Well, so much for the pitchers' duel.
Michael Wacha did his part, shutting out the Dodgers for 7 innings on just 2 hits and a walk. In the process, he lowered his postseason ERA to an absurd 0.43 while improving to 3-0. He also became just the third rookie to win 2 games in a LCS, along with Tim Belcher (1988) and Tim Wakefield (1992) and was named the NLCS MVP.
Not too shabby for a pitcher in just his second year of professional baseball.
As for his counterpart, Dodgers' ace Clayton Kershaw, well he didn't fare so well.
The Cardinals offense awoke from its postseason slumber to pummel Kershaw to the tune of 7 runs on 10 hits in 4 plus innings. The Cards ended up with 9 runs on the night, scoring 4 in the third and 5 in the 5th.
The Cards may have gotten the benefit of a questionable ball four call to Matt Adams in the third, that led to a couple more runs, but they were already up 2-0 and didn't really need any help. Not the way Wacha was pitching.
Now the Cardinals move on to the World Series while the "Mickey Mouse" Dodgers head back to Disneyland.
There will be a bit of a layoff for the Cards--the World Series does not start until Wednesday, October 23rd. While that will allow Mike Matheny to set up his rotation, likely with Adam Wainwright starting game one and Wacha starting game two, I'm sure the hitters would rather get right back out there after finally breaking out tonight.
The Cardinals will await the winner of the Tigers and Red Sox in what could be a rematch of the 2006 or 2004 World Series (or 1968 or 1967 for that matter).
At the same time, Cardinals' fans everywhere will wait to see what Wacha can do next.
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