Last night’s results was about the worst-case scenario for those that want to see the Cards clinch the NL Central on the field.The Cubs lose, which is usually a great thing. \u00c2\u00a0However, the Cardinals do as well, plus they have an off day today while the Cubs play out at San Francisco tonight. \u00c2\u00a0The magic number stands at one, so the next Cardinal win or Cub loss puts that nice little x beside St. Louis in the standings.<\/p>\n
So, as Cardinal fans, what do we root for today? \u00c2\u00a0Do we, as normal, root for the Cubs to lose, thus making the clinching of the division anticlimatic? \u00c2\u00a0I mean, it’ll be close to midnight in St. Louis before the Cub game is over, and Tony LaRussa has said that the club won’t celebrate Thursday if they clinch, waiting until after the game Friday.<\/p>\n
Do we root for the Cubs to win and stay alive one more day, so the Cards can hopefully finish it off on Friday? \u00c2\u00a0The specter of 2006 still lingers a little bit over the team. \u00c2\u00a0There are some that don’t want to take the risk, that would rather a passive clinching than risking no clinching at all.<\/p>\n
I think I’d like to see the Cubs win today. \u00c2\u00a0Watching the guys rush the field and getting a chance to really celebrate their accomplishment is a big deal and for those guys that have never been there before (a fairly decent slice of the clubhouse), you’d like to see them be able to enjoy it. \u00c2\u00a0Besides, what happens if the Cubs lose tonight, then the Cards lose in Colorado tomorrow? \u00c2\u00a0You think TLR is going to let them party after a loss? \u00c2\u00a0Do you think this team would want to?<\/p>\n
Still, it’s rooting for the Cubs. \u00c2\u00a0I need a shower.<\/p>\n
Of course, if the Cardinals could figure out a way to hit Bud Norris, this all might be a moot point. \u00c2\u00a0The guy has given up 27 earned runs in 39+ innings against the rest of the league, but has kept the Cards scoreless for 13. \u00c2\u00a0It’s the second time someone has run up against him and pitched well enough to win, but has gotten absolutely no run support<\/a>.<\/p>\n John Smoltz<\/strong> probably should get the Hero tag. \u00c2\u00a0He continues to pitch solid games and can now regularly go six innings. \u00c2\u00a0He allowed a couple of leadoff doubles that worked their way back around to score, but other than that did everything right. \u00c2\u00a0I know everyone points to him as a reason the NL is basically this third-world league in comparison to the lofty AL, but that’s not the whole answer. \u00c2\u00a0He’s walking so many less batters<\/a>, which would have helped his AL results as well. \u00c2\u00a0I know Nick and Josh talked about this on last night’s UCB Radio Hour, but right now I still don’t see him being anything but the fourth starter in the playoffs. \u00c2\u00a0I think he can do you more good that way than even the strikeout bullpen arm he was originally slated for.<\/p>\n On the flip side, Mark DeRosa<\/strong> had a tough night, hitless in four at bats and leaving four men on base. \u00c2\u00a0A far cry from his production during the rest of this series.<\/p>\n There was some discussion of the callups<\/a> on the Post-Dispatch<\/em> site this morning. \u00c2\u00a0Even with the explanations, I’m not understanding the lack of a callup for Allen Craig. \u00c2\u00a0The talk that “these were for 2009” rings hollow with me. \u00c2\u00a0Are we really to think that David Freese will have a shot at the postseason roster? \u00c2\u00a0Really, in nine games he’s going to prove he’s worth taking into October? \u00c2\u00a0Tyler Greene is going to beat out someone to take one of those slots? \u00c2\u00a0I have problems believing that.<\/p>\n I understand Matt Pagnozzi and Josh Kinney, because they give you some depth and let you rest players the rest of the way. \u00c2\u00a0With Craig having to be added to the 40-man before the end of the postseason anyway, though, why not give him a shot as well? \u00c2\u00a0Nick and I went over this in the UCB chat room last night and his point was that defensively, Craig’s not all that. \u00c2\u00a0Maybe so, though I’ve not heard horror stories about his defense this year. \u00c2\u00a0A team that suffered through Chris Duncan for quite a while could get this guy into the lineup in the Cincinnati series, I’d think.<\/p>\n It just doesn’t make sense to me. \u00c2\u00a0Maybe Freese and Greene will be on the postseason roster. \u00c2\u00a0I just can’t believe right now that that is an option.<\/p>\n The Sporting News named their Player of the Decade<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0Tough call there. \u00c2\u00a0What does it say about Albert Pujols that he grabs titles like this even though he didn’t play in the year 2000?<\/p>\n Off day today to let you grapple with that\u00c2\u00a0existential\u00c2\u00a0question posed at the beginning of the entry. \u00c2\u00a0Cards head off to Colorado and get a weekend to really judge where they are at against playoff-caliber competition. \u00c2\u00a0Colorado gets the same opportunity since they’ll see Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright!<\/p>\n Daniel Shoptaw is the founder of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153C70 At The Bat,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d where he regularly writes about his beloved St. Louis Cardinals.\u00c2\u00a0 You can find more of his work here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last night’s results was about the worst-case scenario for those that want to see the Cards clinch the NL Central on the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":347,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}