Armour: Cardinals are down, but far from out in NLDS

CHICAGO - Don’t go packing the St. Louis Cardinals’ bags just yet.

Yes, they face an elimination game Tuesday afternoon at Wrigley Field against a Chicago Cubs team that seems to have an answer for pretty much everything these days. Jorge Soler looks like he’s playing a video game the way he’s teeing off on the St. Louis pitching staff. All-world catcher Yadier Molina’s status is in doubt again after he appeared to aggravate the thumb injury that kept him out of the last 13 games of the regular season.

But the Cardinals are neither wide-eyed nor mediocre. They won 100 games this season, and have the postseason routine down so well they’re not going to get flustered by back-to-back losses.

As captivated as the country seems to be by the Cubs these days, the NL still goes through St. Louis and everyone would be wise to remember that.

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“I like the way our guys are competing. I like our odds when our backs are against the wall,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. “This is the kind of team that we’ve had all season long, regardless of what anybody else thinks, regardless of odds, regardless of who we’re stacked up against.

“This team just continues to fight, and that’s not something you lose regardless of where you stand.”

The Cubs set a playoff record with six home runs on their way to an 8-6 win in Game 3 of the NLDS Monday night. Soler went 2-for-2 with a home run and two walks, and has now reached base in all nine of his plate appearances this postseason.

It was Soler’s homer, on the very first pitch that Adam Wainwright threw, that seemed to suck all the air out of the Cardinals, not only for this game but for the series. No sooner had Jason Heyward quieted the raucous Wrigley Field crowd with a two-run homer that pulled St. Louis within one than Soler brought the Cardinals’ momentum to a screeching halt.

“There are a number of different things I could have done, that being the top of the list in things I did not want to do,” Wainwright said.

But as discouraging as all of the Cubs’ numbers may be, the Cardinals can take some heart from some of their own. Like four, as in the number of runs they scored off of Jake Arrieta. That’s more than the Cubs ace had given up in his previous eight starts – combined.

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Or how about six, the number of runners the Cards left on base, three in scoring position. Or two, which is the number of runs St. Louis scored in the ninth, when it was supposed to be looking ahead to Tuesday.

“We did have opportunities. We made some loud outs at times,” Matheny said. “I just felt like we were going to be able to come back. We got within a couple.”

And then there’s five, which is the number of consecutive postseason appearances St. Louis has made.

“We’re down 2-1, we’ve been in this situation before. We know we have to come out and play a good ball game,” Wainwright said.

“Postseason experience or not, we’ve got to go out and deliver and execute,” Wainwright added. “They’ve got a very good team. No one said it was going to be easy.”

But it’s a heck of a lot less daunting when you’ve got guys who have been in elimination games before, who know what it’s like to take the field with adrenaline coursing through your body and the noise of the crowd so loud you can’t hear yourself think.

It’s why Matheny didn’t think twice about going to John Lackey for Game 4, even though the right-hander will be pitching on three days’ rest.

Lackey hasn’t started on three days’ rest in 10 years. But as a rookie with the Los Angeles Angels back in 2002, he did it for Game 7 of the World Series. All he did was get the win, holding the San Francisco Giants to one run on four hits in five innings.

“I‘m worried about tomorrow, guys. What I’ve done in the past has nothing to do with tomorrow,” Lackey said. “You want me to get all dramatic and stuff, it ain’t time for that. It’s time to go to work.”

The Cardinals may be down, but they won't be out until the last one is called.

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