Michael Busch homered twice and drove in four runs, and the Chicago Cubs clinched the top NL wild card with a 7-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Loss assures Cardinals of a losing record for the second time in three seasons and only the third time since 2000.

St. Louis manager Oli Marmol was unapologetic about issuing the free pass: "I’m not here for anybody's amusement. I’m trying to win a game."

A Cub has hit eight vs. the Cards in six seasons: Wilson, 1928 and 1930; Rogers Hornsby, 1929; Bill Nicholson, 1941; and Banks, 1958 and 1960. Sammy Sosa is among eight who hit seven. Among the others: Hank Sauer, 1954; Dave Kingman, 1979; Ryne Sandberg, 1990; and Moises Alou, 2003.

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St. Louis Cardinals (78-82, fourth in the NL Central) vs. Chicago Cubs (90-70, second in the NL Central) Chicago; Saturday, 1:20 p.m. CDT PITCHING PROBABLES: Cardinals: Michael McGreevy (8-3, 4.35 ERA,

Javier Assad, RHP vs. Kyle Leahy, RHP Javier Assad last pitched eight days ago against the Reds, a four-inning outing in which he threw 74 pitches. If the Cubs want him available at all during the Wild Card Series,

This Cardinals' season series vs. the Cubs at Wrigley will go down among their worst ever. It continues Saturday at 1:20 p.m. in the season's penultimate game.

Michael Busch homered twice, tripled, doubled and drove in four runs to help the Chicago Cubs clinch home-field advantage for their National League wild-card series with a 7-3 win over the visiting St.

The two home runs by Busch, including one on Michael McGreevy’s first pitch of the game, were his eighth and ninth hit against the Cardinals in just 11 games this season. The only other two Cubs in history to hit nine homers against the Cardinals in a season were Ernie Banks in 1955 and Hack Wilson in 1929.