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(AP) -- The St. Louis Cardinals clinched baseball's final postseason berth Tuesday night when the Los Angeles Dodgers lost to San Francisco.
 
The defending World Series champions were beaten by Cincinnati 3-1 but wrapped up the second NL wild card hours later when the Giants won 4-3 at Dodger Stadium.

St. Louis will play at Atlanta on Friday in the new one-game playoff between wild-card teams.
 
The Dodgers' loss left them two games behind St. Louis with one game to go.

Mat Latos won his fourth straight decision to finish the regular season and Scott Rolen homered off Chris Carpenter, helping the Cincinnati Reds keep the St. Louis Cardinals' postseason plans on hold with a 3-1 victory Tuesday nigh

The 37-year-old Carpenter (0-2) has a wealth of big-game experience and went 4-0 in the postseason last fall for the World Series champions, memorably outdueling Philadelphia ace Roy Halladay in Game 5 of the NL division series.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated from playoff contention, their wild-card hopes dashed Tuesday night with a 4-3 loss to Barry Zito and the San Francisco Giants.
 
The defeat left the Dodgers two games behind St. Louis with only one game left in the regular season.

Los Angeles had won six in a row to stay in the race for the second NL wild-card spot, but Mark Ellis lined out to center field with a runner on second base to end it.
 
The defending World Series champion Cardinals will open the playoffs Friday at Atlanta in a one-game matchup.

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)