The St. Louis Cardinals are beating the Pittsburg Pirates in their central division by a mere two game lead. The team that wins will be first in the central division, while the second place team will take the wild card spot.
Cardinals will play the last game against the Colorado Rockies in Denver today at 2 p.m. They will then go on to play a series against the Milwaukee Brewers starting Friday, Sept. 20.
With the Cardinals well into their season, the games become more competitive.
“They are playing sub-500 teams for the next couple of series, and they are playing well. Right now I feel that they will win a majority of their remaining games,” senior Blake Brinkman said, “they are on fire lately.”
Looking at the standings for the World Series, the National League has the Atlanta Braves winning the eastern division, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the western division and closing it off with Cardinals winning the central division.
Overall, the Atlanta Braves are leading with the most wins for the National League, and they will get seeding advantage in the Series.
Senior Sean Sandifer thinks that if the Cardinals can get through the tough National League then they could have a chance at winning the Series.
There is still an opportunity for two underdog teams to make it into the Series: its name is the wild card.
The top two teams in each league that did not win their division have the opportunity to play against each other and go into the Series as a wild card. Right now those two teams are the Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburg Pirates.
“The Cards are in a very tough division with the Pirates and Reds,” senior Jarrod Kolesa said. “Pittsburg and Cincinnati have been playing great all year but they can’t pull ahead of either team.”
“They historically catch fire towards the end of the season especially because they don’t have to play either of those teams anymore,” Kolesa said, all three of those teams will make it to the playoffs whether it’s in the wild-card spot or first in the division.
Looking at the Cards pitchers: Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller “… have been pitching poorly recently. However two rookies, Joe Kelly and Michael Wacha have been doing well starting,” Brinkman said.
Brinkman also thinks the strong part of their pitching game is the bullpen, “…with Rosenthal and Siegrist being good relievers and Mujica being one of the best closers in the National League, and not only is the Cards pitching doing well but so is their hitting performance.”
As the Cardinals take on Colorado this afternoon for one last game, “Michael Wacha is looking to pick up his fourth win of the season tonight as he goes face to face with the Rockies and their pitcher Roy Oswalt, one of the worst starting pitchers in the National League,” Brinkman said.