In the first edition I discussed the heavyweight battle in the American League, and now it's time to take a look at the undercard -- the National League race for the Wild Card. I call this the undercard because there wasn't quite as much drama...but there was still plenty to go around.
Game #1: St. Louis Cardinals @ Houston Astros
No drama in this one, as Cardinals' veteran ace Chris Carpenter shut out the lowly Astros with a complete game, two-hitter. The embarrassingly poor Astros had absolutely no answer for Carpenter's famous curve, nor the outstanding location of his two-seam fastball.
Tony LaRussa's Cards piled up eight runs, including Allen Craig's 11th and final home run of the season. The Cards were riding high after their easy victory, but their immediate future depended on the result of...
Game #2: Philadelphia Phillies @ Atlanta Braves
How about this for a painful scenario: blow an extremely comfortable Wild Card lead, find out that your competition won their final game, get to a save situation to force a one-game playoff, blow the save, lose in extra innings to a hated division rival and manage to miss the playoffs altogether.
Well, that's what happened to Fredi Gonzalez's Braves.
As a Mets fan, I can't say I feel too bad for them. I can empathize with the fans ('07 and '08 Mets), but that's about as far as I'll go. The better team won the Wild Card anyway.
Electric rookie Craig Kimbrel blew the save for Atlanta, but it's obligatory to note that he was severely overworked throughout the latter portion of the season. It's a shame for Kimbrel's psyche; hopefully the Rookie of the Year award will eventually ease his anguish.
Now that we know the Cardinals are in, they are undoubtedly a team to watch. Power hitting left fielder Matt Holliday is reportedly set to return for game 1 of the NLDS, and St. Louis already has a slew of quality bats including the legendary Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman (Comeback Player of the Year), David Freese, Jon Jay and the aforementioned Craig.
Game #3: Cincinnati Reds @ New York Mets
If I were Jose Reyes, I'd have a tough time asking to come out after one hit. Fully aware of the bloodsucking society we live in, ducking out before four at bats is obviously asking for trouble.
Nonetheless, Reyes did earn the National League batting title by finishing the year on an absolute tear. If he didn't hit as well as he did in the final week or so, he definitely would have lost the race to Brewers' superstar Ryan Braun. Reyes deserves congratulations, but he's more likely to receive scrutiny -- maybe for the rest of his career now.
From a financial standpoint, Reyes certainly did the right thing. It must be nice to hit free agency as the batting champion...
Get those checkbooks ready.
Interesting!
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