At 6-3, the Phillies defeated the Cardinals in the MLB playoffs. Watch now

USA news today live: The cardinals are stunned by a thrilling 9th-inning rally by the Phillies to open the wild card. The longest current string in the big leagues was achieved by Jean Segura, whose career lasted 11 seasons and 1,328 games before he, at last, made it to the postseason.

The second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies hardly just slept the night before his first playoff game.

At 7 a.m., he “woke up with adrenaline in my body.”

As Friday wore on, that edge persisted.

Segura claimed, “I was mentally focused on each and every play and every pitch.

“I simply thank God that everything was on my side. I came prepared to play a game today, and to be able to be here.”

With one on and one out in the eighth, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol turned to Helsley and watched as he dispatched Marsh and Schwarber with ease.
But Marmol noted that Helsley “started to lose a little bit of feel for his deliveries” shortly after the ninth inning started.

Helsley, who has become one of the most powerful closers in the game this season, started to miss deep beyond the strike zone and ultimately only threw nine of his 23 pitches for strikes in the ninth inning.
After J.T. Realmuto singled with one out, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos both got walks, the latter on pitches that were extremely high and inside or extremely low as well as outside.
Pallante and Jack Flaherty were already warming up for the Cardinals by that point.