Storyline: An exciting week of baseball is in store as three teams battle for NL Wild Card slots. How will the St. Louis Cardinals fare?
The St. Louis Cardinals won’t win the NL Central this year. But the Cards still have a chance to make the postseason. They’re in an epic competition with the San Francisco Giants and NY Mets for the two NL wild card slots.
Courtesy: megasportsnews.com
In fact, a three-way tie is possible. If that were to happen, then here’s how things would be settled (source: ESPN’s Jayson Stark):
Monday, Oct. 3: Mets at Cardinals. The winner would secure the first wild-card spot and host the NL Wild-Card game on Oct. 5.
Tuesday, Oct. 4: Loser of the Mets-Cardinals game would play the Giants in San Francisco. The winner would head for either New York or St. Louis to play in the Wild-Card game.
Wednesday, Oct. 5: The Wild-Card winner would go on to Chicago to play the Cubs in the NLDS.
Talk about a crazy, but very plausible, scenario!
As for the Cardinals, they’ve managed to sneak into the playoffs and win the World Series before. Just look at the 2011 World Series team.
On August 24 the Redbirds were 10.5 games behind the Braves for the lone Wild Card slot (this was the pre-Wild Card Game era). But the team put together an impressive September to rally and sneak into the postseason. The Cardinals then downed the favored Phillies in the NLDS and the Brewers in the NLCS to face the Rangers in the World Series.
Texas lead the series 3-2 going back to St. Louis. The Rangers were just one strike away from winning for the first time in franchise history. But David Freese drove a long fly ball to right field–just past the reach of right fielder Nelson Cruz’s glove–to tie up the game on a triple. Then, a couple of innings later, Freese came through again. He sent a 3-2 pitch to dead center for the walk-off victory. Joe Buck immortalized the historic moment: “We will see you tomorrow night!” St. Louis went on to defeat the Rangers, 6-2, in Game 7 to capture its 11th World Series.
Can the Cardinals do a repeat? Or will the team experience a rare absence from the playoffs?
Courtesy: The Sporting News
Yadi!: Many Cardinals’ fans, including myself, have come to terms with the prospect that Yadier Molina’s days as catcher are numbered. Just by watching him play it’s evident that he’s no longer able to make highlight-reel plays like he could a few years ago. But, that being said, Molina has been consistently good for the Cardinals defensively. The 34-year old has committed just two errors so far this season. His bat has also begun to heat up. Batting around .250 for most of the season, his recent plate performance has raised his average to around .300. And now he’s leading the team in hitting. But the main thing Molina brings to the table is leadership. A natural born leader, Molina could be a major factor if the Cards are to play a spoiler roll this postseason.
An Explosive Lineup: The Cardinals are currently ranked 6th in runs scored this year, having plated 738 runners over the course of this year. Even though those are nice numbers, the Cardinals’ offensive attack poses even more of a threat–HRs. The Cards are currently leading the NL in homers with 213. And it’s not like they have a lineup full of power hitters, like David Ortiz, either. That’s what makes St. Louis so dangerous: everybody in the lineup can hit a home run at any time and in any situation.
They Are Road Warriors: The Cards’ performance at Busch has been simply terrible. St. Louis is 33-41 at Busch as of September 25 and that mark is the team’s worst home record since 1999. So the Cards have remained in playoff contention by winning on the road where the team is 48-33. While winning on the road is a cornerstone of having postseason success, here’s the stark reality: St. Louis has seven games left and they’re all at home (four with the Reds and three with the Pirates).
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Can the Cardinals pull off late season magic? We’ll know on Sunday.
