Series Tied 2-2
As they've so often done, the Cardinals pushed Game Four to the very brink... and somehow, found their way to the other side.
A pair of game-saving (season-saving) at bats by Yadier Molina kept the Division Series alive and sent the Cardinals back to SunTrust Park one more time. The anemic offense has to recover against a starter who silenced it just days ago. The bullpen has to sort out the final three outs once again. And a second half that saw Jack Flaherty become the unchallenged ace all comes down to this -- to him -- once again.
Here we go.
Linups
St. Louis
Fowler CF
Wong 2B
Goldschmidt 1B
Ozuna LF
Molina C
Carpenter 3B
Edman RF
DeJong SS
Flaherty P
Braves
Ronald Acuna CF
Ozzie Albies 2B
Freddie Freeman 1B
Josh Donaldson 3B
Nick Markakis RF
Adam Duvall LF
Brian McCann C
Dansby Swanson SS
Mike Foltynewicz P
Tonight's Starters
Jack Flaherty
33 starts, 196.1 IP, 2.75 ERA, 3.64 xFIP, 10.59 K/9, 39.5 Ground Ball%, 7.1 BB%, 6.9 Barrel%
Vs Braves (Game 2): 7.0 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO
Small Sample Size Warning (Game 2):
Ronald Acuña Jr. Single, Double, 2 Strikeouts
Adam Duvall Home Run (pinch hit)
Freddie Freeman Ground out (x2), Walk
What you'll see (from Ben Cerutti)
"Sure enough, Flaherty only threw 47.9% fastballs last week and they got beat around a little bit. Of the 56 fastballs, 23 were called balls (41%) and 8 were called strikes. That leaves 25 more fastballs that were swung at."
Mike Foltynewicz
21 starts, 117.0 IP, 4.54 ERA, 4.73 xFIP, 8.08 K/9, 36.7 Ground Ball%, 7.5 BB%, 7.8 Barrel%
Vs Cardinals (2019): 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO *Only allowed three base runners
Small Sample Size Warning (Game 2):
Yadier Molina Single (x2), Fly out
Marcell Ozuna Single, Ground out, Fly out
Paul DeJong Reached on Error, Strikeout
What you'll see (from Ben Cerutti)
"His 13 curve balls produced 5 outs on balls in play, two ground outs and three fly outs. It produced zero hits. He threw 5 of them for balls and 8 for strikes. Out of the strikes, as I already mentioned 5 were put in play for outs. The other three had one fouled off and two swinging strikes."
Fun Facts
Yadier Molina
After "ambushing" Braves pitching with first pitch swings twice on Monday, Molina mentioned to reporters that he's "been doing that for 16 years." But THIS year, how has that gone?
On 0-0 counts, Molina has an OPS of 1.028. Nineteen of his 57 RBI and 6 of his 10 home runs have come off of the 0-0 pitch. Perhaps it's not so much an "ambush" as it is a Molina.
Dansby Swanson
The man with the perfect hair and the imperfect bat is inexplicably hitting .500 and rocking a 1.247 OPS through the first four games of the postseason.
However, on the season, he's been exceptionally less effective with runners in scoring position.
In 123 chances this year, that average drops to .187 with a .685 OPS. That's the Swanson Mike Shildt and Company thought they were walking Brian McCann to get to. Oh, and also the one whose numbers vs. right handed pitching drop significantly, too (108 wRC+ vs lefties, just 89 wRC+ vs righties).
And this is why you can't predict baseball in October.
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