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 night.

The Cardinals’ magic number for clinching the second NL wild card remained at one with a game to go, and they were left in the uncomfortable position of watching the Dodgers on television and rooting for a loss for the second straight night. Los Angeles, which began the day two games back with two remaining, played at home against the Giants later Tuesday.

Cincinnati, the NL Central champion, remained tied with Washington for the league’s best record. The Reds need a win Wednesday and a Nationals loss to earn home-field advantage throughout the postseason.

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.

Injured most of this season, Carpenter made just his third start of the year gave up a pair of runs in the sixth to snap a 1-all tie. Jay Bruce and Dioner Navarro had RBIs.

Despite the loss, the Cardinals are 11-4 in their last 15 games. They’ll draw Homer Bailey (13-10, 3.75 ERA), coming off a no-hitter, in the regular-season finale, with Adam Wainwright (14-13, 3.94) pitching for St. Louis.

If the Cardinals and Dodgers end up tied, a one-game playoff would be Thursday in Los Angeles, with the winner advancing to the wild-card game Friday in Atlanta.

Latos (14-4) had an abbreviated appearance while freshening up for the postseason and, like teammate Bronson Arroyo a day earlier, worked five innings and threw fewer than 75 pitches. Latos allowed a run on four hits with four strikeouts, all in a span of four at-bats against the bottom of the St. Louis lineup.

The 24-year-old Latos was 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA over his last seven starts and set career highs in starts (34) and innings (209 1-3).

With what was left of an announced crowd of 39,644 standing and hooting, Aroldis Chapman worked the ninth for his 38th save in 43 chances. He has allowed just one hit in four scoreless appearances covering four innings since returning from a nine-game absence due to shoulder fatigue on Sept. 21.

Carpenter gave up three runs and seven hits in six innings while losing for the fifth time in 19 career decisions against Cincinnati. He had seven strikeouts, two more than his total for the first two starts over 11 innings.

The Cardinals stranded two runners in the second and third against Latos and had two on with one out in the seventh before Sean Marshall got pinch-hitter Shane Robinson to fly out and Jon Jay on a broken-bat groundout.

Rolen tied it in the fourth when he jumped on a first-pitch hanging breaking ball for his eighth homer.

Reds manager Dusty Baker played for keeps in the early going. He brought the infield in with a runner on third and one out in the first for Matt Holliday, who hit a sacrifice fly, then intentionally walked eighth-place hitter Pete Kozma with two outs and a man on third in the second inning to get to Carpenter, who grounded out sharply to third.

— Associated Press —

Jaime Garcia homered off Bronson Arroyo and pitched into the seventh inning, helping the St. Louis Cardinals clinch at least a tie for the second NL wild card and spoil Dusty Baker’s return from a mini-stroke with a 4-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night.

The defending World Series champions have won 11 of 14 and led the Los Angeles Dodgers, playing at home later against San Francisco, by 2 1/2 games. The Cardinals have two games to go, the Dodgers three.

A loss by the Dodgers or another Cardinals win would wrap up a playoff spot for St. Louis and a visit to Atlanta for the wild-card game Friday.

Arroyo (12-10) threw 73 pitches while allowing three runs over five innings in a tuneup for the postseason. He topped 200 innings for the seventh time but is 0-3 in his last four starts.

The Reds are 96-64, tied with the Nationals for the best record in the National League with two games to go, and must finish ahead of Washington to get home-field advantage throughout the postseason after losing the season series.

Before the game, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny was wary and noncommittal about whether the team would stick around and watch the end of the Giants-Dodgers game that could ignite a delayed celebration in an empty stadium.

”I’m not going there yet,” Matheny said. ”We’ve got to win, and I told you guys this before: It’s not some sort of trickery going on, except with my own mind and with these guys, too.

”It’s true, you have to just kind of play it out and don’t get too far ahead of yourself.”

Baker missed 11 games, including the NL Central clincher and Homer Bailey’s no-hitter, while recovering from a stroke in a Chicago hospital that he had while being treated for an irregular heartbeat.

Garcia (7-7) made it 5 for 5 at the plate against Arroyo when he led off the third with a drive that just cleared the right-field wall for his second career homer, although the perfect run ended when he flied out to right to end the fourth.

Garcia gave up six hits, including three singles in a span of four at-bats in the third, with Brandon Phillips getting an RBI. Scott Rolen doubled, advanced on a passed ball and scored on Ryan Hanigan’s sacrifice fly in the seventh.

The lefty has been a major asset at home throughout his career, going 20-11 with a 2.48 ERA at Busch Stadium, the lowest career mark of any pitcher with 10 or more starts, including 4-2 with a 2.82 ERA in nine starts this year. He’s 3-5 with a 5.02 ERA in 11 road starts this year and 14-12 with a 4.47 ERA overall.

Allen Craig and Yadier Molina added an RBI apiece in a three-run third, and Daniel Descalso had an RBI triple in the sixth that made it 4-1. Jason Motte worked a perfect ninth with two strikeouts for his 41st save in 48 chances.

— Associated Press —