LOS ANGELES (AP) — For the second straight game, the St. Louis Cardinals rallied to win. And for the second time in the series, they did it on a ninth-inning homer off All-Star closer Kenley Jansen.

“It’s definitely redundant,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Same thing we’ve seen.”

The Cardinals clearly love a rerun.

Paul DeJong hit the go-ahead, two-run homer Wednesday night for a 3-1 victory and the Cardinals’ first sweep at Dodger Stadium since 2006.

The Cardinals’ eighth straight road win helped them improve to 17-4 this month, the most wins in the majors. They’ve homered in 15 straight games, one off the current season mark of 16 in a row by Philadelphia.

“It’s been a snowball effect for us,” DeJong said. “We can win every game.”

St. Louis remained 2½ games behind the NL Central-leading Cubs.

“It shows the resilience of our team. Everyone steps up on a nightly basis,” DeJong said. “It’s always someone new coming through.”

For Jansen, it was the same old story.

The Dodgers closer, who became a father for the third time earlier in the day, gave up consecutive homers to Jedd Gyorko and Matt Carpenter in the series opener Monday. That was Jansen’s first game back after missing time because of an irregular heartbeat.

This time, Gyorko got a broken-bat single off Jansen (0-5), and DeJong followed with his 14th homer to left-center, giving the Cardinals their first lead of the game.

“Very frustrating,” Jansen said. “Got to figure out how to get back out of this mess.”

The Dodgers went quietly in the ninth, with Jordan Hicks striking out Cody Bellinger, Brian Dozier and Chris Taylor to earn his fifth save.

“Hicks was filthy,” Cardinals interim manager Mike Shildt said. “That was elite stuff right there.”

Dakota Hudson (4-0) got the win with one inning of relief.

Los Angeles loaded the bases in the eighth, but Manny Machado grounded out to end the inning. The Dodgers stranded 30 runners while getting swept for the third time this season.

They dropped to 32-33 at home, falling below .500 at Dodger Stadium for the first time since June 30.

Rookie Tyler O’Neill launched his first career pinch-hit homer in the top of the eighth off Scott Alexander, tying it 1-all.

Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler dueled in a stellar matchup of rookie pitchers, although neither figured in the decision.

Flaherty held the Dodgers hitless through 5 1/3 innings. Joc Pederson broke through after Buehler struck out leading off the sixth, slugging his 19th homer to right field for a 1-0 lead.

Flaherty gave up just that one hit in six innings. The 22-year-old right-hander from nearby Burbank struck out 10 and walked two on 101 pitches.

“It was special,” Flaherty said. “I wanted to make sure to take in the moment and enjoy it.”

Buehler scattered three hits over seven innings, struck out a career-high nine and walked two on 104 pitches.

The Dodgers have lost three in a row and they dropped four games behind NL West-leading Arizona in pursuit of a sixth straight division title.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: After getting Thursday off in Denver, RHP Miles Mikolas (13-3, 2.80 ERA) starts the series opener against the Rockies. His victories are the most by a first-year St. Louis pitcher since Kyle Lohse in 2008.

The NCAA is ditching the RPI for its own evaluation tool to select teams for the NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA Evaluation Tool will rely on game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency and quality of wins and losses. NET will be used for the 2018-19 season by the committee that selects schools and seeds the tournament.

NET rankings will be released in late November or early December and updated through Selection Sunday, with a final ranking following the tournament.

“What has been developed is a contemporary method of looking at teams analytically, using results-based and predictive metrics that will assist the Men’s Basketball Committee as it reviews games throughout the season,” NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said in a statement on Wednesday. “While no perfect rankings exist, using the results of past tournaments will help ensure that the rankings are built on an objective source of truth.”

The NCAA has used the RPI since 1981 to help the NCAA Tournament selection committee pick at-large teams, seeding and bracketing teams each March.

The RPI has been criticized in recent years for not being analytical enough. The RPI is calculated on winning percentage, strength of schedule and opponent’s strength of schedule, but more accurate tools for evaluating performance have developed.

NET will give equal importance to early and late-season games, and caps wins at 10 points to prevent teams from running up the score.

NET was approved in July following months of consultation with the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, the National Association Basketball Coaches, top basketball analytics experts and Google Cloud Professional Services.

Last season, the NCAA introduced a quadrant system to put greater emphasis on wins away from home. The quadrant system will remain in place for evaluating teams.

The NCAA said the RPI will still be used in other Division I sports, including women’s basketball.