Tweet
Slumping Cardinals In LA To Face Struggling Dodgers
If the St. Louis Cardinals can qualify for the postseason, it looks like it won’t resemble how they did it a year ago when literally flying down the stretch to make up what was once a 10½-game deficit to the Braves in the NL Wild card race in late August.
Instead, this season the Cards appear to be hanging on for dear life as they ride on fumes in September while other contenders, such as the Dodgers, continue to flounder.
Appropriate then, perhaps, that St. Louis and Los Angeles get together for a four-game series this weekend at Chavez Ravine, maybe the tonic each needs to revive flagging playoff hopes. But only one of these sides can exit the weekend having picked up any momentum. The way each has been playing lately, a stalemate is more likely while the menacing shadows of Philadelphia and Milwaukee, each inhaling ground in the playoff chase over the past few weeks, move into more-serious wild card contention.
The first of the weekend set between the Redbirds and the Vin Scullys takes place Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, with St. Louis sending ex-Ole Miss Rebel Lance Lynn to the mound to face L.A.’s Josh Beckett. First pitch at the Ravine is scheduled for 10:10 p.m. (ET); those with satellite or extended cable packages can pick up the action on either Fox Sports Midwest or Fox Sports Prime Ticket.
Very early MLB odds made the Dodgers $1.30 favorites with a Game 1 total of 7½ runs priced to the 'under.'
Recent results indicate that neither of these teams appears in the mood for a sprint to the wire in these final three weeks of the season. Entering respective Wednesday games, the Cards had lost 10 of 14 (including 7 of the last 8 on the road) while the Dodgers had dropped 13 of their last 20. Yet, as of midweek, St. Louis still retained a one-game lead over L.A. for the final NL wild card spot, although the fading Pirates (still only three games back as of Wednesday) and the surging Brewers and Phillies (both just four games back at midweek) were rapidly entering the frame.
The Cards are rolling the dice that putting Lynn back in the rotation will provide a boost to a sagging staff that hadn’t delivered a quality start in 12 straight road outings prior to Adam Wainwright’s Tuesday effort in San Diego (where only two of the five runs he allowed were earned). Lynn has not started a game since getting drilled on August 24 at Cincinnati when allowing four runs and six hits in just two innings of work. His last six outings have all been in a relief role.
For the season, Lynn’s numbers don’t look so bad (14-7 record and 4.04 ERA), but note that much of the positive was accomplished in the first portion of the season when the Redbirds won the first six and 15 of Lynn’s initial 20 starts. Since June 19, Lynn has posted a subpar 5.97 ERA. He was also mostly ineffective in an early-season start at L.A., allowing four runs and nine hits in 6 IP of an eventual 6-5 St. Louis loss.
Of course, the Dodgers were playing a lot better in the first half of the season, too. But they have been in a steady descent since June and have yet to pull themselves of out of a nosedive in recent weeks.
Unlike the Cardinals, however, L.A.’s main problem in recent weeks has been at the plate, where they entered Wednesday’s game at Arizona having scored just 25 runs in their last 11 games. It hasn’t helped that star OF Matt Kemp has been in and out of the lineup the past week with shoulder problems; Kemp ended a recent 0-for-13 slump with a double in the seventh inning of a 1-0 loss to the D-backs on Tuesday night.
But the lineup problems have been widespread, as Los Angeles continues to suffer from a lack of reliable table-setters in a batting order that seems more interested in swinging for the fences and posting gaudy stats. Opposing pitchers, however, have been able to effectively pitch around the free-swingers in the lineup such as Kemp, Andre Ethier and the recently-added Hanley Ramirez.
All of the Dodgers’ recent trade maneuvers haven’t helped much, either, including the addition of Thursday’s starting pitcher Beckett, whose inclusion in the recent blockbuster deal with the Red Sox could turn out to be quite dubious for the Blue. Beckett has been ineffective in two of three starts since the move from Boston, and his numbers over the past month are revealing; his Bosox and Dodger teams have won just one of his last six starts, as he has posted a 6.69 ERA in those outings.
The series pattern this season, however, has favored the home team, with the Dodgers sweeping three at the Ravine in mid-May but then losing three in late July at Busch Stadium.
If the St. Louis Cardinals can qualify for the postseason, it looks like it won’t resemble how they did it a year ago when literally flying down the stretch to make up what was once a 10½-game deficit to the Braves in the NL Wild card race in late August.
Instead, this season the Cards appear to be hanging on for dear life as they ride on fumes in September while other contenders, such as the Dodgers, continue to flounder.
Appropriate then, perhaps, that St. Louis and Los Angeles get together for a four-game series this weekend at Chavez Ravine, maybe the tonic each needs to revive flagging playoff hopes. But only one of these sides can exit the weekend having picked up any momentum. The way each has been playing lately, a stalemate is more likely while the menacing shadows of Philadelphia and Milwaukee, each inhaling ground in the playoff chase over the past few weeks, move into more-serious wild card contention.
The first of the weekend set between the Redbirds and the Vin Scullys takes place Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, with St. Louis sending ex-Ole Miss Rebel Lance Lynn to the mound to face L.A.’s Josh Beckett. First pitch at the Ravine is scheduled for 10:10 p.m. (ET); those with satellite or extended cable packages can pick up the action on either Fox Sports Midwest or Fox Sports Prime Ticket.
Very early MLB odds made the Dodgers $1.30 favorites with a Game 1 total of 7½ runs priced to the 'under.'
Recent results indicate that neither of these teams appears in the mood for a sprint to the wire in these final three weeks of the season. Entering respective Wednesday games, the Cards had lost 10 of 14 (including 7 of the last 8 on the road) while the Dodgers had dropped 13 of their last 20. Yet, as of midweek, St. Louis still retained a one-game lead over L.A. for the final NL wild card spot, although the fading Pirates (still only three games back as of Wednesday) and the surging Brewers and Phillies (both just four games back at midweek) were rapidly entering the frame.
The Cards are rolling the dice that putting Lynn back in the rotation will provide a boost to a sagging staff that hadn’t delivered a quality start in 12 straight road outings prior to Adam Wainwright’s Tuesday effort in San Diego (where only two of the five runs he allowed were earned). Lynn has not started a game since getting drilled on August 24 at Cincinnati when allowing four runs and six hits in just two innings of work. His last six outings have all been in a relief role.
For the season, Lynn’s numbers don’t look so bad (14-7 record and 4.04 ERA), but note that much of the positive was accomplished in the first portion of the season when the Redbirds won the first six and 15 of Lynn’s initial 20 starts. Since June 19, Lynn has posted a subpar 5.97 ERA. He was also mostly ineffective in an early-season start at L.A., allowing four runs and nine hits in 6 IP of an eventual 6-5 St. Louis loss.
Of course, the Dodgers were playing a lot better in the first half of the season, too. But they have been in a steady descent since June and have yet to pull themselves of out of a nosedive in recent weeks.
Unlike the Cardinals, however, L.A.’s main problem in recent weeks has been at the plate, where they entered Wednesday’s game at Arizona having scored just 25 runs in their last 11 games. It hasn’t helped that star OF Matt Kemp has been in and out of the lineup the past week with shoulder problems; Kemp ended a recent 0-for-13 slump with a double in the seventh inning of a 1-0 loss to the D-backs on Tuesday night.
But the lineup problems have been widespread, as Los Angeles continues to suffer from a lack of reliable table-setters in a batting order that seems more interested in swinging for the fences and posting gaudy stats. Opposing pitchers, however, have been able to effectively pitch around the free-swingers in the lineup such as Kemp, Andre Ethier and the recently-added Hanley Ramirez.
All of the Dodgers’ recent trade maneuvers haven’t helped much, either, including the addition of Thursday’s starting pitcher Beckett, whose inclusion in the recent blockbuster deal with the Red Sox could turn out to be quite dubious for the Blue. Beckett has been ineffective in two of three starts since the move from Boston, and his numbers over the past month are revealing; his Bosox and Dodger teams have won just one of his last six starts, as he has posted a 6.69 ERA in those outings.
The series pattern this season, however, has favored the home team, with the Dodgers sweeping three at the Ravine in mid-May but then losing three in late July at Busch Stadium.
Comment