We have ourselves an NLCS

After the Division Series got off to such a rousing start, the prospects of an LCS to match it seemed remote.

Sure the Tigers and Yankees played a thrilling Game 1 extra inning affair, but it has been overshadowed by Jeter’s injury and the Yankees inept hitting and the fact that Verlander will probably put the Yankees in an 0-3 hole.

And the Cardinals put the Giants in an 0-1 hole with Chris Carpenter on the mound.

Well the Marco Scutaro show began.

First of all, I do not think Matt Holliday’s slide was dirty. I think it may have been overly aggressive but not dirty. And this is the NLCS. Things are going to get rough.

The problem for Holliday was that it came back to bite him when he let Scutaro’s hit roll between his legs to let a fifth run score. And when Scutaro had to leave, Ryan Theriot contributed with a two run single of his own.

But the hero was Ryan Vogelsong. If he stubbed his toe on the mound, then this series would be as good as done.

Now the Giants are heading to St. Louis with Matt Cain on the hill and evidently (and brilliantly) Tim Lincecum on the bump for Game 4.

I am clearly rooting for the Giants so I want them to win in five. But if they can make sure they at least come back to San Francisco up 3-2, then they are in great shape.

Either way, the clash of the last two World Series champs should be more interesting than the rise of the Tigers and the collapse of the Yankee dynasty.

On to St. Louis. Let’s make this fun.

Fly balls to Matt Holliday in the post season are always interesting

Things get really exciting in a Cardinals post season game when someone hits a fly ball to left field. Matt Holliday has become the most unpredictable trouble magnet in left since Manny Ramirez played with the Red Sox.

In last night’s 7-1 blow out by the Giants, the game was blown open when Marco Scutaro hit a two out bases loaded single to left field. (Earlier Holliday slid hard into Scutaro and eventually causing him to leave. Karma would strike Holliday.)

Two runs were going to score to make it 4-1. But the ball rolled through Holliday’s legs and another run came in.

And his strange day did not end there. In the 8th, Aubrey Huff hit a fly ball that hung in the air about about a week and a half. The infielder ran all the way out to left field while Holliday stood there. It dropped in.

Now Sam Holbrook would have called that an infield fly, but it was another adventure in left.

In last year’s World Series Game 6, he had a “I got it! I got it! YOU got it!” moment that dropped in between Holliday and Rafael Furcal.

Only the great Cardinals comeback put that into the background and made it an obscure footnote.

And of course there was the mother of left field miscues.

Game 2 of the 2009 Division Series. 2 outs and nobody on with St. Louis holding to a one run lead. With 2 strikes on the Dodgers’ James Loney, he hit a pop up to left field to end the game.

Except of course it didn’t.

Holliday dropped the ball and the Dodgers went on to rally for two runs and win the game.

The way the Cardinals were so invincible in 2006 and 2011 despite not having home field advantage, I can’t help but wonder if the 2009 team would have done the same if they went back to St. Louis 1-1 rather than 0-2.

We will never know.

Something else we will never know is what will happen when a fly ball is hit to Matt Holliday.

It makes the post season a little more exciting.

His fielding highlights should be edited to Yackety Sax, the Benny Hill theme

Cardinals Are Becoming the Strangest Dynasty in MLB History – A Bleacher Report Article

The Cardinals are like a B- student who turns around and aces the final.
They play just well enough to get into the post season and then it seem like nobody can stop them.

In my latest article for Bleacher Report, I brought up their great recent success and how history will be very kind to the team that looks like a budding dynasty from afar.

You can read the whole article HERE.