The St. Louis Cardinals may not be in the playoffs this year, but they have a rich history of incredible postseason moments over the years. One came on this day in Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS against the Washington Nationals.

The Cardinals were defending World Series champions at the time, but fell into an early 6-0 after Adam Wainwright struggled. But true to form, the Cardinals refused to quit and got it to within 6-5 in the eighth inning. It was 7-5 in favor of Washington entering the ninth inning, but that is where the fun of this story truly begins.

Cardinals complete ninth-inning comeback in D.C.

The fun part about this game is that the heroics came from the most unlikely sources. The Cardinals got a few runners on in the ninth inning, but during Yadier Molina and David Freese's at-bats, they were down to their last strike before elimination, just as they had been in Game 6 of the previous year's World Series before rallying to win.

Molina and Freese walked to load the bases, setting the stage for Daniel Descalso, who hit a home run the previous inning. On the first pitch, Descalso lined one up the middle that went off of the diving Ian Desmond's glove and trickled away, allowing two runs to score to tie the game.

Next up was Pete Kozma, who had only briefly tasted the majors in 2011 and was filling in at shortstop for the injured Rafael Furcal. Descalso stole second base to get into scoring position, and on a 2-2 pitch, Kozma hit one the other way to score the remaining two runners and put St. Louis ahead 9-7.

Now, all that was left was for closer Jason Motte to finish the job and send the Cardinals back to the NLCS. Fortunately for the Cardinals, the Nationals didn't put up a fight in the bottom of the ninth. Motte got Ryan Zimmerman to pop one to Descalso, who made the play and ended the series.

And so, the Cardinals celebrated on the field in front of a stunned crowd, reaching the NLCS for a second straight year after winning their World Series title. St. Louis took the San Francisco Giants the full seven games before ultimately being eliminated, but the highlight of the year certainly came in the NLDS clincher. Not unlike Game 6, all hope appeared to be lost, and the Cardinals simply refused to give in.