Getting Ready for Game 5…

Well this would not be the Cardinals if they would have come through in Game 4 to win the series.  This is the same team that clinched the Wild Card on the last day of the season last year, went to Game 5 in the NLDS and Game 7 of the World Series.  At least this season, the Cards were able to have a little time to breathe when they clinched a berth in the wild card game on the second to last day of the season.  So with this extensive track record of waiting for the dramatic moment, why wouldn’t they make this series go to the fifth game?  While all these things seem to point towards a Cardinal’s victory, I am not so sold on this.

Tomorrow, the Cardinals will turn to Adam Wainwright who at least in experience and on paper would be the best option for the Cardinals as a starting pitcher for this game.  He pitched very well against the Nationals in the first game of this series, and he has been nothing but clutch for the Cardinals in the postseason since he started as a rookie closer for the team in 2006.  With all this experience should make us feel more comfortable about this game, the simple truth is that while Adam Wainwright has a better than average chance of delivering a solid start, but the more depressing realization that I have come to over the last 4 games of this series is that tomorrow it may not matter how well Wainwright pitches in the fifth game of the series.  The simple and depressing truth is that this team is not built to win a game that is some kind of low scoring pitcher’s duel. 

In Game 4, Kyle Lohse did everything the team would ask of him.  He gave up only one run on an Adam LaRoche homerun early in the game, and pitched his butt off for the rest of the game until it was time for Boggs to come into the game in the 8^th inning.  The difficult reality of the situation is that Adam Wainwright will probably not do any better than Lohse did in Game 4 or for that matter, the chances are not too good that he will do better than Wainwright himself did in the first game of the series which they lost in another low scoring contest. 

I thought that the two games in between the two Cardinal losses in this series were a good omen that the St. Louis offense would be back to the high flying version that we saw and grew to love early in the season.  Game 4 was the perfect reminder of the lesson we had already learned over and over again with this team during the 2012 season.  The unfortunate reality is that this offense is as capable of extreme lows as it is capable of the types of outbursts that we saw in the middle two games of the series.  This team is maddeningly inconsistent offensively and there seems to be just as much chance as the Cardinals scoring 12 runs tomorrow night as it is likely that they will be shutout.

This team is built to win by getting ahead early.  Unfortunately, their offense does not have many days where they score 4 or 5 runs.  I have no doubt that Wainwright will be solid, but in the best case scenario, Wainwright will throw his 8 innings while giving up only a run or two, but there is a good chance that this will not be enough to win the game.  The Cardinals will be leaning on an offense that is anchored by Matt Holliday who strikes out looking while complaining about calls as if he were a leadoff man who is trying to work a pitcher and find a way on base with a walk.  They have an offense that although Descalso and Kozma are capable of getting a few hits here and there on mistakes, are marginal major league talents when it comes to hitting against a top starting pitcher like Gio Gonzalez.

This team is capable of striking out 8 times in a row like they did in the last game, but they are also capable of big things.  Tomorrow night’s game is going to be a challenge for this Cardinals team.  I have found myself wanting to give up on this team so many times, and yet they have proven me wrong over and over again.  They seem to come through when their backs are against the wall, and that is reason enough to watch this game with excitement and hope.  There is even the chance that this team could surprise all of us once again and win a 2 to 1 game with clutch hitting at the end of the game.  The beauty of this season and this team is that tomorrow we will likely learn something about these guys that we did not know today.  I just hope that this is something that we want to learn.