Right Where They Want Them

By JP

That's right. LA has St. Louis right where LA wants them. According to MLB.com, LA is in very good shape to win the series. In fact, even in an article about Joe Kelly and the St. Louis Cardinals, MLB.com cannot help but reiterate that LA is in great shape. The aforementioned article, again may I remind you ostensibly about Kelly and the Cards, seems more like a piece trying to encourage the Dodgers than just report the news. Sure, it's just fine to write an article pointing out that LA has Zack Greinke going tonight in game 5 and Clayton Kershaw going game 6. But, if the article professes to be about the Cardinals (based on the title of the article), then please be about the Cardinals.



I will freely admit that it is a tall order for the Cardinals to beat Greinke and if they cannot do that, beat Kershaw in game 6. The articles pointed out that game 7 would be in St. Louis and that Hyun-Jin Ryu would pitch that game and he pitched the Dodgers to their only victory so far  in the series in game 3. But what the stories fail to mention is that game 7 would be started by Adam Wainwright. At home. In an elimination game. I would say that puts the Cardinals in very good position for that game. But could the Cardinals still lose the series?

The answer to that question is simple: yes. The Cards were up 3-1 in the 1996 NLCS and lost and were up 3-1 last year, 2012, and lost. So, past history suggests that the Cardinals are doomed. However, the thing about baseball is that there is soooooo much history (the NL was established in 1876) that there are so many scenarios to draw from. The Cardinals have also started two rookies in this series and the two previous times teams did that that team won. Also, teams that have started two former Cy Young winners in a series have only won the series three out of eight tries. The Cardinals beat the 2011 Phillies who started Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, two Cy Young winners.

Am I suggesting that the Cardinals are emphatically going to win this series? No. This is baseball and really, anything can happen. No one thought the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, who only won 83 games, would win the World Series. Or the 2003 Florida (now Miami) Marlins would come back from a 3-1 series deficit to the Cubs in the NLCS and would eventually win the World Series. Or how about the 2004 Red Sox who were down 3-0 to the Yankees in the ALCS and ended up coming back and winning the series and the WS? Or the 2000 Mets and 2002 Giants, both of whom went up 3-1 against the Cardinals and then won the next game to win the series 4-1? My point is simply this: anything can happen in the MLB playoffs. LA could win the series but St. Louis could also win against a Cy Young winner for the third time this series with a rookie.