urbanSTL

Very tough task? I expect the Cards to take 2/3 in SF and if they win today, the pressure would be off and i wont be surprised if this ends in SF

Giants and Cards are almost similar so i could see the series going to 7 however SF is like KC and can certainly get a winning streak going.

Blame Matheny for the loss yesterday. Now today is sort of a must win, since Bumgarner is waiting for them in game 5. Matheny SO over-managed or under-managed, however you want to look at it. He keeps in Choate, when you have Martinez and Wacha in the pen. Choate is a one-batter specialist and Matheny keeps him in the entire inning. His first mistake was pulling Lackey when he was dominating. He was only at 79 pitches, was dealing and had only given up one hit since the first, on a cheap and lucky hit by Hudson. Also, Matheny pinch-hits for Lackey using Descalso against a lefty. How dumb is that! This loss was squarely on Matheny IMO!

mistake 1- taking out Lackey after 6....after the first inning he allowed 1 hit (to the pitcher) and threw only 58 pitches (78 total) when he was pinch hit for, it was a tied game, 1 out nobody on...

mistake 2- why take out Marco Gonzalez after 1 inning- he is a STARTER and he dominated in the 7th

mistake 3- Not having Maness start the 10th inning, he threw 6 pitches in the 9th and looked very good

mistake 4- not having Wacha start the 10th

mistake 5- not pulling Choate after the walk and putting in Martinez or Wacha

mistake 6- having Choate on the roster instead of Sam Freeman, playoffs is not for the soft tossers

all that = losing a winnable game.

^ Agree on all points! They should of and could have won that game.

Do or die today for the Redbirds cause tomorrow is Bumgarner and to throw it out there Vogelsong is pretty thorough against the Rebirds so that you know.

On the bright side, Bumgarder is a Bum at home this season (relative to his overall body of work) 7-6 4.05 ERA so if we win today and Waino is 90% healthy, we can steal one tomorrow.

Me. No. Understand. Matheny.

Me neither. One night he pulls his starter too early (Lackey), the next, he pulls the starter too late (Miller). Where is Wacha???! Instead of depleting the bullpen he should have used Wacha in the middle innings. He was VERY lucky Choate escaped the inning last night or he would have been blasted for putting him in again, in a high leverage situation.

The Cards fielding is also to blame:
Game 1, 3 and 4 all involved major mistakes in the field and poor managing. The sad thing, is the fact that the Cards have a more talented line-up that SF, had more talent than Boston and more than SF in 2012. The mismanagement and uncharacteristic errors have given games away to their opponents. As the Central division gets tougher, who knows if we'll continue to enjoy the run the Cards are on over the past decade. Matheny needs a veteran asst. manager to reel him in, at least, until he is more experienced. He cannot keep losing BIG games with his poor decisions.

This still a very young team but i think if the birds didn't pull the plug on Craig this would be a different hitting team. The Giants want it more than the Cardinals and those very same Giants players know they are the Cardinals nemesis. Will be very hard to overcome but tonight will be the ending of it all i give the Cardinals a 20% chance of winning tonights game. Wainwright is virtually 2 different pitchers. One the shows for regular season and one thats ready to hibernate when it comes to the playoffs. Either way i give this season a B-.They need to add a significant bat and also find a few good bench players finally find a good shut it down reliever. We're all very fortunate to have witness a ball club make it to the playoffs consistently and have a chance at winning the entire thing. 2 world series in my lifetime is pretty amazing so i won't be too butt hurt if they get beat by those pesky Giants!

Go Royals..

I think Waino is done. His arm has likely been overworked to the point of no return this season. I think the dead arm set back in. Could he go out and shine tonight, to avoid elimination, maybe. I just don't see the freight train that is the Giants, being stopped tonight. Matheny should have not let pride overrule common sense during the regular season. How many times was Waino pitching late into games the Cards were winning. He has several complete games. Maybe if they yank him in those games, he has something left in October. I think they forget he had T J surgery a few years ago.

Regarding the Royals, I think it is a great story, but I am, by no means, rooting for them. Even though they are in Missouri, a LOT of KC people HATE St. Louis and the Cardinals. I would not root for them because of that. I know a lot of people in KC and they hate St. Louis, the Cards fanbase and everything about us. It is always prefaced by envy with regards to the Cards, but it goes beyond baseball. . . . this guy's extreme views are not uncommon. . .

http://www.insidestl.com/insideSTLcom/R ... Louis.aspx

http://www.insidestl.com/insideSTLcom/R ... Louis.aspx

What a harsh way to end the season! It's like pouring acid over a wound and i feel bad for Wacha he hadn't been seen throughout the playoffs until the 9thinning. I'm confident this will rub on him the entire off season. In all not a bad season they went further than what they should of. As for Kansas City the few things i like about it are 1.BBQ 2. Boulevards 3. The Plaza thats about all i can care for KC. My honest Opinion is people there are down right rude and they have this think they are better than everyone attitude. They can take shots at St.Louis all they want however in reality KC will never be what St.Louis was is and in the future. They may have a bit more going on there however it doesn't mean we don't have anything going on here either. We're starting from scratch which is the best way to go Our neighborhoods are gentrifying we have good entertainment in many neighborhoods and i find the people here to be far more superior than our counterparts on the other end of the state. KC is everything Missouri is and St.Louis is completely not Missouri. So i can say to KC is hate us all you want you just want what we have. Also no KC we don't want to be Chicago nor will we ever be and preferably i rather St.Louis be more like Boston. I was only being nice when i said go Royals but now i want to be mean and hope they implode.. Go National League and Giants.

Not even upset that we lost, upset at HOW we lost and lost to a team that's really NOT that good and pretty much had 90% of breaks fall their way. 12 in 15 it is!

I was pleasantly surprised by Waino's GREAT performance. I would have to guess that he did not want to come out. He is WAY TOO competitive. I'm 99% certain, he would not ask Matheny to come out. If he had gotten through the 8th, I think the Cards win. Even though Rosenthal has been shaky, I feel like he could have gotten it closed out. Obviously, you don't expect Neshek to give up that bomb, but matheny will be remembered in 2014 for his mismanagement of the Cardinals in the NLCS. WOW! Could he have been any more inept!??!

Regarding KC, another point. Most of the arrogance and cheapshots seem to come from KC'ers that live in Johnson County and the uppity burbs in Missouri, at least in my experience. (friends, family, work associates)
People in Overland Park and that area are so arrogant, like OPK is the next coming of Austin. That guy on KC radio is a prime example. I also experienced that up in Columbia. Go Giants!

roger wyoming II wrote:^ good point about KC.... other than sharing our Cards Fever, so many of our own suburban population would just as soon dump on Saint Louis as any KC'er. And sometimes I'm surprised at the negativity I see here towards KC.... when I started a KC thread to show some of the good developments in the City of Fountains there was some negativity.... I think one person even accused me of being from there and always dumping on STL. Anyway, I think it's great KC is making some good strides with urbanism and we need as much collaboration with our like-minded brothers and sisters across the state if we're going to make any progress in Jeff City.

Having said that, it is disappointing we didn't get to take revenge on the Kanas City Dekkingers and sweep their sorry little butts in what would have been known forever in their town as the Series of Shame.

Roger Wyoming it's not the fact that i hate KC cause i don't. I dislike how they treat St.Louis like we're all bad people here cause we're not. We do care about our Cardinals like they care about their Royals but to go overboard and call us all these names such as the most racist most arrogant we have an inferiority over Chicago is very disrespectful and also to bring up the MB tragedy is going too far cause that could of happen there or anywhere for that fact. I do care about St.Louis and am very passionate about it so yes i do tend to take heart to what KCers say or people in general about our city. If it were me i would never collaborate with people who don't like me there for i hope St.Louis doesn't do anymore collaborating with KC that's just my piece. It's all about respect and KC doesn't respect St.Louis. Waino did better than what i thought however i still won the bet that the Giants were going to smash the Cardinals Seriously Cardinals gave this series completely to the Giants. Suddenly Cardinals became Rams and starting committing all these mental errors. In all I'm happy for my Cardinals.

From the $ side, i bet the Cardinals finance guys are still throwing up.... there were 6 outs away from additional $7 million in revenue and with a win Saturday to force game 7, another $7 million. 3 World Series games would have probably brought in about $24-26M in additional revenue....So all told, the Cards left about $40 million on the table and it probably would have turned $60 million with additional tickets sold next season due to a WS win. total impact to the city budget left on the table- probably about $2-3 million

Well... that's one way to look at it! solid analysis (if a little salt on the wound), though look at it this way--they've been lucky to make it this far (and farther) 4 straight years now.

Theres always next season I'm just saying

Still not really over this a week later. Won't watch the World Series as a result. Cardinals lost this series for a few reasons, but the clearest one was managing, and that's really disappointing.

And after their season-ending press conference, I'm starting to have my doubts about the GM. He's going all in to support his manager, to the point of suggesting he'll make roster decisions that will be based around the manager's ineptness and desires, not what makes for a good roster.