For a moment, this one looked like it could be interesting. St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter, who walked a total of nine batters in the first inning all season, walked three in the first inning of Game 4 of the NLDS. And that was after giving up two singles. The Padres were given the rare gift of an ace pitcher out of sorts, his curve ball all over the place, and they exploited that situation to the tune of…two runs. Two, runs. With the bases loaded and one out, after Carpenter had walked in a run, Mike Cameron had to beat out a double play ball to plate a second run. And that would be it. Carpenter would regain his composure, and the Padres would go back to their flailing ways.
Here’s the most damning stat of the series: San Diego was 2-32 with runners in scoring position. Wow.
Watching the performance by St. Louis, along with the Tigers’ upset of the Yankees, is a testament to Tony Kornheiser’s adage that momentum is tomorrow’s starting pitcher. It didn’t make a lick of difference that both teams were on the verge of historical collapses at the end of the regular season. All that matters now is that they’re in the Show, and both teams are ready to play. Just like the White Sox last year.
St. Louis now heads to New York to take on the M*A*S*H unit New York Mets, who lost Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez before the NLDS (anyone else out there thing Pedro is pretty much done?), and are now looking at losing Cliff Floyd to his lingering Achilles injury. What once seemed like a done deal for the Mets early in the season is looking like a mixed bag at best now. That should make for an interesting series, hopefully more interesting than either NLDS series was.
