| Brian Reynolds. 8th October, 2009 - 1:47 am
 St. Louis heads to Chavez Ravine on Wednesday night to begin their NLDS series with the National League West Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. They will throw Cy Young candidate Chris Carpenter in Game 1 and Cy Young candidate Adam Wainwright in Game 2. The Dodgers will counter with 33 year-old southpaw Randy Wolf and their young phenom lefty Clayton Kershaw.
Carpenter and Wainwright have pitched a combined 21 innings against the Dodgers this season in which they only allowed three runs. This is too dominant of a 1-2 punch for the Dodgers to overcome in a best of five series. Remember 2001 when the Diamondbacks had Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling? They went on to beat the Yankees in the World Series, where they were named Co-MVPs.
Too add insult to injury, the Cardinals have the best hitter in the game with Albert Pujols. And although Pujols hasn’t homered in a career-high 79 consecutive at bats, he says he feels “good, really good.” That is good enough for me. With the aces the Cardinals are throwing, Pujols can win the game on one swing of the bat. And if he doesn’t, guys like Matt Holliday and Ryan Ludwick are more than capable.
Pujols and the Cards will face two lefties at Dodger Stadium. In the regular season Pujols batted .338 with 13 home runs against lefties. His team, however, didn’t fare very well, which is a positive sign for the dodgers. As a team, the Cardinals hit .233 with an OBP of .312.
However, I see a lot of low-scoring games in this series and Carpenter and Wainwright both do a terrific job pitching late into games. Besides his last start where he was on a pitch limit, Carpenter has gone at least six innings in 16 consecutive starts. 14 of those starts were quality. Since April 16th, Wainwright has gone at least six innings in 32 of his 33 starts. These guys are horses and the dodgers have their work cut out for them.
St. Louis may not be at the top in many batting categories, but they do what is necessary to win the game. Mark DeRosa, Rick Ankiel, Julio Lugo, Brendan Ryan, and Yadier Molina are all professional hitters. At any point, the Cards can put up a 4 spot in an inning and pretty much win the game. They have one of the best closers with Ryan Franklin.
To make matters worse, the Cardinals will have the better pitcher in Game 3 when they return to St. Louis. Joel Pineiro will take the mound against Vicente Padilla who has struggled all year long. If the Dodgers do sneak a game, however, it just means Carpenter and Wainwright will head back to the mound in Games 4 and 5.
In short, this is a nightmare matchup for the Dodgers who played tremendously all season long. It’s tough enough to beat two Cy Young candidates in a seven-game series, but to beat them in a five game series is like taking a Final Exam for an Organic Chemistry class. You’ve done your homework, but you know you’re going to struggle. |
