The St. Louis Cardinals dropped three of four this weekend in Washington, failing to take advantage of the struggles their nearest competitors had over the weekend. Cincinnati is not one of their nearest competitors. The good news is that the Cardinals are still holding on to the second and final National League Wild Card Spot. The bad news is that the wild card is now likely the only way the Cardinals will be able to defend their title.

The Reds have all but locked up the National League Central with a 9.5 game lead and just 27 games to play. St. Louis trails Atlanta by three games for the first wild card spot, but St. Louis is in the second wild card spot by a half game over the Dodgers. Los Angeles has played one more game than St. Louis so far.

The Pirates are also right there for the wild card, sitting 1.5 games behind St. Louis and a game behind Los Angeles. Arizona has fallen off the pace after losing eight of its past ten games. The Diamondbacks and Brewers are now 6.5 games behind St. Louis with Milwaukee having won eight of ten.

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