The Cardinals lost the Dodgers 3-1 with a walk-off two run homers from Chris Taylor off of Alex Reyes. The Cardinals started off strong by scoring on a wild pitch in the first inning off of Dodger starting pitcher Max Scherzer. Max Scherzer, who was coming off of two rough outings to close the year; continue to struggle as he had multiple 3-2 count and hit Harrison Bader in the fourth inning. The Cardinals starting pitcher, Adam Wainwright started the night strong with help some help from Tommy Edman who made a sliding stop to his right and throw out Will Smith. He also caught a comebacker from Justin Turner to end the first. However, in the third, the Dodgers load the bases with a Bellinger walk, Betts "single" and a Seager walk. Scoring Betts hit as a single was generous as the ball hit the bottom of Sosa glove and Sosa look overwhelm in the field the whole night. With a 3-2 to Trea Turner, Wainwright threw an outside curveball and Turner swung; shattering his bat and more crucially ground into a double ball in end the inning. In the fourth, Justin Turner would not get fool by a Wainwright's curveball and crush it into the Dodger bullpen the tie it at 1-1.
In the fifth inning with two runners on and one out, Manager Dave Roberts pull Max Scherzer for Joe Kelly. After a groundout, and wild pitch to put runner on first and third; Kelly would strike out Carlson to end the inning. In the sixth with Trea Turner on first and Justin Turner coming up to bat; Cardinal Manager Mike Shildt pull Wainwright for Luis Garcia. After a lineout and a walk, A.J. Pollock hit a weak ground out in front of the pitcher mound and dangerously call off Molina and a bad ball to first base which was save by Paul Goldschmidt for the third out.
In the eighth inning, Sosa hit a line drive which was caught by a sprawling Chris Taylor who replace Pollock in the seventh. In the bottom of the inning with Trea Turner on first; hit a line drive which was snagged by a jumping Paul De Jong who replace Sosa that inning. With Turner speed, he would probably on that hit. In the ninth, Edman collected his third hit and his second stolen base of the game. Jansen would buckle down and strike out O'Neill. In the bottom of the inning, the Cards bought in T.J. McFarland who got two-line drive outs to Bader in Center, and crucially walk Bellinger in a lefties v lefties matchup. Then Shildt made a faithful decision to pull McFarland for Reyes. Reyes had been the Cardinals closer was an All-Star but had struggle the second half of the year. On the fourth pitch to Chris Taylor, he hung has slider and Taylor who had been (8-72) hit a two-run walk off homerun.
In the Dodger will head on to face the Giants in the NLDS while the Cardinal head home after 17 game winning streak in September. The issue with the Cardinal was their ability to hit with runners in scoring position. They were 0-11 with Runner in scoring position (RISP).
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