Cardinals @ Mets

Who will WIN this matchup?

St. Louis Cardinals (74-69)

@ New York Mets (72-73)

Starting Pitchers:

Lester (STL): 5-6; 4.75 ERA

Megill (NYM) 3-4; 4.06 ERA

Current odds:

St. Louis Cardinals: (+140)

New York Mets: (-170)

• It took 11 innings Tuesday night to cap a three-month climb back into a playoff spot for the St. Louis Cardinals. For the New York Mets, their latest one-run loss might have summarized a frustrating slide out of postseason contention. The Cardinals will look to maintain their new standing as the leaders in the race for the second National League wild-card spot Wednesday night, when visiting St. Louis attempts to complete a sweep of the Mets in the finale of a three-game series.

• The Cardinals moved into the second wild-card spot Tuesday night, when they scored three runs in the top of the 11th and held off a Mets rally in the bottom half to earn a 7-6 win.

• The win by St. Louis (75-69), coupled with losses by the Cincinnati Reds (75-70) and San Diego Padres (74-70), put St. Louis in a playoff spot for the first time since May 30, when it held a half-game lead in the NL Central. The Cardinals were 3 1/2 games out of the second wild card as recently as Sept. 7 but have won six of seven to leapfrog the Reds, Padres and Philadelphia Phillies.

• The rearview mirror is likely filled with regretful glances for the Mets (72-74), who missed a chance Tuesday to close the gap in both the race for the second wild card and the NL East. New York trails the Cardinals by four games and the division-leading Atlanta Braves — who lost to the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday — by 5 1/2 games. The Mets started August with a 4 1/2-game lead in the NL East, but they have gone 4-15 in one-run games since then.

• Lester didn’t factor into the decision Friday, when he allowed two runs on three hits over seven innings in the Cardinals’ 4-2 loss to the Reds. It was the longest of Lester’s eight starts with St. Louis, which acquired him from the Washington Nationals on July 31. He is 2-1 with a 4.30 ERA for the Cardinals. Lester is 8-1 with a 3.18 ERA in 11 regular season starts against the Mets. He beat them while pitching for Washington on June 19, tossing six-plus innings of two-run ball.

• Megill, who has not opposed the Cardinals in his rookie season, earned an impressive win Friday. He gave up two runs and struck out a career-best 10 over a career-high seven innings in the Mets’ 10-3 victory over the New York Yankees.