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle is ready to move on from the disappointing campaign.

"Forty-one years in the game, and I honor the game, I respect the game," Hurdle said. "And I've also gotten very good on closing the book when it's time to close the book."

Pittsburgh catcher Eric Fryer had two hits in a losing cause.

"I think down the stretch, we definitely competed," Fryer said. "There's a lot of optimism here with a lot of young arms."

PACK THE PLACE

A crowd of 44,615, the 19th sellout of the season, watched the final game.

St. Louis drew 3,444,490, second to the Los Angeles Dodgers in major league home attendance. It was the fifth-highest attendance total in franchise history and the 13th successive year that the team has drawn at least three million.

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