Cardinals oust Braves, to face Nationals next

Reigning World Series champion St. Louis defeated Atlanta 6-3 in a Major League Baseball wild-card playoff game, advancing to a best-of-five playoff series against Washington. In a game halted when fans hurled trash onto the field to protest an umpire's call, Matt Holliday belted a solo home run to help power the Cardinals to victory in the first-ever playoff game between two non-division winners. Major League Baseball expanded the playoffs to five teams in each league this season. The Cardinals, who defeated Texas in last year's World Series, will play host to the Nationals in game one of their National League matchup on Sunday. It will be the first playoff game for a Washington baseball club since 1933. With the Cardinals leading by the final margin, Atlanta appeared to have loaded the bases with one out in the eighth inning when fielders botched a pop up fly ball by Andrelton Simmons and allowed it to drop without being caught. Even though the ball landed well into short left field, an umpire invoked the infield fly rule, which meant that Simmons was out even though the runners had advanced to second and third base. Fans began booing and hurled beer cans and other debris into the outfield in objection to the call, which drew an official protest of the game from the Braves during the 20-minute stoppage. When play resumed, Atlanta pinch-hitter Brian McCann walked to load the bases but Michael Bourn struck out to end the inning and leave St. Louis ahead by three runs. The Braves pushed the tying run to the plate again in the ninth inning but Dan Uggla grounded out to second base to end the game. David Ross smacked a two-run homer in the second inning to put the Braves ahead 2-0 but the Cardinals answered with three runs in the fourth, with Allen Craig hitting a run-scoring double, Yadier Moline following with a run-scoring ground out and David Freese sending in Craig from third base on a sacrifice fly. Holliday's homer in the sixth padded the Cardinals' lead and St. Louis added two more runs in the seventh, one on a Matt Carpenter single and the other on a fielding error by Simmons. The Braves answered in the seventh on a run-scoring ground out by Bourn and then put two runners on base in the eighth, setting up the controversial call and game-halting uproar by spectators.