What often seemed impossible has become reality.

The St. Louis Cardinals have been booted — no, blasted —from the postseason by the Chicago Cubs.

After setting a major league record with six home runs in their Game 3 win on Monday night, the heavy-hitting Cubs crushed three more homers as they eliminated the Cardinals from the National League division series with a 6-4 win on Tuesday in front of a crowd of 42,111 at Wrigley Field.

Advertisement

For the first time in their embattled history, the Cubs won a postseason series at home. They will move on to the National League championship series.

The Cardinals, losers of three straight after winning the first game of the series, are done for the season.

Cardinals starter John Lackey, starting on short rest for the fifth time in his career, couldn’t protect the 2-0 cushion Stephen Piscotty provided with a first-pitch home run in the first inning. He surrendered an RBI single to fellow starter Jason Hammel before Javier Baez hit the first Cubs home run of the day over the right-field wall. It was the first postseason home run Lackey had allowed in eight years and 742/3 innings.

Lackey and Hammel were out of the game by the fifth inning. The Cubs’ power surge continued.

Cubs reliever Trevor Cahill picked up the win. Cards reliever Kevin Siegrist, who surrendered three home runs in the past two days, took the loss.

Clutch hits by Tony Cruz, who was a late replacement for injured All-Star catcher Yadier Molina, and Brandon Moss briefly tied the game 4-4 in the top of the sixth. Cruz, the go-ahead run, was tagged out at the plate. The tie didn’t last long.

Anthony Rizzo homered to right in the bottom of the sixth, and Kyle Schwarber one-upped him, pelting a ball off the video board above the right field seats in the bottom of the seventh.

Advertisement*

The Cubs had their two-run lead back, and they didn’t let it go.

___

(c)2015 St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at www.stltoday.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.