Thirty games stand between the Cardinals and a franchise-record sixth straight trip to the postseason. They’ll begin that final push in Cincinnati on Friday. Here is a look at nine keys that will likely to define the team’s finish.

As the calendar flips to September, the best boost the Orioles can get for their playoff hopes will come from the disabled list. Baltimore ended August with Adam Jones, Darren O’Day, Chris Tillman and Joey Rickard either banged up or on the DL, and each player’s return could go a long ways toward helping the O’s get to October.

With injuries to fellow starters Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, Zack Wheeler and Jonathan Niese, plus the problems facing Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom, it’s hard to figure where the Mets would be without 43-year-old right-hander Bartolo Colon.

Yan Gomes has been doing everything he can behind the scenes to make a comeback this season. The Indians’ top catcher will take another step toward that goal on Friday, when he begins a Minor League rehab assignment with Double-A Akron.

The Red Sox already added a spark to their lineup by promoting one of the top prospects in baseball in August. Andrew Benintendi took over in left field and hit .324/.365/.485 in 21 games before spraining his left knee a week ago. With big league rosters expanding to 40 for September, Boston is hoping to get similar impact by calling up the game’s best prospect. Infielder Yoan Moncada, ranked No. 1 on MLBPipeline.com’s Top 100 Prospects list, will join the Red Sox Friday in Oakland.

A year ago, as the Blue Jays entered September with a 1 1/2-game lead in the American League East, they had the weight of a 22-year playoff drought hanging over them. Most of their roster had never experienced postseason action.

With 29 games to go, the Mets are a very real contender in the National League Wild Card race. It seems despite everything — including a heaping dose of common sense — the defending NL champions are not interested in going down without a fight.

If the Houston Astros make the postseason in back-to-back years, no one will be able to accuse them of coming in through the back door. The Astros open September with 13 consecutive games against teams currently in first place, so they’re going to have to play some of their best baseball of the season to reach the playoffs.

The race is there in plain view for them every day, available by a quick glance at the manual scoreboard on the Green Monster or the electronic ones you see at most other parks.

Over the past couple of weeks, Gary Sanchez has made a habit of making the impossible look easy, so it should come as no surprise that the big-swinging rookie believes these Yankees are poised to power into the postseason.

It’s been a very creative summer for the Cubs. As the magic number for the Cubs to clinch the National League Central title for the first time since 2008 reaches the teens, the only debates now are who came up with the best T-shirt design and who will win the NL Most Valuable Player Award.

Baseball is fun. But August was possibly even more fun than usual.

It was a battle of tired and depleted bullpens. And the Yankees’ bullpen survived the longest. Brian McCann lifted a sacrifice fly for the go-ahead run in the 13th inning as New York overcame an early four-run deficit for a 5-4 win over Kansas City in the rubber game on Wednesday night.

Angels star Mike Trout was reportedly uninjured in a traffic accident on the 55 Freeway in Tustin, Calif., on Wednesday night.

Toronto used a three-run first inning, including homers by Jose Bautista and Russell Martin, to stay hot on the road and continue to pace the American League East.

Cubs shortstop Addison Russell added another Gold Glove-caliber play to his highlight reel on Wednesday night against the Pirates at Wrigley Field.

The Mets’ improbable run toward a National League Wild Card berth continued Wednesday, when Kelly Johnson’s three-run double in the eighth inning lifted them to a 5-2 win over the Marlins at Citi Field. The win moved the Mets two games above Miami in the NL Wild Card standings, also floating them within 1 1/2 games of the Cardinals and a postseason berth.