ST. LOUIS (AP) There was no dispute the St. Louis Cardinals shouldn’t have won on Yadier Molina’s double.
But they did – because by the time Cincinnati figured out what happened, it was too late.
A game with playoff implications turned on a missed call Thursday night when Molina got credit for a winning double with two outs in the ninth inning to beat the Reds 4-3 in their Major League Baseball game.
The Cardinals are one game behind San Francisco for the second NL wild-card spot. Each team has three games left.
”I just kept my head down and kept running,” Molina said. ”I didn’t really hear or see anything.”
Matt Carpenter drew a one-out walk from Blake Wood (6-5). With two outs, Molina’s one-hop hit clearly bounced off a sign above the left-field wall and caromed back into play.
Carpenter kept running and scored from first. It should have been a ground-rule double, putting Carpenter on third. Instead, the Cardinals celebrated.
Reds manager Bryan Price ran after the umpires to argue. He said he was later told he had 10 seconds after Carpenter scored to appeal for a replay.
”It’s a terrible rule,” Price said. ”I mean that’s ridiculous.”
St. Louis’ South Korean reliever Seung Hwan Oh (6-3) wound up with the win, after blowing his third save in 21 tries this season, pitching one inning for two hits and two strike-outs.
In San Francisco, Johnny Cueto struck out 11 Colorado batters as the Giants set up a wild race to the finish for the NL wild-card spots with a 7-2 win.
With three games left, the Giants are one game behind the New York Mets and one game ahead of St. Louis.
San Francisco hosts the Dodgers beginning Friday, the Cardinals play Pittsburgh at home and the Mets close out the regular season in Philadelphia.
Cueto (18-5) overcame a shaky start in his first appearance since being sidelined more than a week with a groin strain.
In Toronto, Ubaldo Jimenez and two relievers combined on a three-hitter as Baltimore beat the Blue Jays 4-0, leaving the teams tied in the AL wild-card race.
Detroit is 1 1/2 games behind the Orioles and Blue Jays.
Jimenez (8-12) allowed one hit in 6 2/3 innings, improving to 3-1 with a 2.31 ERA in five September starts.
In Seattle, struggling Mike Zunino delivered the go-ahead home run in the seventh inning as Seattle stayed on the edge of the AL wild card chase by beating Oakland 3-2.
The Mariners are two games behind Baltimore and Toronto with three to play.
Zunino, hitting .139 over his last 25 games, opened the seventh with his 12th home run, sending a 2-2 pitch from Liam Hendriks (0-4) deep over the wall in left.
In Pittsburgh, the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh recorded a rare tied game when rain forced them to stop in the sixth inning when level 1-all.
The Cubs and Pirates aren’t scheduled to play again this season, and the game won’t be made up because it doesn’t affect postseason positioning. So instead of becoming a suspended game, it was declared a tie – the first since Houston and Cincinnati on June 30, 2005.
NL East champion Washington move closer to clinching home-field advantage in the Division Series with a 5-3 home win over Arizona. The Los Angeles Dodgers won 9-4 at San Diego and are two games behind Washington with three to play in that home field race.
In other games, the New York Yankees were officially eliminated from play-off contention despite finishing a three-game sweep of visiting Boston 5-1, Atlanta beat visiting Philadelphia 5-2, Minnesota won at Kansas City 7-6, and Tampa Bay won 5-3 at the Chicago White Sox.
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