Longtime Athletics ace Sonny Gray remarkably will make his first career start in San Francisco against the Giants on Wednesday night.

The Cardinals (78-80) rallied from five runs down to overtake the Giants 9-8 on Tuesday night, eliminating San Francisco (77-81) from postseason contention.

St. Louis has the slimmest of life left in the race for the third National League wild-card spot. Advancing, however, is unlikely. They are 3 1/2 games back of the New York Mets (81-76) by 3 1/2 games and four games to play, with the Cincinnati Reds (80-77) and Arizona Diamondbacks (80-77) each a game behind the Mets.

Gray (14-8, 4.33), who began his career in 2013 on the Oakland side of the San Francisco Bay as a rotation mainstay for A's for 4 1/2 seasons, has faced the Giants eight times -- all at

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