Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Since Yadier Molina went down, the St. Louis Cardinals are clearly not the same team. They are a good team and a very tough team that fights hard; but they aren’t the same. Even the pitching staff has suffered a small bit with the loss of Molina. That isn’t all that surprising considering he is one of the best catcher’s in all of Major League Baseball. None of that matters over the next three days. The Cardinals will face their nemesis Pittsburgh Pirates in a three-game series at home.
Though they have been both good and terrible in recent weeks, the biggest blow was losing 4 of 5 to the Pirates in Pittsburgh. The water that has gone under the bridge since then hasn’t change a lot of the situation. The Cardinals are three games behind the Pirates and not really making up any ground. With the Pirates coming to town from Tuesday through Thursday, the Cardinals have their chance to make a huge impact while face the Pirates one on one.
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The Pirates will not have the same pressure as they could win just one game and still walk away with a two game lead in the division. A sweep by the Cardinals would mean a tie and all would be much closer as the best divisional race in baseball would then easily be the National League Central. All of that depends on the Cardinals however.
Adam Wainwright will start the series for the Cardinals and he needs to have a shut down game for this team. He is there ace and they need a shutout performance from him right now. How he and the team responds tomorrow will go a long way towards what happens to the Cards from here on out.
David Miller is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
