GAME 1
The Cardinals didn't give up at the end of the season, being down 10 1/2 games out of the play-off spot, so you can bet that they are goint o fight in this series. Jaime Garcia will take the mound for the Cardinals. Garcia won three in a row to finish the season with a flourish. The 25 year old has a nice 2-1 lifetime record against the heavily favored Phillies, but settled for 2 no decisions during the regular season. Albert Pujols, who is nursing a sore right heel, delivered the final blow with a run-scoring single in the seventh to give his team a 5-4 victory. Pujols has struggled versus Hamels going 4-for-23 in his career, but launched a mammoth first-inning homer in their last outing on Sept. 18. Ryan Theriot, who had two hits on Sunday, is 7-for-21 in his career versus Hamels. St. Louis is 9-2 in their last 11 home games.
The Phillies have have seen this Cardinal team knock around Cliff Lee for 4 runs and they taged The Doc for 3. Now Cole Hamels will take the hill for the Phillies hoping to to bring this series in their favor 2-1. Hamels, under normal circumstances have put the Phillies in a good spot in the post-season. The 27year-old lefty was the 2008 World Series MVP and has six career postseason victories heading into a Game 3 matchup Tuesday against the Cardinals and Jaime Garcia. With the best-of-five NL division series tied at one apiece, this is not a stage likely to rattle Hamels. But he has been rattled a little here at the end of the season. Hamels is just 2-3 in his career versus the Cardinals, dropping his lone outing on Sept. 18. He permitted four runs on seven hits in seven innings in a 5-0 loss. It has been nearly a month since Hamels got a strike in the win column and is 0-3 in his last 3 starts with an ERA of 4.26. Both Howard and Rollins have struggled against Garcia, going 2-for-11 and 1-for-11, respectively. I orginally liked the Phillies to get this win but the numbers here show differently gotta back the Cardinals here.
You are right about the stats of the pitchers against their current opponents and their late-form but you have to notice that Phillies' job is done at the end of the season, they gave up a lot of games lately and they were not focus. On the other hand, Cardinals seemed completely focused and they were on fire against weak teams for the WC. This will be a different game and I think Hamels should have a better game than Jaime.
GAME 2
The Milwaukee Brewers are one win away from their first postseason series victory since 1982. Shaun Marcum will get the call for the Brewers. Marcum had one of his worst starts closing out the season, getting torched for seven runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings against light-hitting Pittsburgh. The righthander went 1-2 with a 6.66 ERA in his final four outings. Marcum went six innings against Arizona on July 4, yielding four runs on seven hits in a no decision, But the Milwaukee right-hander has done fr well on the road than at home posting an 8-3 record with an ERA of just 2.21. whle the Brewer's have had a rough season in hostile territory, they have played their best ball on the road behind Marcum winning 10 of his 16 road starts. All 3 of Marcum's previous starts were loses at Miller Park.
Josh Collmenter will counter for the Diamondbacks. It is win or season over for the Diamondbacks. Collmenter finished up the regular season with a win over San Francisco on Sept. 25 and recorded a quality start in seven of his last nine turns. The 25-year old did have some trouble keeping the ball in the yard toward the end, surrendering five homers in his last three games. Collmenter made two starts against Milwaukee, allowing a total of six hits in 14 scoreless innings with Arizona going 1-1 in thosde games. It's going to be too little too laste for the Diamondbacks as the Brewer's finish the sweep tonight.
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Nlds on tuesday
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