NL wild card Tuesday standings: Dodgers 3½ back with 9 games left

The Dodgers were off Monday but still managed to have a bad day, as the Cardinals won to strengthen their hold on the second wild card in the National League. With the Cardinals' win over the Astros on Monday, the Dodgers are now 3½ games behind St. Louis, the farthest that Los Angeles has been out of a playoff spot all season.

Here is a recap of the relevant Monday's game action:

Dodgers: off

Cardinals 6, Astros 1: Yadier Molina and Pete Kozma each homered, leading St. Louis to its fourth win over the Astros in the last seven days. Lance Lynn struck out nine in seven strong innings for his 17th win of the season.

Natioinals 12, Brewers 2: In the final game of their four-game wraparound series at Nationals Park, Washington salvaged a series split. Ryan Zimmerman homered and drove in four runs, leading a 14-hit attack to drop Milwaukee into a tie with the Dodgers.

Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 2: Jason Kubel hit his 30th home run of the season for Arizona, but it wasn't enough. Tyler Chatwood allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings for his fifth win of the year for Colorado. Andrew Brown, not the one traded twice for Milton Bradley, homered and doubled for the Rockies.

Phillies: off

Here is Tuesday's schedule:

• 4:05 p.m. - Washington (Ross Detwiler) at Philadelphia (Cole Hamels)
• 4:10 p.m. - Milwaukee (Michael Fiers) at Cincinnati (Johnny Cueto)
• 5:05 p.m. - St. Louis (Jaime Garcia) at Houston (Lucas Harrell)
• 7:05 p.m. - Los Angeles (Josh Beckett) at San Diego (Edinson Volquez)
• 7:15 p.m. - Arizona (Josh Collmenter) at San Francisco (Tim Lincecum)