MLB: Cards fall back in wild card

Adam Duvall’s two-run single was all the Reds needed to beat the Cardinals 2-1 in St. Louis on Wednesday night. With the loss, the Cardinals lost ground in the race for the two NL wild cards, falling 2 ¹/2 games behind the Mets and remaining a game behind the Giants.

In San Francisco, Jeff Samardzija gave San Francisco a chance to grab momentum after a big offensive outburst a night earlier, but the playoff-hopeful Giants wasted it with a costly dud in a 2-0 loss to the Rockies. The Giants are 1¹/2 games behind the Mets in the battle for the first NL wild-card spot.

In Toronto, Hyun Soo Kim hit a pinchhit, two-run homer in the ninth inning off Ro

berto Osuna, and the Orioles won 3-2 to move within one game of the AL wild card-leading Blue Jays. The win allowed the Red Sox to clinch the AL East and eliminated the Royals.

In Detroit, Miguel Cabrera hit a tiebreaking three-run homer in the fifth inning, moments before the game was halted for good by rain, and the Tigers came away with a rain-shortened 6-3 victory over the Indians, staying a game behind the Orioles for the second AL wild card.

In Houston, Robinson Cano hit a three-run homer in the first inning, and the Mariners beat the Astros 12-4 to keep pressure on the other AL wild-card contenders.

Pete Rose is appealing directly to baseball’s Hall of Fame to restore his eligibility, arguing the lifetime ban from baseball he agreed to in 1989 never was intended to keep him out of Cooperstown. The Hall of Fame changed its bylaws two years after Rose’s banishment to make permanently banned players ineligible for the Hall.

The Cubs announced a five-year contract extension with president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, rewarding him for an overhaul that has the long-suffering franchise eyeing its first championship since 1908.