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What You Missed Last Night: Wacky NL wild-card race, ex-Chief on the move, Kiss tribute

The National League Wild Card Game could be the most lopsided matchup in history.

The Los Angeles Dodgers clinched a playoff berth on Tuesday night with an 8-4 win over the Diamondbacks. This is the ninth straight year the Dodgers will be in the postseason. With a 93-53 record they are on pace to win 103 games.

Either the Dodgers or Giants will be the host of the Wild Card Game.

There is a five-team race to be the second wild card, and on Tuesday the St. Louis Cardinals moved into that lead with a 7-6 win over the Mets in 11 innings in New York.

The Cardinals, 75-69, have a half-game lead over the Reds and are one game ahead of the Padres. The Phillies (3 games back) and Mets (4 games behind).

St. Louis has moved ahead of the other contenders not with a hot streak but with a slow and steady pace, not unlike Cecile The Turtle, who raced Bugs Bunny. St. Louis is on pace to win 84 games.

Mark Simon of Sports Info Solutions notes the Cardinals were 6 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot on July 31. They are 23-17 since and have an 8-6 record in September. Not exactly sizzling.

But these are the September records of the other NL contenders:

Mets 7-7

Reds 4-8

Phillies 4-8

Padres 3-8

“We are looking at the windshield, not the rearview mirror,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt told MLB.com. “We look at what’s ahead. We’ve been doing that anyway, quite honestly. We just play our game. We go out and take care of business every night.”

The AL race

Only two teams will meet in the Wild Card Game, of course. But the AL standings show three teams are tied the Wild Card standings: They are all from the East division: Yankees and Blue Jays both have an 81-64 record, while the Red Sox are 82-65.

On Tuesday night, the Yankees downed the Orioles 7-2, the Red Sox topped the Mariners 8-4 and the Blue Jays lost 2-0 to the Rays. That was Tampa Bay’s 90th win of the season and they lead the AL East.

“Every day is going to be a grind. We’re used to that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters. “Every day’s going to be a fight.”

Unusual Kiss tribute

The Tigers got a 1-0 walk-off win over the Brewers in 11 innings on Tuesday night. Five Detroit pitchers combined to allow just four hits.

While relief pitcher Derek Holland wasn’t the winning pitcher, he won over fans of the band, Kiss. Check out these spikes:

Unusual pitch

You won’t see this in the highlight reel of the Royals’ 10-7 comeback win over the A’s, but this is also not a pitch you’ll often see ever.

The landing foot of Royals reliever Jake Brentz appeared to catch the mound or perhaps he held the ball too long. Whatever the case, he delivered perhaps the weirdest pitch of the season:

Saints to sign Reiter

Tom Pelissero of NFL.com reported the New Orleans Saints brought in former Chiefs offensive lineman Austin Reiter for a workout on Tuesday.

The Saints must have liked what they saw from Reiter, because New Orleans will sign him to the practice squad and plan to add him to the active roster on game day, Pelissero reported.