Baseball- GO Cardinals!

[KBCraig]

Darn internet connection at work went out tonight, so I couldn't post my #2 until now.

But how about high fives all around? Thanks for your support, guys!



 

[KBCraig]

Damnyankees!

(yes, all one word!)

[Swoosh]

Tonight is looking like "the night"

Go Cards and Go Brew Crew

[Swoosh]

Grrr... Cards had to go and make it interesting.

If the Cubs lose tomorrow against San Fran, the Cards will clinch it on an "off day"

[KBCraig]

A lose/lose night only takes us halfway there. That makes the magic number:



And how does that make you feel, Mr. Smith?

[KBCraig]

(Even though I love Albert, Ozzie is my all-time favorite Cardinal. I'm still ticked that they let Eckstein get away, because I thought he was the next Ozzie.)

[Zephon]

^My favorite all-time is Bob Gibson, although Ozzie was a great one.

I'd say our chances of clinching tonight, without having to play a game, are about 50/50.  Dempster against Penny.  SF's lack of offense would tend to favor Chicago for this game, but tomorrow night, SF has Lincecum pitching so that would favor SF, and a clinch, even if we lose against Colorado. 

[sdcforever]

^I keep thinking about how it would be a shame for us to clinch tonight without playing a game.  I love watching the celebration in the locker room after they clinch!   They might do it tomorrow night, win or lose, after playing Colorado even if they actually clinch tonight; if they do, I don't think it would have the same feel.

As for winning against Colorado tomorrow night, I like our chances.  Carp vs. a so-so RH named Cook; Cook's not a rookie or an unknown, so that helps.  We rely so much on video to succeed against pitchers.  Whoever we play in the 1st round would be smart to just bring up some promising pitchers from their AAA squad to face us.  If they did, we'd probably get swept.

[KBCraig]

Rockies walk-off and Cubs win leaves us stuck. 

[sdcforever]

^This team is maddening right now.  Night in and night out we gets the hit and we get on base, but we can't follow through.  Last night we out-hit the Rockies 8 to 6, but we still lost.  Well, we can clinch tonight with a win (or Cubs loss)--Waino vs. U. Jimenez.  The Cubs play at 3:10 on Fox--Gorzelanny vs. Zito; call me crazy, but I'd rather the Cubs win this afternoon and we clinch with a win tonight.  Not clinching on the field is so anticlimactic.

More bad news:  Talks with Matt Holliday are on hold until after the Cards exit the playoffs.  If we make it to the World Series we will only have a 15 day window after the Series is over to try to sign him before he enters free agency.  If all he cares about is money he will walk.  We can't compete with a NY or LA team in the money department; we need money to extend AP's contract.  It'll be too bad if he walks because he really provides protection for Pujols; Luddy's good, but he doesn't put up the numbers Holliday does.  I'm hoping Holliday cares more about the intangibles than he does about money; if not, we gave up a lot for a three month rental.  Here's the article:  http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/E8CDDC6F02E403FF8625763D000B2798?OpenDocument

[Zephon]

The St. Louis Cardinals are 2009's National League Central Champions!  A tense and exciting game against Colorado in which Waino gave a gutsy, if imperfect, performance, striking out 11, Jason LaRue hit a go ahead HR in relief of an injured Molina in the 7th, and Franklin weathered a valiant come back attempt in the bottom of the 9th to secure a 6-3 win.  A total team effort.  Now the task becomes to try and secure home field advantage while resting up for the post season.

GO CARDINALS!!!!!



edit:  My bad on jumping the gun with the NL Champion rather than Central division champ thing.  Don't know how I missed that.  It's corrected now.

[KBCraig]

The St. Louis Cardinals are 2009's National League Champions!

Make that the 2009 NL Central Division Champions. We won't award the NL pennant until the playoffs. 

Key points: the Cards are the first MLB team to clinch. They have now won the division 6 times in this decade. Wainwright is the first NL pitcher this year to hit 19 wins. He struck out 10+ in two straight starts, the first Card to do so since Rick Ankiel in 2000 (remember when Ankiel was a pitcher?!?). This is the first time we've hit 90 wins since '05, and the first trip to the post season since winning the Series in '06.

Goooooooooo Cards!

[sdcforever]

^Also of note, with 11 strikeouts yesterday Waino now has 204 K's on the year!

I don't know about being able to secure home field.  LA has a three game lead over us with only 7 games to go.  It's possible, but if Tony rests a bunch of our starters the rest of the way I don't think it'll happen.

GO CARDS!!!!

[themeparkguy]

Congrats to the redbirds!

[rubedugans]

Great nod to Missouri's vintners with the celebration! I believe it was Mount Pleasant, or one of the other local Augusta wineries that supplied the "bubbly" for the clinch party.