St. Louis ? A day after the Arizona Diamondbacks lost Luis Gonzalez, the World Series champions made it back into the playoffs.

Edgar Renteria singled home the winning run with two outs in the ninth inning to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 3-2 victory Tuesday night that extended Arizona’s losing streak to five. But the Diamondbacks clinched a playoff berth 90 minutes later when Los Angeles lost to Colorado 1-0.

Arizona's Matt Williams sits in the dugout during during the Diamondbacks' loss to the Cardinals in St. Louis. Tuesday's defeat was Arizona's fifth straight.

The NL West-leading Diamondbacks are in the playoffs for the fourth time in their five-year history.

“Teams go through losing streaks,” manager Bob Brenly said before the Dodgers’ game ended. “Unfortunately, this is a bad time to do it.”

Albert Pujols drew a one-out walk from Mike Fetters (3-3) in the Cardinals ninth and pinch-runner So Taguchi stole second as Ivan Cruz struck out. Renteria, who’s batting .363 with runners in scoring position, followed with a liner just inside the third-base line.

Gonzalez separated his left shoulder and tore ligaments when he collided with teammate Tony Womack in Monday night’s game. He leads the Diamondbacks with 28 home runs and 103 RBIs.

Minus the left fielder, Brenly has realigned the outfield. Erubiel Durazo, who will move from first base to right, was shaky tracking down Fernando Vina’s liner to start the bottom of the first.

“I don’t mean to sound callous or harsh, but it’s part of the game,” Brenly said. “We’ll get by. We’ll do what we have to do. We think we have enough here to overcome the loss of Luis Gonzalez.”

Brewers 3, Astros 1

Houston Wayne Franklin (2-1), traded by Houston on Sept. 3, beat his former team for the second time in five days, allowing one run and four hits in six innings. Mike Dejean got three outs for his 26th save.

Roy Oswalt (19-8) was thwarted in his third attempt to become a 20-game winner, giving up three runs and six hits in eight innings.

Reds 1, Cubs 0

Chicago Jimmy Haynes (15-9) allowed three hits in six innings.

Sammy Sosa, who needs two homers in the final five games to reach 500 and to become the first player in major league history to have five 50-homer seasons, went 0-for-4 and struck out three times twice against Haynes and also popped out.

Marlins 9, Expos 6

Montreal Juan Encarnacion and Mike Lowell each homered twice.

Encarnacion, who tied a career high with five RBIs, hit a three-run homer off Britt Reames (1-4) in the third. Montreal’s Vladimir Guerrero, who has 40 steals, hit his 39th homer in the fifth off Carl Pavano (6-10).

Phillies 5, Braves 3

Philadelphia Travis Lee and Pat Burrell each had two RBIs and Eric Junge (2-0) pitched 423 innings of one-run, four-hit relief. The Phillies (79-78), trying for consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1982-83, have won four straight to move one game over .500.

The NL East champion Braves have lost three of four. Tom Glavine (18-11) walked a season-high six and hit a batter, giving up five runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Pirates 6, Mets 3

Pittsburgh Pinch-hitter Adrian Brown had a two-run single as Pittsburgh rallied for four runs in the eighth. The Mets dropped their 82nd game, assuring their first losing season since 1996.

Scott Sauerbeck (5-4) won, and Mike Williams pitched the ninth for his 45th save. Mark Guthrie (5-3) was the loser.

Rockies 1, Dodgers 0

Los Angeles Rookie Denny Stark (11-3) improved to 2-0 in four games against Los Angeles, allowing one hit a first-inning single by Brian Jordan in seven innings.

The Dodgers, who have five games remaining, were held to just three hits in losing their third in a row and 10th in 17 games. Los Angeles, which has five games left, began the day two games behind San Francisco in the NL wild card.

Giants 12, Padres 3

San Francisco Barry Bonds hit his 45th homer and Benito Santiago drove in four runs as San Francisco moved closer to clinching the NL wild card. Russ Ortiz won his sixth straight start for the Giants, who have won four in a row and six of seven to move three games ahead of Los Angeles in the wild-card race. The Dodgers lost 1-0 to Colorado. Los Angeles has five games left and the Giants have four, plus a possible makeup game Monday in Atlanta.