Chicago 365 Playoff Central: Meet Me in St. Louis

     After the hoopla from Wednesday night's victory over the Pirates calmed down(and the team finally stopped celebrating) the next objective loomed large: the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Division Series. The two franchises have played 2,344 games against each other, yet had not met in the postseason for 129 years, going back to the 1886 World Series. Needless to say, the hype train was leaving the station full steam ahead. Add in the fact that the Game 1 starters(Jon Lester against John Lackey) were teammates in Boston and the drama gets ratcheted up even higher. Finally the time came and the first pitches were thrown. Lester faltered a bit out of the gate, allowing two hits in the first inning to fall into an early 1-0 hole. After that, he righted the ship, at one point retiring 10+ batters in a row. Unfortunately, John Lackey was doing great too. Dexter Fowler hit a mammoth shot that would have scored two runs, if it hadn't been caught by a Cardinal on the warning track. Lackey only allowed 2 hits, including one to Kyle Schwarber(whom I will be henceforth referring to as The Great Schwarbino). Lester was doing well at keeping the Cardinals within striking distance, until the 8th inning rolled around and he gave up 3 more runs. The Cubs did not go quietly though, putting two men on base in the top of the 9th before ultimately striking out and losing to the Cardinals 4-0. After our dressing down of Pittsburgh, this showed us a few important things:

• We still might fulfill the prophecy and win the World Series, but it sure won't be a walk in the park.
• St. Louis is going to be a tough opponent to beat
• And finally, does anyone know of a way we can make about 4 clones of Jake Arrieta?

     That last point might have been slightly in jest, and we will get Arrieta again in Game 3. As for tonight's Game 2, Kyle Hendricks gets the start. Although he comes in with a pedestrian 8-7 record, he finished the season strong, hurling 12 shutout innings over his final 2 starts, earning himself this start. First pitch is at 4:37 PM from Busch Stadium.