Ego vos elegi

Thoughts from a St. Louis seminarian

TKC

Playoffs, Part 2

Well, it's been a while since I said anything here about baseball.  The Division Series round is over.  (A name which, by the way, never made sense to me.  How is it a "division series" when all the division champions are already determined?  I guess there was nothing else to call it; maybe "NLCS semifinals" sounds too much basketball.) 

In the American League, I was genuinely surprised.  We in St. Louis constantly complain about how the big markets like Boston and New York get so much more media attention than we in the Midwest, but I think I fell for the same error in presuming that the Red Sox and Yankees would advance to the ALCS for the third straight time.  Turns out there are good AL teams outside of the radius of New York and New England, though most of us NL fans didn't hear much about the Angels all year.  At the same time, I have to say I regret the elimination of Red Sox AND Yankees in the ALDS.  As of this writing, the Cardinals' World Series hopes are still alive, and I would have dearly loved to have a rematch with Boston, or a chance to play the Yankees as we did in 1926, 1946, and 1964.  Such a series would have been truly classic baseball--but then, so would Cardinals vs. White Sox, an all-Midwest matchup which I don't believe has ever come about, and very well could this year.

The NLDS wasn't as surprising.  In the end, most of us in St. Louis expected to beat the Padres fairly handily, although there were some very exciting moments, such as Reggie Sanders' emergence as the postseason hero with his grand slam in Game 1 on the way to 10 RBI's in the series, as well as the three runs scored in Game 2 on two close plays at the plate and a suicide squeeze.  Game 3, unfortunately, was scheduled at 10PM Central, requiring a very late Saturday night, but it was time well spent. 

In the other half of the NLDS, I had expected Houston to win, but, I must say, fearfully.  They gave us quite a run for our money last October, and most St. Louisans, I think, would have sooner faced Atlanta.  As it turned out, Game 4, the 18-inning marathon ending in a walk-off home run, could be the most memorable game of this whole year; I could only watch in amazement and be thankful it wasn't my team putting me through the stress of a whole game of extra innings!

So here we are with the Cardinals-Astros NLCS rematch of last year.  The pessimist in me would look at how tough we had it last year to win in seven games, and then be discouraged at the fact that Houston's rotation is stronger than last year, with the return of Andy Petite.  On the other hand, we have improved our rotation with the addition of Mark Mulder, as well as the return of Chris Carpenter, who was hurt last October.  Being able to have Jason Marquis kept in the bullpen if needed is something of a luxury.  And Houston's lineup is somewhat less formidable without Jeff Kent and especially Carlos Beltran, who hammered us last year.  Which to me means that on balance, we're about as evenly matched last year, with the Cardinals having perhaps a slight edge.  There is one major cause of concern: our bullpen often needed every bit of our large leads in the San Diego series, and our closer Jason Isringhausen seems to have a fondness for living dangerously that could eventually come back to haunt us.

Game 1 seemed to confirm all these expectations: Carpenter was flawless through eight innings, while the Cardinals amassed five runs off Petite.  The main trouble spot came in the ninth, when Isringhausen allowed the tying run to bat before getting the final out. 

Game 2 reminded us that there's a reason Houston is still in it (though at times one wants to curse the whole wild card system and ask what the regular season means if a team who finished 10 games behind their division rivals can still get the chance to eliminate them in a best of seven series!).  Roy Oswalt shut us down for seven innings and gave way to Brad Lidge.  When Brad Lidge pitches an inning or two against the Cardinals, the game is effectively only seven or eight innings long, because we haven't scored on him in years.  So when Oswalt got Edmonds to ground out with two men on to end the seventh, and pave the way for Lidge's entry, I rather quickly began thinking ahead and wondering which of the games in Houston we'd be able to win, for we'd need to win at least one.  Game 2 was clearly a lost cause--but to make matters worse, Reggie Sanders, who could basically do no wrong up to this point, hurt himself falling in left field in the next inning!  This raises serious concern, considering that Reggie has hitherto driven in 12 of our 25 postseason runs.  The Cardinals heading to Houston are not out, but they are certainly down.

Last year, we needed our home field advantage, because winning at Houston seemed impossible.  Some of us like to blame this on the weird traits of Minute Maid Park (the name says it all) with its 315-ft. left field fence, etc.  Rather like the 1987 Minnesota Twins, the Astros took full advantage of their park's peculiarities to shut us down there (and where else can you find a train whistle to accentuate the home team's runs?).  But having failed to win two in our own house, we have to win on the road now.  Put in perspective, this isn't such a daunting task: we won as many games on the road as at home this season (50) and we've beaten the Astros several times at Enron Field--I mean Minute Maid Park:)  But given the way last year's playoffs unfolded, and the fact that Roger Clemens is the first man we encounter in Houston, there is certainly cause for Cardinal nation to bite its nails over the next three days.    

posted by: mhouser at 22:03 | link | comments |

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