St. Louis: 88-74; 2nd in NL Central (2nd Wild Card)
San Francisco: 9468-74; 1st in NL West
Schedule
Game 1: Oct. 14, 8:00 – (Lance Lynn vs Madison Bumgarner)
Game 2: Oct. 15, 8:00 PM – (TBA vs Ryan Vogelson)
Game 3: Oct. 17, 4:00 PM – (Adam Wainwright vs Matt Cain)
Game 4: Oct. 18, 8:00 PM – (TBA vs TBA)
Game 5*: Oct. 19, 8:00 PM
Game 6*: Oct. 21, 4:30 PM
Game 7*: Oct. 22, 8:00 PM
Rosters
Cardinals
NLDS
Cardinals top Nationals in 5: The Cardinals have an ironclad deal with the baseball gods, and it showed once again. Down to their final strike in Game 5 to the Nationals, the defending champs once again made history, advancing to the NLCS for the second straight season.
St. Louis blew the 2-1 lead in Game 1 when rookie Tyler Moore hit a two-run homer in the 8th inning. St. Louis then went to work, smoking Washington in a pair of eight-run wins. Jayson Werth’s heroics in Game 4 tied the series up.
In Game 5, the Cardinals trailed the Nationals 6-0 at one point. They fought all the way back to make it 6-5, but Washington added an insurance run in the 9th inning. The insurance didn’t matter when David Descalso hit a two-run single to tie the game and Pete Kozma’s two-run hit to follow gave the Cards a 9-7 lead and eventual win.
Giants top Reds in 5: The Giants had a memorable comeback of their own, but it was spread out over a span of three games. After falling in an 0-2 whole, the series went back to Cincinatti where the Giants won three straight games to go to their second NLCS in three years.
Game 3 was won on a rare fielding error by Reds third baseman Scott Rolen. Rolen bobbled a grounder hit by Joaquin Arias, who legged it out to enable the go-ahead run to score in the top of the 10th. In Game 4, San Francisco won convincingly, 8-3, to force a fifth game.
Game 5 was fueled by a grand slam off the bat of Buster Posey, who allowed the Giants to jump out to a 6-0 lead in the 5th inning. The Reds would score four runs to pull within two. In the 9th with two men on and two outs, Rolen was struck out to clinch the NLDS for San Francisco.
Prediction: St. Louis is the better team up and down the board despite being without Albert Pujols. Guys like Yadier Molina, Carlos Beltran and Daniel Descalso were huge contributors in the NLDS for St. Louis.
For the Giants, Posey has himself in the middle of NL MVP talks, proving why with his big hits during the Reds series. Pablo Sandoval has been the Giants best hitter. Even though he was reinstated by baseball, Melky Cabrera was left off the NLCS roster by San Francisco.
Pitching has been a problem for the Giants whereas it’s been good for St. Louis. In the end, the pitching will make a difference and it will favor the Cardinals.
Cardinals in 5
TTB 