I Should Have Done This Yesterday

At least one of the Cardinals teams would be coming off a win. Arizona lost to the 49ers, 32-20. They couldn't stop the Niners' running game (Frank Gore went for over 100 yards), or Vernon Davis (180 yards receiving and 2 TDs). Arians had said that stopping Davis would be a team effort, well they better clue the team in to that fact in the future. Carson Palmer shot the team in the foot with 2 interceptions - again - and they lost two fumbles. On the plus side, they did rush for over 100 yards as a team. Arians is finally catching on to the fact Andre Ellington is a useful offensive player. I don't know if he's the fabled "every down back", but he needs to be on the field as much as they can manage.

On the baseball front, the Cardinals lost to the Dodgers last night. So St. Louis is still up 2 games to 1, but I'm a little concerned. Not a lot: even if the Cardinals lost I won't feel disappointed in the season. The Dodgers are pretty good, and I went into the season thinking the Cardinals were likely to win around 85 games and struggle to make the playoffs. And they've had plenty of success recently, so it's hard to be too mad. But I still want them to win, and this was a game the Dodgers weren't starting Grienke or Kershaw. This Dodgers team makes me think of the 2001 Diamondbacks, where a team really needed to win any game that Randy Johnson or Curt Schilling didn't start against them if they wanted to move on. The Cardinals didn't pull that off, and they were ultimately knocked out in Game 5 of the NLDS.

Mattingly's starting Nolasco tonight, apparently. If the Cards had gone up 3-0, he was almost certain to start Grienke on short rest to stave off elimination. Even on short rest, I'd be more worried about Grienke, which is maybe not a feeling supported by statistical trends of pitchers on short rest, but neither is my complete lack of trust in the Cardinals' Game 4 starter, Lance Lynn. Maybe if he'd had even one decent playoff start in the last two years I might feel better, or if he didn't seem to have entirely too many starts where he craps the bed and kills the team's chance of winning. But that's where we are. If he loses, then the Cards have to win two of three going up against rested Grienke and Kershaw. Well, they already managed that once, by the skin of their teeth, but I'd prefer to avoid the suspense if possible.

It would help if their offense could get on track. Outside of Games 1 and 5 of the NLDS, the offense has been basically dead. They've scored 4 runs so far against L.A. I don't know if it's the quality of the Dodgers pitching (certainly part of it), a bunch of hitters slumping at once, or just that they can't string the hits together the way they did in the regular season.