My Team - Nationals at St Louis

Proposed starting pitchers -

Monday: Roark vs Wainwright
Tuesday: Gonzalez vs Wacha
Wednesday: Zimmermann vs S. Miller

(starting pitchers subject to change)

Well, we've just about come to the end of the road. The Braves clinched the NL East on Sunday. The Nationals are 5 games behind the Reds for the second wild card spot with 6 games left. Cincinnati's magic number is 2. The Nats have the slimmest of chances, but realistically the team is playing for pride & next year.

I grew up in "Cardinal Country", and spent many a year listening to guys like Jack Buck, Jay Randolph and Mike Shannon. I've always admired the way the Redbirds went about their business. This year, they are again heading to the playoffs. Maybe they don't have any obvious first-ballot Hall-of-Famers, but this is a good team, from top to bottom. I enjoy watching them play, because they always seem to be steady. Generally, they make all the standard plays in the field. Most of their hitters put the ball in play productively.

For the St. Louis pitchers, Wainwright is an ace-caliber starter (still). I look for him to go 7 innings or so, maybe giving up only 4 hits, 1 walk and no more than 2 earned runs. Wacha and Miller, the young guns, are confident guys who throw hard. If they execute their pitches, they might also shut Washington down or even out.

Positionally, St. Louis has a bunch of guys like Adams (1B), Carpenter (2B), Freese (3B) and Holliday, Jay and Beltran (OFs), all good to very good. You don't hear as much about them, but they deserve more attention. Molina at C is among the best in the game at his position. The batting order has no obvious holes, and defensively they are consistent.

I wonder if Washington will come out and play to win each inning the rest of the week, or will the team start sending out prospects? The Nats have clinched a winning record. They've clinched second place in their division. If they sweep St. Louis & later Arizona, they could reach 90 wins (which would be surprising, given Washington's slow start). Is that a goal this team wants to reach?

Also, I wonder how the manager Johnson approaches this last week. Does he let guys like Knorr and Jewett get some run informally managing the team? If that happens, does it appear that Johnson is giving a certain coach an unwritten endorsement for managing the team in '14?

I guess Wainwright outduels Roark on Monday, Gonzalez gets worked over by the Cardinals' lineup on Tuesday, and Zimmermann outduels Miller on Wednesday. Yeah, it looks like St. Louis very well may take two of three this week. I'm still rooting for my team, though.