Well, on a sweltering night, those three swatted for a combined homer, three doubles and a Carp single that tied the game at 3-3 — and would have been a double if Kolten Wong, back from a hamstring injury, wasn’t sent home to try to score (and was thrown out at the plate).

“Let’s don’t kid ourselves, we want to score,” said Cardinals manager Mike Shildt, whose team finished 23rd in the majors with a .415 slugging percentage. “We want some good at-bats. We can hang our hat on that and keep us in games, but we don’t feel obligated to being two-dimensional.

Every day, 365, Cardinals fans and media mention the playoffs in some capacity. Can the Cardinals make it? Why didn’t they make it? Will this or that help them get closer to the playoffs? Everything points to the playoffs. Thursday, for the first time since 2015, was the playoffs. It was a long journey, and the Cardinals arrived to the party like they knew they belonged there. Unafraid. Ready to pounce on pitching. They tallied 14 hits — remember the regular season, when there were games they were lucky to get like four or five? — and eight of those hits came in the eighth and ninth innings. High-leverage situations. Series in the balance. Those types of at-bats separate the studs from the duds. The Cards, as a team, are 1-for-1.