On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals in 19 innings. It was a game that cassued the projection/selection desk of The Maverick Conserative to make the "call", even though all of the votes ((games) are not yet in, that the Cardinals will NOT win the Central Divison of the National League (although they are stil in the 'wild card" race, and now even in a playoff position).
Amazingly, or maybe not so much, BOTH the winnter and loser of that 19 inning game seem to have LOST the CentralDivison because of that game. The Cardinals lost, and that caused the selectin desk to determine that the Cardinals had LOST the Central Division. However, the Pirates got no opendate, and had to immediately play a 3 gameseries, on the road, against tthe San Diego Padres, with even a change in their pitching rotation becaues of the 19 inning game The Prirates lost all three games to the Padres, and The Maverick Conservative can now make the CALL that Cincinnati HAS WON the Central Division of teh Natinal League.
Yes, the Cardinals proceeded to sweep the hapless Astros, and to move ahed of the Pirates in the wild card race, with the aid of an open date on Monday (following the 19 inning game) . Yes, the Cardinals would surely like to have won the 19 inning game, whch may have delayed the CALL that the Reds have WON the Central Divisin, but by merely forcing 19 innings the Cardinals may have dealth a MORTAL blow to the Pirates. They certainy did so as far as the winner of the Central Division is concerned, and that 19 inning game may turn out to be the turning pont for the Cardinals to move ahead of the Pirates i the wild card race for good. HOWEVER, the Astros are hopeless, and the Cardinals now go on the raod against DECENT TEAMS, including the Reds and Pirates. The road trip will probably tell us lot abut whether the Cardinals are going to be a playoff team.
Why did the selectin desk not wait for the Cardinal series with the Reds to declare the Reds the winner of the Central Division? Mainly because the Reds are not the BRAVES (responsible for a wrong projectin last year that the Cardinals would not make the playoffs). The Maverick Conservative sees no way the Cardinals will catch the Reds, even if they make a belated run. This road trip, in fact, is gong to make it difficult for the Cardinals to even stay as close as they are. IF they come out of the road rtip ahead of the Pirates, and nto losing ground to the Reds, they wll be doing well. And, yet, that will still leave the Cardinals HOPELESSLY behind the Reds.
No. Cincinnati has WON the Central Divisin. The quetin now is whether the Cardinals can become a wild card team. They did what this blog told you they NEEDED to do: SWEEP the Astros with their (present) best pitcheers. They did that. Nowt he Cardinals face the tougher task of at least holding their on on the road, against teams that are a lot better than the Astros. We will see.
Wild card teams, with the new one game playoff, really face a tough road. So the Cardinals really needed to win the Central Divisin. But now that The Maverick Conservative has declared the Reds the winner of the divisin, the Cardinals are going to have o repeat last year, only better, in order to repeat as world chamions.
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