A Wild One

The Cubs won a slugfest to take a 2-1 lead over St. Louis in the first playoff round.  The wind was howling out, so you would expect some home runs, but the Cubs six were pretty ridiculous.  Actually, they hit all of them pretty hard, so you kind of wonder whether the wind had anything to do with any of them.  Maybe Schwarber's a little bit, certainly Piscotty's for the Cards in the ninth which looked like a high flyball off the bat.

On the pitching side of things, Arrieta did not look really sharp from the start.  Maybe the wind got into his head.  It seemed to me it certainly affected Wacha, though, to be honest, Wacha has really stunk in September, so you wonder whether he is just in a bad streak and would have been hammered anyway.

Maddon made all the right moves with his pitching, pulling Arrieta in the sixth and riding his bullpen the rest of the way.  I hope Russell is not seriously hurt.  Hamstring injuries are tricky things.  The Cubs might sit Russell in Tuesday's game even if he looks all right.  Theoretically, they do not lose much with Baez at shortstop, but, of course, that is theoretical.  In practice, Baez botched up two plays he should have made.  He looked really nervous in the field.  Maddon has two options if Russell sits, the one being letting Baez play short, the other moving Castro to short and starting LaStella.  I'm not a big fan of moving Castro back to short, so I kind of think Maddon will go the same route and start Baez there.

Matheny seems to have opted to start Lackey on short rest for the fourth game, while Maddon is sticking with Hammel.  Going with Lackey is a risky move, but I wonder if there is any real alternative.  Lynn was scheduled to start, but the Cubs have hit him at will most of the year and he, like Wacha, is coming off a bad September.  Another risk factor for the Cards in this move is whether Molina will be able to start and how effective he will be at framing pitches if he does.  Lackey did not throw many strikes in Game 1, at least not as many as were called.  If the Cubs are patient, they can run up his pitch count early.  The key, though, is Hammel, and whether he will be on or not.  I imagine he will be on a pretty short leash.

The weather is likely to be a lot cooler and less windy, with the winds shifting around to the northwest, which would be a crosswind to right field.  Should help Hammel, or at least his confidence.  The park should play a lot smaller tomorrow.