ATLANTA -- Talk about a wild card.

This one was just plain wild.

Chipper Jones played his final game. The Atlanta fans turned Turner Field into a trash heap after a disputed infield fly call. And the St. Louis Cardinals did what they always seem to do in October.

They celebrated another postseason triumph.

Matt Holliday homered and the Cardinals rallied from an early deficit, taking advantage of three Atlanta throwing errors -- the most crucial of them by the retiring Jones -- to beat the Braves 6-3 in a winner-take-all wild-card playoff Friday.

In the eighth inning, there was more crazy throwing, this time by an irate crowd that littered the field to protest an umpiring decision that went against the Braves. The Cardinals fled for cover, the Braves protested, and the game was halted for 19 minutes while workers cleared up all the beer cups, popcorn holders and other debris.

St. Louis manager Mike Matheny was asked if he'd ever seen anything like it.

"Not in the United States," he said.

Shortly after the game, Major League Baseball executive Joe Torre said the protest was denied, citing it was an umpire's judgment call on the play.

"I talked to Fredi (Gonzalez, Braves manager) after the game and it's unusual circumstances based on a one-game playoff, 24 hours and waiting for a written report, didn't make sense, spoke to them, asked them what they were basing their protest on and I ruled basically to disallow the protest based on the fact that it was an umpire's judgment call," Torre said.

"We made it clear to them that because of the situation with the one-game playoff, it makes no sense to wait the 24 hours."

Members of the Braves' grounds crew pick up bottles and cans thrown on the field by upset fans after a controversial infield fly call in the eighth inning went in favor of the Cardinals during the NL wild-card game Friday. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

St. Louis advanced to face Washington in the best-of-five division round, beginning Sunday at Busch Stadium.

The Braves are done for this season, recipients of another heartbreaking loss in the playoffs.

The 40-year-old Jones is all done, period. He managed an infield hit in his final at-bat but threw away a double-play ball in the fourth, which led to a three-run inning that wiped out Atlanta's early 2-0 lead behind Kris Medlen.

"Ultimately, I feel I'm the one to blame," Jones said. "That should have been a tailor-made double play."

But this one-and-done game will be remembered for the eighth inning, when a disputed call on a fly ball that dropped in short left field cost the Braves a chance at extending Jones' career.

The Braves thought they had the bases loaded with one out after the ball dropped between two fielders, who appeared to get mixed up over who had called for it. But left-field umpire Sam Holbrook, who has 11 1/2 years of major league service and previously had worked four playoff series, called Andrelton Simmons out under the infield fly rule -- even though the ball landed at least 50 feet beyond the dirt. When the sellout crowd of 52,631 realized what had happened, and a second out went up on the scoreboard, they littered the field with whatever they could get their hands on.

"It was scary at first," St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina said. "I've never seen that before."

Holbrook defended the call, even after he looked at the replay.

"Once that fielder established himself, he got ordinary effort," he said, referring to shortstop Pete Kozma calling for the ball, then veering away at the last moment as left fielder Holliday drifted in. "That's when the call was made."

Asked if he thought he made the proper ruling after seeing the replay, Holbrook replied, "Absolutely."