ST. LOUIS _ That champagne party for the Chicago Cubs will be postponed for at least another night. The Cardinals kept their flickering wild-card hopes alive and prevented the Cubs from clinching the National League Central Division title on Busch Stadium soil Tuesday by hanging on for an 8-7 victory over the Cubs, whose magic number remained at one for nailing down their second straight division crown.
The Cardinals' magic number for elimination from the wild-card race shrank to three as Colorado won but the club did ensure itself of a sixth consecutive winning season under manager Mike Matheny and a 10th consecutive winning season overall.
The Cardinals are 82-75 with five games left, including two more with the Cubs here before Milwaukee, still one game ahead of the Cardinals in the wild-card chase, comes in for the weekend.
Matt Carpenter, Tommy Pham, Jedd Gyorko and Randal Grichuk, all of whom have 20-plus homers this season, each connected Tuesday for the Cardinals, who withstood a 41/3-inning spotty start by Carlos Martinez and a four-run Cubs rally in the eighth. Pham had to leave the game in the eighth with a left side contusion suffered when he was nailed with a pitch in the sixth inning, inducing him to glare at Cubs right-hander Felix Pena.
Juan Nicasio recorded a four-out save, his third preservation in three opportunities for the Cardinals. He fanned three hitters in the ninth, working around two walks.
Former Cardinal Jason Heyward drilled the first pitch he saw from Cardinals reliever John Brebbia for a three-run homer in the eighth inning that vaulted the Cubs back into the game. Then Ben Zobrist homered off Brebbia and the Cubs trailed only 8-7.
