Playoff time baby!

     No, I'm not talking about the Alley Cats.  We still have several games of fantasy football to play before we get to the playoffs.  Which by the way, the Alley Cats will have to finish strong to make.  No, tonight I am talking about the Major League Baseball playoffs.  That's right!  The St. Louis Cardinals made a mad dash to the finish line, and with a little help (as blogged about last week), made it in, and have been making some noise!  Saturday night in game 1, the Cardinals faced arguably, the best pitcher in the game right now.  Roy Halladay, who pitches for the Philadelphia Phillies.  Now.....just a few quick facts about the Phillies.  They had the best record in baseball this year.  They have a RIDICULOUS, starting pitching staff!  They have two of the best pitchers in the game, at the front end of the rotation-the aforementioned Halladay, and Cliff Lee.  Now, since the Cardinals were the Wild Card team going into the playoffs, they traveled to Philadelphia to start the series.  And, like I said earlier, opened up against Halladay.  We countered with Kyle Lohse, who has had a decent season.  I would of liked to had a little better, but truthfully....I can't really complain with what we got out of Lohse this year.  The game started out great!  Lance Berkman, hit a huge 3-run homerun in the top of the 1st inning and we were off.  Lohse was pitching great.  He was mixing up speeds, location, pitches...he really kept the hitters off balance through the first 4 innings or so.  Ran into a bit of trouble a bit in the fifth and gave up 3 runs, then the train came off the tracks in the 6th with 3 more.  The bullpen didn't offer him any reprieve and gave up 5 runs themselves.  But, the Cardinals showed grit and battled to the end.  Something they didn't do at all last year.  Final score of the game was 11-6. 

     Sunday night, we faced the other ace....Cliff Lee.  We pounded him!  Oh, it was great.  Now, that night we countered with our ace, Chris Carpenter.  Who was pitching on short rest.  Typically, starting pitchers get about 5 days rest between starts.  He was going on 3.  He didn't pitch well to start the game.  Walked some batters, gave up a few hits, all told he went 3 inning and gave up 4 runs.  The bullpen, which was not good to say the least in game 1, was spectacular in game 2!  They came in and gave up 0 runs the rest of the way, and the Cards battled back and scored 5 to take game 2.  Game 3, I would rather not talk about.  The series shifted back to St. Louis, for games 3 & 4.  Our manager pretty much gave the game to the Phillies.  A few bad decisions by him, and long story short...the Cards lose 3-2.  Game 4 went about as opposite, as I thought it would go.  Phillies come roaring out of the gate, and score 2 runs in the 1st inning.  Which, I would be lying if at this point, I said I knew we would come back....I was ready to pack it in for the winter.  I should also say, that the opening round of the playoffs in baseball is a best of 5 series.  So, with the Phillies already holding a 2 game to 1 lead, if the Cardinals lost game 4, it really would have been over.  But, this Cardinal team looks nothing like the Cardinal team in late August.  And again, we battled back to score 5 runs.  Final score of game 4 was 5-3. 

     The series shifts back to Philadelphia now for game 5, which is tonight.  I am extremely nervous!  I actually have the game on now, as I type.  So, if there are some words that aren't exactly spelled correctly cut me some slack!  That said, everyone have a good weekend,  and go Cards!