That was a ridiculous tough play. No shame on him not making that. Not everyone is the ****ing Wizard.

Wacha Wacha Wacha

Didn't say he should have made it, but a good throw would have had him.

He would have needed a Jose Iglesias type throw to make that play.

It's all good: Cards win 4-1, Reds lose 1-0, Cubs on the verge of beating Pirates. Magic# at 2, could be 1 by the end of the day.

Breathe easy, cards fans.

Looks like the magic number could be down to one by the end of the day. With a Cardinals win and Reds loss, the Reds are now officially eliminated from the division crown. Pirates losing to the Cubs right now despite having their ace start the game against a very poor pitcher. Cubs looking to add more runs to a 4-1 lead.

Cubs being the Cubs. Just gave up a run-scoring triple in the top of the 9th, now up 4-2, runner on 3rd, one out.

Cubs hold on to win. Suck it, Buttpirates. :thumb:

Thank you, cubbies. You may go away now.

I can't believe I'm about to say this. "Cubs Win!"

Now we need the Braves to lose and it will be a perfect day.

I seriously think the DReds will demolish the buttpirates in that play-in game.

I think it will be Wacha instead of Kelly as the long man. I could also see him taking Lyons instead of Freeman.

Much rather see Lynn coming out of the pen. Lynn has pretty much hit his limit. He's had a 2.66 ERA in 4 starts in September, but has hit a wall at the 6th inning. Lynn had lost five straight decisions before winning on the 21st. We'll have a better idea when we see who they put out there on hopefully meaningless games on Saturday and Sunday.

I don't see them taking Freeman over Maness in the bullpen.

It's a close call, all of them project well out of the pen, but no one beyond Waino has consistently shown they project more than 6 innings.

Didn't notice Maness missing. I can't see that either. I could see Freeman or Lyons if they get to the WS being added with hopefully Craig available as a DH.

I wasn't saying who they would take, but who they should take.

Maness isn't a very good pitcher. I know we like him because he's come in and gotten some ground balls in good spots, but he has 10th percentile stuff. We lose that Milwaukee game because of him and Mujica if Beltran doesn't hose Aoki.

He's way, way too hittable. He only has value in a one out, runner on first situation, and that's not enough value to warrant a roster spot.

Axford can come in the middle stages of the game and get a strikeout in a must-K situation. Freeman can devastate lefties and his stuff is good enough to play on both sides. Scroate is the LOOGY. Siegrist has been the best pitcher on the team since June, and Rosenthal is not far behind.

Maness has the stuff of a White Salas.

We win Friday night its all over.

If we get home field advantage, do we get to play the Red/Pirates winner?

Unless they changed it, you can't get a wildcard from your own division in the first round.

Braves lose! Perfect day for us. :rockon:

Do people really worry bout the Cards ROFL

They changed it. The WC game is considered the first round, so once that is over the winner goes to the team w/ HFA.

Cool.

I'd rather get the winner if that we game, as we won't have to see Latos or the lefty we can't hit

I see Pitt and the reds as the most beatable teams in the playoffs.

I'd much rather see them than Kershaw and Grienke twice in a 5 game series.

Dodgers down 3-0 to the Giants, BTW.

I would have to agree with that. You can't leave room for a situational pitcher in the playoffs, especially if Matheny is forced to burn through pitchers like LaRussa did in 2011.

Here's a question:

Assume the Cardinals win the first game of the series against the Cubs: Do they just start Westbrook two games in a row? I would.

Home field advantage is still in play. Depends on what happens to L.A. and Atlanta.

I forgot that Kelly was pitching the Saturday game.

Just stick with your normal rotation and give the Sunday game to Carlos if you absolutely need it, and throw Westbrook to the wolves if you don't.

L.A.'s pretty much out of it at this point - they did lose to the Giants last night. Hopefully the Phillies will take a chunk out of Atlanta. It sure would be nice to secure HFA and not have to worry about the last couple of games.

We need one win and one Atl loss for HFA. Or two wins no matter what Atl does correct?

No. Atlanta is half a game behind us, and they have four to play - they play tonight while we're off. If they win tonight, we're tied going into the last series.

They host Philly at home, which should be a taller order than us hosting the Cubs.

They lose tonight and one more my scenario above becomes a reality?

Atlanta wins the tiebreaker because they won the season series. We have to finish with a better record.

If they go 2-2 to finish, we need to go 2-1. If they go 3-1, we have to sweep. If they go 1-3 to finish we need to go 1-2. If they lose out, we're golden. If they win out, they get it.

I wouldn't blow Waino on Sunday to get HFA against the Braves. We will need him twice in the division series.

I agree with that.

If you really want the game use Lyons and Martinez and make it a bullpen game.

But you would every other day of the week. Such a great fan :)

I don't understand your comment.

Edited the post above to help clarify the snipe.

Wainwright could pitch Saturday and still have 4 days off before game 1.

I don't want Wainwright pitching until the playoffs. He needs to be fully rested.

Over-resting pitchers is just as bad as under-resting them. Wainwright would be on 9 days rest. Pitchers held out that long are generally very wild, especially in the early innings.

He's like that when he's overused. I'd rather take my chances with rested.

THIS!

Or just have him pitch a couple of innnings on Saturday. Without Waino being Waino, we are looking at a quick exit.

Adam Wainwright will start Saturday against the Cubs.

This will lineup him up to start Game 1 of the NLDS next Thursday. Wainwright is 18-9 with a 3.01 ERA this season

I like this move; let's go for home field advantage!

Well, they goddamn well better keep him on a short leash. If he's throwing his 120th pitch in the 8th inning I'll go Frigidaire on Matheny. :grr:

Also, does anybody know if the radio feed is easy to get for these games, or do you have to pay extra? I'll get stuck with the ****ing Cub announcers for this, and I'd rather not listen to them whine about sucking for a 100 years while the Cardinals are celebrating a division win. Would be better to delay the game enough to match the radio broadcast over the internet and turn the sound off on the TV.

I just got an update on my phone that says Craig has a lisfranc injury.

****.

Cardinals general manger John Mozeliak said Friday that Allen Craig (foot) is "very doubtful" to be available for the NLDS.

Craig has missed most of September with a foot sprain and the Cardinals will continue to go the conservative route with his recovery. While this is a tough blow for the team's playoff chances, Matt Adams has played very well in his absence.

Yep, Mo said out for NLDS. Sucks.

:( that's a pisser. At least Adams is on a hot streak.

This whole series is free on mlb.tv. Don't know if you'll be blacked out though.

Thanks for the info. :thumb:

I'm blacked out of the video, but not the audio. So I can at least listen to KMOX. Thank God.

It's funny, the internet radio feed is actually about two seconds ahead of the DTV feed. I figured it would be the other way around.

Stomp the scrubs

Stomping well underway.

Tomorrow start time moved due to weather. Gonna be some pissed off folks

It is delicious

****ing Braves just won.

That catch by Jay might actually impress Hamas. :D

1 out away from the NL Central Championship.

One of the best organizations in all of sports clinch their division again. Simply outstanding. A tip of the hat, gentlemen.

2013 Central Division Champs. :thumb:

"That's a winner!"

I like that locker room shirt. I think I'll get one of those.

I'm here to see what winning feels like.

Congrats.

Thanks.

It feels pretty good.

My other teams are the Chiefs and Mizzou. The Cards keep me from ****ing murdering people.

if it stands as is. Its the Dodgers vs Cardinals in game one.

Im Assuming Kershaw vs Wainwright?

Yep. I don't really see this changing, either. Philly's nearly as wretched at this point as Chicago, and they already wasted Lee.

Should be a great series, one that may go 7. I dont know who our 3rd starter is, but i do know Donnie said its Kershaw and Grienke.

We have beat Kershaw twice this year. Hopefully, there will be a 3rd!:p

Should be good series all the way around. I think (and hope) that Pittsburgh gets in over Cincinnati, and they're a real pain in the ass. They can give anybody trouble.

You guys finally got to root for a winner. Same path we took, the Royals can. Going to have to draft and develop better but its possible to beat the $200 million payrolls/$2 BILLION TV contracts of LA and NY.

he's lost like 9 times. His era ended up at 1.83. For a while he was getting absolutely no run support. Losing games 2-1 and 1-0. It was ridiculous the games he's lost this year. Think he only gave up 4 runs at the most in one game all year and that was like 2 weeks ago.

Looks like Holliday is going to get his usual .300/20/100 too.

You got to give it up for the guy. When Molina went down, he turned it up. With Craig out, he has kept the foot on the gas pedal.

I was just poking ya. Kershaw is one of the best in the game. He will be damn tuff to beat.

Every time I let up on Holliday he tanks.

SO **** YOU HOLLIDAY. TRY TO CATCH THE GODDAMN LAZY FLIES BALLS THIS TIME YOU ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

:cuss:

I like those too.:clap: