Adam Wainwright (0-0, 1.59, 1 postseason start) vs. LHP Gio Gonzalez (0-0, 3.60, 1 postseason start). 7:37 PM CT. TBS.

You know the lineup: Jay 8, Beltran 9, Holliday 7, Craig 3, Molina 2, Freese 5, Descalso 4, Kozma 6, Wainwright 1.

Link to game preview article.

this team needs Yadi to step up today big time. He is hitting just .143 so far and must be a force tonight for us to win IMO. Holliday has been about useless(whats new in the playoffs?) with a couple of hits and meaningless RBI with game 3 already in hand. I was a little embarrassed for him yesterday as he made a fool out of himself after striking out twice. It is becoming common for Matt to take strike 3 often right down the middle and then throw a hissy fit at the umpire or some kind of smirk. Get it together Holliday, it was very clear where the strike zone was in the 9th inning and you took 3 straight in the same area. I have faith in Waino but this looks like a microcosm of the entire season. Win two games by a 20-4 score and then drop 3 close ones to loose the series. I am calling this one for Washington  fellas. 3-2. All in all it was a good season but they were just not a good enough team to win it all. St.Louis future is bright though with a 100 win season in the cards very soon.

You would think that Gonzalez will be much sharper tonight than he was in game one, which does not bode well for us.

This series is a microcosm of our season, a comment I made earlier. Another way to say it is this is a latter-day five game replay of the 1960 World Series, where the Yankees pounded the Pirates in three games, but lost all the close ones. We've outscored the Nats by 14 runs in four games, yet it's 2-2. We just do not win low-scoring close games very often.

It's a pretty simple deal here - if we score a few runs, chances are the other club is not going to keep up with us and we'll win it. But if we get to the last third of the game and are involved in a low scoring affair, then chances are we'll lose.

If Gonzalez pitches his average game and keeps us to say 2 or 3 runs over 7 or 8 innings, we'll probably come up short.

bicyclemike wrote: You would think that Gonzalez will be much sharper tonight than he was in game one, which does not bode well for us.

This series is a microcosm of our season, a comment I made earlier. Another way to say it is this is a latter-day five game replay of the 1960 World Series, where the Yankees pounded the Pirates in three games, but lost all the close ones. We've outscored the Nats by 14 runs in four games, yet it's 2-2. We just do not win low-scoring close games very often.

It's a pretty simple deal here - if we score a few runs, chances are the other club is not going to keep up with us and we'll win it. But if we get to the last third of the game and are involved in a low scoring affair, then chances are we'll lose.

If Gonzalez pitches his average game and keeps us to say 2 or 3 runs over 7 or 8 innings, we'll probably come up short.

Funny thing is we posted at the exact same time BM. Scary!

Wainwright needs a big game today. He's a pressure pitcher and I'd rather have him going than anyone else.

Lohse pitched well yesterday, it's a shame we couldn't get the win for him. I'll miss him next year.

cardinalnationhouston wrote: this team needs Yadi to step up today big time. He is hitting just .143 so far and must be a force tonight for us to win IMO. Holliday has been about useless (whats new in the playoffs?) with a couple of hits and meaningless RBI with game 3 already in hand. I was a little embarrassed for him yesterday as he made a fool out of himself after striking out twice. It is becoming common for Matt to take strike 3 often right down the middle and then throw a hissy fit at the umpire or some kind of smirk. Get it together Holliday, it was very clear where the strike zone was in the 9th inning and you took 3 straight in the same area. I have faith in Waino but this looks like a microcosm of the entire season. Win two games by a 20-4 score and then drop 3 close ones to loose the series. I am calling this one for Washington  fellas. 3-2. All in all it was a good season but they were just not a good enough team to win it all. St.Louis future is bright though with a 100 win season in the cards very soon.

Matt Holliday's career OPS: .923

Matt Holliday's playoff OPS: .854

Which includes a 2011 NLCS OPS of 1.152.....OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and lest we forget the Wild Card game when he went 2 for 3 with a HR for an OPS of 2.417.

Without Matt Holliday, we don't make the playoffs.  Without Matt Holliday, we don't make the NLDS....

Hopefully the strike zone has more consistency today. We're an offense that is very successful when patient at the plate. Yet yesterday's moving zone prevented us from being able to do that, and the result was no offense and a ton of K's.

I'm actually going to argue that Gio wasn't that bad in his last start. He did walk 7 guys in 5 innings, which is absolutely ridiculous. And in that regard it was a horrific start for him. But he still limited us to just one hit and even with 7 walks we only scored two runs off him. If he can maintain that level of pitching, while getting the walks back under control, we could be in for a world of hurt.

We got good Adam last start, and we'll need that same Adam one more time. Along with a little help from the offense.

RedbirdExpress wrote: Wainwright needs a big game today. He's a pressure pitcher and I'd rather have him going than anyone else.

Lohse pitched well yesterday, it's a shame we couldn't get the win for him. I'll miss him next year.

Despite coming off as a Lohse-hater (because I don't want to resign him), I will miss him as well next year. 

Glad to start a new era though too.

RedbirdExpress wrote:
Lohse pitched well yesterday, it's a shame we couldn't get the win for him. I'll miss him next year.

I'll miss him too. Hope he gets paid mucho dinero with an American League team and has a strong finish to his career. Although, I'm also hoping that yesterday wasn't his last start of 2012...

cardinalnationhouston wrote: Holliday has been about useless(whats new in the playoffs?) with a couple of hits and meaningless RBI with game 3 already in hand. I was a little embarrassed for him yesterday as he made a fool out of himself after striking out twice. It is becoming common for Matt to take strike 3 often right down the middle and then throw a hissy fit at the umpire or some kind of smirk. Get it together Holliday, it was very clear where the strike zone was in the 9th inning and you took 3 straight in the same area.

Holliday batted in the 8th not 9th and if the same strike zone that applied in Holliday's AB was applied to Werth's AB, Werth doesn't hit a walkoff HR as he would be heading to the bat rack 3 pitches into his AB

PadsFS wrote:

cardinalnationhouston wrote: this team needs Yadi to step up today big time. He is hitting just .143 so far and must be a force tonight for us to win IMO. Holliday has been about useless (whats new in the playoffs?) with a couple of hits and meaningless RBI with game 3 already in hand. I was a little embarrassed for him yesterday as he made a fool out of himself after striking out twice. It is becoming common for Matt to take strike 3 often right down the middle and then throw a hissy fit at the umpire or some kind of smirk. Get it together Holliday, it was very clear where the strike zone was in the 9th inning and you took 3 straight in the same area. I have faith in Waino but this looks like a microcosm of the entire season. Win two games by a 20-4 score and then drop 3 close ones to loose the series. I am calling this one for Washington  fellas. 3-2. All in all it was a good season but they were just not a good enough team to win it all. St.Louis future is bright though with a 100 win season in the cards very soon.

Matt Holliday's career OPS: .923

Matt Holliday's playoff OPS: .854

Which includes a 2011 NLCS OPS of 1.152.....OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and lest we forget the Wild Card game when he went 2 for 3 with a HR for an OPS of 2.417.

Without Matt Holliday, we don't make the playoffs.  Without Matt Holliday, we don't make the NLDS....

You beat me too it Pads, I was about to quote the exact same stats.  Don't let facts get in the way of a good argument.  Catman covered the strikezone issues as well.  If he swings at those balls he strikes out swinging instead of looking.  That third strike was especially off the plate.  Holliday is an extremely valuable member of this team despite misconceptions by some.

I'm sweating bullets about today's game. Gotta win.

cardinalnationhouston wrote:

bicyclemike wrote: You would think that Gonzalez will be much sharper tonight than he was in game one, which does not bode well for us.

This series is a microcosm of our season, a comment I made earlier. Another way to say it is this is a latter-day five game replay of the 1960 World Series, where the Yankees pounded the Pirates in three games, but lost all the close ones. We've outscored the Nats by 14 runs in four games, yet it's 2-2. We just do not win low-scoring close games very often.

It's a pretty simple deal here - if we score a few runs, chances are the other club is not going to keep up with us and we'll win it. But if we get to the last third of the game and are involved in a low scoring affair, then chances are we'll lose.

If Gonzalez pitches his average game and keeps us to say 2 or 3 runs over 7 or 8 innings, we'll probably come up short.

Funny thing is we posted at the exact same time BM. Scary!

We did. Pretty much on the same page on this.

This game looks almost too easy to pick. It just looks like a low-scoring close win for Washington, along the lines of 3-1, 3-2, maybe even another 2-1 game.

It's practically telling you that you can make some quick easy cash by putting your hard earned dollars on Washington. So for that very reason, I can see us winning as things that look too easy to pick seem to often come up the other way.

The last time I can recall a game this easy to pick where I won, was that Super Bowl awhile back between Tampa Bay and Oakland. That game was easy money as I knew Tampa would roll all over Oakland, and it actually did play out that way.

But often it seems, the "too easy" games end up going the other way. I'm making a bold prediction that we'll actually reverse course and win a close one, 4-2.

Catman61 wrote:

cardinalnationhouston wrote: Holliday has been about useless(whats new in the playoffs?) with a couple of hits and meaningless RBI with game 3 already in hand. I was a little embarrassed for him yesterday as he made a fool out of himself after striking out twice. It is becoming common for Matt to take strike 3 often right down the middle and then throw a hissy fit at the umpire or some kind of smirk. Get it together Holliday, it was very clear where the strike zone was in the 9th inning and you took 3 straight in the same area.

Holliday batted in the 8th not 9th and if the same strike zone that applied in Holliday's AB was applied to Werth's AB, Werth doesn't hit a walkoff HR as he would be heading to the bat rack 3 pitches into his AB

I completely agree that Werth should have been a SO victim. funny how that played out just like Lohse v.s Atlanta when a clear K was taken away. You could almost see it coming. I do not blame Lynn at all on that one. Sometimes the guy just hits a good pitch. That has nothing to do with Holli however. It was obvious what the pitcher was doing to Matt after the first AB and they went right back to it. He has had AB's lately where he looks like he does not want to swing. He then takes borderline pitches for strikes sometimes two or three in a row and bitches at the ump when called out. When he has bad AB's he has really bad AB's. I think the frustration is finally setting in for him as these poor playoff performances are becoming fairly regular. He had a great series last year v.s Milwaukee but was a non factor against Texas and Philly. He was bad against L.A. He is bad so far here in this series. His blunder against the Dodgers is well remembered but many forget he had another last year in game 6 of the WS as well as a base running blunder that put the team in a terrible situation. The controversy in Atlanta came from Matts failure to hustle and call Kozma off a ball that was 25 feet behind SS. I do agree that the Cardinals would not be where they are w/o him though as he is a consistent numbers producer in the regular season. He is a streaky guy that seems to hit best when the game is already in hand though to my eye. He is a bit of a paper Lion.

Biggest game of the season.

Have to start off well. Not great but grabbing a lead of 1-2 runs would do wonders. I don't expect Gio to be as wild as he has been but Consider this. Gio has 3 starts against the Cardinals this season including the ST. He was awesome in his 1 start in DC. The other 2 we're suspect including the late spring training start where he was touched up for 9 ER. He can be had! We just have to be patient and take the ball the opposite field IMO. Something that 2 guys on this roster IMO (Freese and Molina) do very well.

619illinibooyah wrote: Biggest game of the season.

Have to start off well. Not great but grabbing a lead of 1-2 runs would do wonders. I don't expect Gio to be as wild as he has been but Consider this. Gio has 3 starts against the Cardinals this season including the ST. He was awesome in his 1 start in DC. The other 2 we're suspect including the late spring training start where he was touched up for 9 ER. He can be had! We just have to be patient and take the ball the opposite field IMO. Something that 2 guys on this roster IMO (Freese and Molina) do very well.

Craig and Holliday can drive the ball the other way as well. We've got to take good ABs - be patient and let pitches out of the zone go by, and swing at pitches we can handle.

Easier said than done obviously, but basically we cannot help the opposing pitcher out by swinging at a lot of bad pitches.

cardinalnationhouston wrote:

Catman61 wrote:

cardinalnationhouston wrote: Holliday has been about useless(whats new in the playoffs?) with a couple of hits and meaningless RBI with game 3 already in hand. I was a little embarrassed for him yesterday as he made a fool out of himself after striking out twice. It is becoming common for Matt to take strike 3 often right down the middle and then throw a hissy fit at the umpire or some kind of smirk. Get it together Holliday, it was very clear where the strike zone was in the 9th inning and you took 3 straight in the same area.

Holliday batted in the 8th not 9th and if the same strike zone that applied in Holliday's AB was applied to Werth's AB, Werth doesn't hit a walkoff HR as he would be heading to the bat rack 3 pitches into his AB

I completely agree that Werth should have been a SO victim. funny how that played out just like Lohse v.s Atlanta when a clear K was taken away. You could almost see it coming. I do not blame Lynn at all on that one. Sometimes the guy just hits a good pitch. That has nothing to do with Holli however. It was obvious what the pitcher was doing to Matt after the first AB and they went right back to it. He has had AB's lately where he looks like he does not want to swing. He then takes borderline pitches for strikes sometimes two or three in a row and bitches at the ump when called out. When he has bad AB's he has really bad AB's. I think the frustration is finally setting in for him as these poor playoff performances are becoming fairly regular. He had a great series last year v.s Milwaukee but was a non factor against Texas and Philly. He was bad against L.A. He is bad so far here in this series. His blunder against the Dodgers is well remembered but many forget he had another last year in game 6 of the WS as well as a base running blunder that put the team in a terrible situation. The controversy in Atlanta came from Matts failure to hustle and call Kozma off a ball that was 25 feet behind SS. I do agree that the Cardinals would not be where they are w/o him though as he is a consistent numbers producer in the regular season. He is a streaky guy that seems to hit best when the game is already in hand though to my eye. He is a bit of a paper Lion.

It would be great to see Holliday have a 4 for 5, 2 homer game, but I don't put much stock in a player's post season success - at least as far as assessing his total value or "character" as a player. It's always small sample sizes so there is too much randomness to say much about a player.

Now occasionally a guy will come along like Lou Brock, who was a fabulous World Series player. But you take a guy like Mickey Mantle, who had enough post season appearances to where you would think maybe his numbers would be close to his regular season stats, and sure enough, his World Series OPS is not too far under his regular season OPS. But he had some real clunker World Series performances and some great ones.

In the Series I cited earlier, 1960, which our series against Washington reminds me of, he was fabulous posting a 1.345 OPS. But then two years later in the same number of games, he hit .120 with a double as his only EBH, and had an OPS of .401.

cardinalnationhouston wrote: this team needs Yadi to step up today big time. He is hitting just .143 so far and must be a force tonight for us to win IMO. Holliday has been about useless(whats new in the playoffs?) with a couple of hits and meaningless RBI with game 3 already in hand. I was a little embarrassed for him yesterday as he made a fool out of himself after striking out twice. It is becoming common for Matt to take strike 3 often right down the middle and then throw a hissy fit at the umpire or some kind of smirk. Get it together Holliday, it was very clear where the strike zone was in the 9th inning and you took 3 straight in the same area. I have faith in Waino but this looks like a microcosm of the entire season. Win two games by a 20-4 score and then drop 3 close ones to loose the series. I am calling this one for Washington  fellas. 3-2. All in all it was a good season but they were just not a good enough team to win it all. St.Louis future is bright though with a 100 win season in the cards very soon.

Wow talk about having no idea what you are talking about....seriously how about you post some stats to back up the BS that spews out of your mouth...oh wait cause you have ZERO stats to back it up....

Well, Holliday's career NLDS stats do leave something to be desired

in 14 career NLDS games Matt's slash line is .200/.273/.380/.653

as a Cardinal in the NLDS Matt's slash line is .189/.286/.270/.556
7 hits 1 XBH (a HR)