ST. LOUIS -- Nolan Arenado, Jose Rondon and Dylan Carlson homered and the St. Louis Cardinals won their 17th consecutive game, a 6-2 decision over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday, clinching the National League's second wild-card berth.
The streak is the longest in franchise history and allowed St. Louis fans to start making postseason plans for weeks. Though the Cardinals didn't clinch till the last week of the season, they've been comfortably ahead of the field and have long seemed destined for a wild-card matchup against either the Los Angeles Dodgers or San Francisco Giants, while the Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres faded.