Their luck isn't entirely good though. Second baseman KoltenWong left the game early with a right elbow contusion after he was hit on a wayward pickoff throw. And Jose Martinez was a scratch from the starting lineup with right hip tightness, though he did appear as a pinch hitter.
When the Cardinals fired Mike Matheny, they were four games out of the last wild-card spot and had three teams between them and Atlanta. The Cardinals were six games in back of Milwaukee, which had the first wild-card spot on that day. The Cardinals climbed over San Francisco, Colorado, Los Angeles and now Milwaukee.