St. Louis Cardinals @ Philadelphia Phillies – Game 1

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St. Louis Cardinals @ Philadelphia Phillies – Game 1
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Big baseball game today when the Saint Louis Cardinals take on the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia today at 5:07 pm. But as usual, the baseball gods aren’t favoring the weather, as it will be around 60 degrees at game time, dropping to 50 degrees as a low and with a 40% chance of showers. But hopefully this won’t delay the game as bad weather postponed the Yankees and Tigers game last night. Other than that, expect a good game tonight.

Today’s game will feature the Phillies’s Roy Halladay against the Cardinal’s Kyle Loshe. Chris Carpenter, who is the Cardinal’s ace, number one pitcher, will start game 2 on Sunday night. Carpenter ended up pitching a complete shutout game on Wednesday night and by pitching in game 2, he will be on 3 days of rest. And if this series goes 5 games, Carpenter will be on his normal rest. But back to Halladay, who has been a horse for the Philadelphia Phillies, pitching 233.2 innings this season. He went 19-6 with a 2.35 ERA. And Halladay did get some post season experience for the first time in his career with the Phillies last year. But in my opinion, don’t let the .273 team batting average of the Cardinals fool you, which was the best in the National League this year. I saw this because they also played against some of the worst pitching staffs in their division. I am not trying to take away from some of their very good hitters such as Pujols, Berkman, and Holliday. I just think the Phillies pitchers can stack up well against the Cardinal’s hitters.

Overall, it should be an entertaining series. Even though the Cardinals took six out of nine from the Phillies this season, two of those wins coming right after the Phillies had clinched their division, it’s a new slate in the playoffs.  In my opinion, what the Phillies will need to win this series besides their consistent pitching which was the best pitching staff in baseball, are for their hitters to step up as they did after the All Star break. The Phillies hitters can be very streaky and if they can’t hit, this could be a long series ending on a bad note. Other than that, I predict the Phillies winning this series in four games. Twenty-five ESPN experts all pick the Phillies to win over the Cardinals and thirteen of the twenty-five have the Phillies winning the World Series. Six sports writers for CBS Sportsline have picked the Phillies over the Cardinals, yet only two of the pick the Phillies winning the World Series.

What do you say?