With two on and two outs in the eighth inning, Carpenter stood at the plate as the go-ahead run in a game in which Buehler never loosed his grip. On a 2-2 pitch, Buehler spiked a knuckle curve ahead of home plate and Carpenter, frozen in two previous at-bats, went swinging after it for the strikeout that ended Buehler’s eighth shutout inning and helped dropped the Cardinals into a tie for the National League’s final wild- card playoff slot.
He took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before Paul DeJong laced a single to left-center field. Harrison Bader legged out an infield single for the Cardinals’ second hit of the game, and the inning came undone with a groundout from Yadier Molina.