ST. LOUIS -- Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said on Saturday afternoon that Chris Carpenter will start Game 4 for the Cardinals, if they win Game 3 today, which would be the first start of Carpenter's career on three days' rest.
La Russa said that he didn't announce the decision on Friday because he wanted to wait to see how Carpenter felt playing catch. Carpenter reported he was OK, so La Russa decided to the ball to his ace in the must-win game.
La Russa said that the Cardinals would not have made this decision if there was not an off day on Monday, because then he'd not only have to use Carpenter on three days rest for Game 4, but Adam Wainwright on three days rest for Game 5. With the off day, Wainwright would be fully rested for a possible Game 5.
It truly was one of the more magical endings to a baseball playoff game we've ever seen, a game that can't be described any better than a Hollywood ending in which the hero miraculously manages to fight off an entire army with one gun and six bullets to save the girl.
In the movies, we never get to see the loser's epilogue. The NLDS between the Dodgers and Cardinals leaves its Hollywood atmosphere and shifts to St. Louis this weekend, where we'll find out if the Cards can bounce back from a game in which both Matt Holliday and the entire roster took a collective line drive to the groin.
Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.
Looking Forward ...
Is it the desperation of potential elimination that makes teams more willing to push the envelope? Or more willingness to push ace pitchers? Or an extremely good batch of No. 1 starters and a weak bunch of No. 4s?
Whatever it is, two clubs in 0-2 Division Series holes appear ready to bring back their Game 1 starters on short rest in Game 4, should they get to that point. The Red Sox acknowledged as much before their Game 2 loss to the Angels.
Tuesday, FanHouse had the opportunity to discuss the MLB Playoffs with Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, who currently serves as a studio analyst for TBS. TBS will be broadcasting all four Division Series and also the NLCS again this season. Ernie Johnson is the studio host while Dennis Eckersley and David Wells join Ripken as studio analysts for these playoff games.
Of all the things Ripken discussed Tuesday, the most intriguing subject, not surprisingly, was one Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod is an oft-maligned regular season superstar, in that he's put up extremely gaudy regular season numbers throughout his career, yet has never played in a World Series and has pretty sub-par numbers in the playoffs overall -- especially of late.
If you play the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Game" with the Cardinals pitching staff, you quickly see just how these guys ended up with the finest rotation left standing in October.
Start with pitching coach Dave Duncan, a man whose pupils have won four Cy Young Awards. One of them is Chris Carpenter, who began his big-league career learning at the foot of seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens in Toronto. Now you throw in John Smoltz, who has won one of his own and was a teammate of five other pitchers who have won the award and, well, you get the idea.
Suffice to say, if you are Adam Wainwright or Joel Pineiro and you work in this environment, you'd improve almost by osmosis.
In Advanced Scouting, MLB FanHouse's professional talent evaluator breaks down each of the playoff teams from a scouting perspective.
To put it lightly, it'd take a naïve team to believe that Games 1 and 2 against the Cardinals will be anything less than an all-out struggle. In Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter, the St. Louis Cardinals own arguably the best 1-2 punch in baseball. Odds are that these two are not going to be knocked out of a game early and will need to be matched zero for zero.
But, what's the best way to scratch out some production against these two? We'll touch more on that later, but let's not sugarcoat it -- Carpenter and Wainwright are who they are for a reason and beating them will take a patient, intelligent approach.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... Chris Carpenter may win one of the closest NL Cy Young races in years, but his final start of the regular season will be better remembered for what he did with that bat.
The right-hander threw five shutout innings in a 13-0 win over the Reds. Six of those Cardinal runs were driven in by Carpenter, who hit the first home run of his career, a grand slam, in the second inning. He added a two-run double later.
"That was one of the funner days I've ever had," Carpenter said. ... "I think the only other home run I hit had to be in high school. I was a really good hitter, I guess, but I grew up in New Hampshire, and we didn't see many 90 mph fastballs."
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
While the majority of the American workforce got a day off on Labor Day, some major league hitters were getting their power stroke on in a big way. With only 11 games on the docket, four players left the yard twice in one game: Derrek Lee, Billy Butler, Mark Teixeira and Juan Uribe. The fantasy fallout isn't huge, save for one; Lee's having a resurgence, Butler a breakout campaign and Teixeira an MVP-caliber season. Uribe, though ... that's news.
Carpenter, who won the award in 2005, was ruthlessly efficient in a 99-pitch, one-hit shutout of the Brewers on Monday, running his record to 16-3 and dropping his ERA to a stingy 2.16.
"That was Nintendo baseball. That's as good a stuff as I've seen this year. He throws strikes with electric stuff," Brewers right fielder Jody Gerut said.
With the recent additions to major league ball teams due to the expansion of rosters there aren't that many two-start pitchers next week. And there are still a few situations up in the air. The landscape could change rather quickly as teams decide if they want to run with a six-man rotation or keep things normal with five starters.
Not only has Pedro Martinez looked great in his early starts but he gets to face the Nationals and the Mets next week. He would be a great two-start add, and he's only owned in 33% of fantasy leagues.
There are 35 total two-start pitchers for week 23. Make sure you get your rosters set by 12:35 PM ET as the Cubs and Pirates play first on Monday.
ST. LOUIS -- Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said on Saturday afternoon that Chris Carpenter will start Game 4 for the Cardinals, if they win Game 3 today, which would be the first start of Carpenter's career on three days' rest.
Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the 
Tuesday, FanHouse had the opportunity to discuss the 
If you play the 
In 
Starting Five
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Starting Five
With the recent additions to major league ball teams due to the expansion of rosters there aren't that many two-start pitchers next week. And there are still a few situations up in the air. The landscape could change rather quickly as teams decide if they want to run with a six-man rotation or keep things normal with five starters.
