The season could be over this evening for the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium as they are down 2-0 in their best of five National League Division Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Joel Pinero will get the start for the Cardinals against Vicente Padilla for the Dodgers.
The Redbirds will be trying to chase away the ghosts from their ninth inning walk off loss on Thursday. In that game, the Cards were one out away from tying the series, but a dropped line drive by Matt Holliday, combined by Ryan Franklin not being able to close the game, led to a heartbreaking loss.
This is not necessarily an unfamiliar position for St. Louis. In 2004, they were able to hold off elimination in the National League Championship, not once, but twice against the Houston Astros. This came after Houston won game five with a walk off hit. Also, five times in the history of the division series, a team that has surrendered a walk off hit have come back to win the series.
If the Cardinals want to continue their season, they are going to have to find a way to score runners on base. In game one, they left 14 on base and seven in game two. Should the Cardinals win today, they would play game four tomorrow afternoon at Busch. Right now, there is no starting pitcher listed for that ballgame, but the Cardinals are saying that Chris Carpenter could get the nod. That game would start at 2:37. First things first. This evening’s game will start at 5:07.