ST. LOUIS – While the St. Louis Cardinals have found some momentum recently, winning their last three against the Pittsburgh Pirates, it almost certainly will not be enough to revive their postseason hopes.

With 10 games left in the regular season, the Cardinals’ only path to postseason is through a National League Wild Card spot. And chances are looking slim-to-none with the three closest contenders, the Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Mets and Atlanta Braves, all holding healthy leads.

Baseball fans often talk about the “magic number” to get into postseason when their path to it looks easier. The Cardinals, however, are much closer to clinching another year without postseason, thus have a shrinking “elimination number.”

Entering Thursday, according to database PlayoffStatus.com, the Cardinals’ elimination number stands at…

4

This means that any combination of Cardinals losses or wins from the third-place Wild Card team (currently the Mets) puts St. Louis closer to the brink of elimination from postseason contention.

Barring a miracle, the Cardinals are on track to miss the postseason for the second consecutive season after making the big dance in the previous four seasons. Before that, the Cardinals went three seasons with playoff action from 2016-2018.

After the season’s end, it appears the Cardinals will have only won one postseason round over their last 10 seasons (2019 NLDS) and one postseason game total since the turn to the 2020s.

Perhaps more within reason for this season, the Cardinals will battle to determine if they finish above, at, or below .500 in the closing days of the season. St. Louis currently stands at 77-75.

The Cardinals have not finished with two consecutive losing seasons (more losses than wins) since the 1994 and 1995 campaigns, both which were shortened by the MLB players strike. They have not finished with two consecutive losing seasons in full campaigns since the 1958 and 1959 seasons, more than half a century ago and when full seasons were only 154 games as opposed to 162.

The Cardinals close out a four-game home series with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday, followed by a three-game home series with the Cleveland Guardians this weekend. Then, the Cardinals wrap up the regular season with three-game road series against the Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants through Sept. 29.