My Cards are Huge Favorites Over Bob B's Dodgers

[Vince P]

It's official as I expected (and heard).

Yanks play tomorrow (WED) which means the World Champs play at 3:37:17pm, western time on Thursday afternoon.

Be there or be square.

Vince Pierre

[Joel]

3:30 mid-week games in L.A. = East Coast-directed bulllove.

Bet the Under..the sun will play havoc with the batters in Game 2..

[Dgstan]

It's official as I expected (and heard).

Yanks play tomorrow (WED) which means the World Champs play at 3:37:17pm, western time on Thursday afternoon.

Be there or be square.

Vince Pierre

This is better traffic-wise.

[Bob B]

Midwesterners are pleased with that starting time so we don't have to stay up to watch the game. I'm hoping for a fast game in the opener, which is likely with the probability of a very low scoring game. I wouldn't be surprised if both teams combined don't score 10 runs in the first two games.

[Vince P]

3:30 mid-week games in L.A. = East Coast-directed bulllove.

Bet the Under..the sun will play havoc with the batters in Game 2..

Agree with the havoc but JB, us sissy west coasters have it easy. Can you imagine having to wait until 10:17 every night to see the Yanks or Mets play on the west coast? And some of those games don't end until like 2:17am eastern time.

Now that would suck. I'd be a zombie the next day.

Vince P

[Bob B]

Cardinals do not hit lefties well at all. Lately Cards haven't been hitting anything well at all and the mental mistakes and physical errors over the last three weeks have been disturbing. The bullpen has been horrible over the last month as Ryan Franklin regressed to the mean performances of his average career. There is a worry in the Lou that the players think they can just flip a switch and be good again.

I think the Cardinals should be a slight favorite in a 5 game series, but I would have favored the Dodgers in a 7 game series. To win the Dodgers are going to have to hold the Cardinals to 1 or 2 runs at Dodger Stadium and hope they can get 3 off of Carpenter and/or Wainwright. I don't think they will score that many on either of them, but if they can be within 2 runs and get either of them out of the game by the 8th, the Dodgers will be in great shape. Torre's boys would be well advised to work the count to try and make the big 2 throw a lot of pitches to get them out of the game earlier. Of the two, Wainwright can go a lot longer and throw up to 130 pitches. Carpenter would probably be kept at a max of 110. As for Cardinal batters, Schumaker, Ryan, Pujols and Holliday are all steady. Molina is pretty steady but any groundball he hits with a man on first is an automatic double play. The other bats are extremely streaky. Ludwick, DeRosa, Ankiel, Lugo and Rasmus are all very hit or miss and strikeout an extreme amount. Defensively the outfield is very good with good arms (except the last 3 weeks). DeRosa and Schumaker are average at 2nd and 3rd, Ryan is the best defensive shortstop in the NL but no one knows it yet and Pujols is usually good at first base when he doesn't try to do too much. Molina is the best defensive catcher in baseball, but he's been hurt the last week and it's been obvious. If he's healthy I wouldn't advise running on him. Bullpen, as mentioned, is a disaster. Miller has been pretty good as a lefty specialist, Franklin was great the first five months and horrific in September. Middle relief is very poor, but Smoltz may shore that up against right handed bats.

A lot of nervous folks in the Lou. If this series was played a month ago, there would have been an abundance of confidence, but certainly not now.

[Bob B]

Good win for the Dogs putting an arrow through the heart of Cardinal nation by beating our ace, who probably had his second worst start of the year. Both teams should be embarrassed with their left on base totals. Game could have easily been 10-8. Must win for the Birds today, because our #3 and #4 starters are struggling. The big question in the Lou is whether Carpenter goes on 3 days rest if there is a Game 4. He usually doesn't have two duds in a row. Length of game 1 was ridiculous. I gave up after the 5th and went to bed.

[Dgstan]

Yeah, I think it just got a lot easier for the Boys in Blue. While yes, they should be appalled at the LOB number, there was some clutch pitching and fielding on both sides that caused those guys to get stranded. I love how Belliard and Kemp flubbed an easy fly ball, only for Belliard to start an acrobatic double-play on the next batter and Kemp to jack a two-run shot in the bottom of the inning. I nearly had a heart attack when they brought Weaver in with the bags full, but he was fine and ended up getting the win. Kuo was flawless and Broxton walked a tightrope again.

I thought there was a huge mental lapse by Torre to bring in Broxton the way he did. The pitcher's spot was coming up in the next inning. He should have done a double-switch of some sort, especially when he subbed Hudson in for Belliard the next inning anyway.

Lastly, perhaps the Dodgers can now get a little respect. I haven't seen any media types pick them to win this series and that includes the locals.

[Joel]

Length of game 1 was ridiculous. I gave up after the 5th and went to bed.

Ya..for a moment I thought I was watching one of those 4 hour American League Yankees-Red Sox clusterloves..

[Masterp]

I'm a Cardinals fan, so obviously I was a little disappointed last night. But LA deserved to win and kudos for roughing up the ace of the staff. This afternoons game should be fun.

Kudos to you Dodger fans last night at the stadium. Seemed like a great atmosphere. Loud, into the game and definitely helped the home field advantage.