LA had all the best of it in terms of the big name pitchers in the first two games of the series. But that reverses tonight. After no names Joe Kelly and Mike Wacha matched Greinke/Kershaw pitch per pitch - it's the RedBirds who have the stud out there tonight.
Wainwright doesn't attract all the hype that surrounds flashy, high octane leftys like Kershaw or a Chapman - or even that of his higher profile fellow RHers Verlander/Scherzer - but he's as good as any pitcher in the game. A perfect balance of talent and toughness - my kind of pitcher - a winner out of the Chris Carpenter/Jake Peavy mold - the bigger the game the better he is. In the div series vs Pirates he had 2 W's - allowed 2 runs over 16 - had 20Ks against one BB - and a .185 BA against. In his last 23 innings of playoff baseball he's given up 3 earned runs. This year he's dropped the SL for the cutter and is mixing it up more than ever with the two FBs and the wipeout curve.
As to Ryu - he'll be working his 2nd MLB playoff game ever - and the 1st one did not go too well. Starting game 3 of the NLDS vs Atlanta - he gave up 4 runs in 3 innings on 68 pitches. And he'll be under a lot more pressure tonight. The Dodgers did, however, win that game - not because of him but in spite of him. A quote from him this week (unless it was a really bad translation) is all you need to know to take Wainwright here. Ryu apparently doesn't think it's that important to pitch deep into games in October: "If I was out there for 5 inn I'd be more than happy." He actually said that. Wow. Bob Gibson he's not.
Plus the LAD lineup is really pressing - 1 for 16 w/ RISP this series and there's a lot of pressure on Puig. A lot of Dodger fans may have had him in the HOF after 2 mos in the bigs - but he's 1 for 10 in this series w/ 6K's - 4 of them in the crucial game 2. No sport can humble a guy more than baseball.
With Hanley Ramirez hurting and Ethier hobbled as well, the Dodgers are really struggling to score runs. They haven't scored in 20 innings since that single up the middle by Uribe got under Kelly's glove in game 1. With Wainwright out there and the Cards bullpen looking great (Rosenthal was smokin' in game 2 Saturday - struck out the side in the 9th - Ethier no chance on 3 straight FBs) - the Dodgers L/U has a tough row to hoe.
Ryu did win his only appearance vs Cards this year and vice versa with Wainwright - but that was then and this is now - the Dodgrs are suddenly looking Pre-Puig.
Cards 5 inn 1 Unit.
Cards game 2 Units
Cards Run Line 1 Unit.
The 5 inning play went to money heaven. A couple of very uncharacteristic mistakes by the RebBirds on D and on the bases. Ryu has pitched well and doesn't need any such help
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Cards - Dodgers #3
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