LOS ANGELES — Two wily veterans on the mound in an elimination game. Adam Wainwright starting for the reinvigorated St. Louis Cardinals against the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Max Scherzer, pitching as well as he ever has.

“It’s as fun as it gets, right?” Wainwright said, smiling.

Indeed, though neither team wanted to be in the position of playing in the NL wild-card game.

The Cardinals (90-72) rode a 17-game winning streak into the second wild-card spot.

The Dodgers’ mark of 106-56 was the second-best in baseball behind the rival San Francisco Giants (107-55), who ended LA’s streak of eight straight NL West titles.

The relative absurdity of the defending World Series champions having to play a dangerous wild-card game after winning that many games doesn’t bother Scherzer. LA’s record is the best of any defending World Series champion since 1969.

“There’s no crying in baseball,” he said. “You have to win your division. We didn’t win our division.”

So, here they are.

Wainwright (17-7) faces Scherzer (15-4) at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night, where the Dodgers ended the regular season on a franchise-record 15-game home winning streak. Their 53-28 home record was tops in the majors.

It’s just the second winner-take-all game in postseason history with two starting pitchers aged 37-plus. Wainwright is 40; Scherzer is 37.