Nationals Hope Home Field is An Advantage in Game 3 vs. Cardinals

(Brad Mills-US PRESSWIRE)

By Stevo-sama | @yoshiki89

After a Series-opening loss to the Nationals that displayed nothing short of a host of failed opportunities for the Cardinals, the Redbirds came back with a significant roar in the second game. The Nationals don’t have any postseason history to refer to, but at a higher level…a Game 1 loss with a Game 2 rebound (and usually a significant one) is par for the course for the Cardinals, at least as far as 2011 is concerned.

Last year’s postseason hustle for the Cardinals may indeed be an exercise in evaluating outcomes with a small sample size, but let’s face it…if there is anything consistent between their postseason performances this season (so far), as compared to last season it’s a rise of unexpected occurrences that result in a nearly improbable finish. Beginning with the one-game Wild Card playoff against the Atlanta Braves, this was fairly established.

As far as the Nationals are concerned, they played their two best hands in the first two games. By luck of the draw, per se, they stood victorious even after a formidable start from Gio Gonzalez (despite an equally impressive start by Adam Wainwright).

The Cardinals couldn’t adjust to the Nationals’ bullpen, and their play on the field mirrored as much. The Nationals responded in the second game with Jordan Zimmermann; the Cardinals responded with an explosion of offense that one couldn’t have projected to any feasible degree… Beltran’s second home run of the evening probably still hasn’t landed. The Cardinals went from batting .107 with a team RISP of 0-for-8 in Game 1, to batting .254 with a team RISP of 5-for-14.

Allen Craig is being Allen Craig, Carlos Beltran is proving to be nothing less than a feverishly wise acquisition and through it all the Nationals are coming up short…even as they won the first game.
With the Nationals’ best bet for a pitching comeback disavowed by a uniquely unprecedented innings-limit, their announced start for Game 3 is none other than Edwin Jackson, with whom the Cardinals have not only had intimate experience (he was a 5-2, 3.58 ERA hurler for the Redbirds for 31 starts during the 2011 season), but he is 1-3 with a 4.58 ERA in six starts against the Cardinals.

Jackson is also 2-4 with a 6.54 ERA in six starts during September of this season, one of those starts was a 11-9 loss to the Cardinals on 9/28/12 where he infamously went 1.1 innings and allowed eight earned runs. Chris Carpenter’s sluggish start this season after returning from injury isn’t really the story for this upcoming contest; rather, the story is, can Jackson maintain enough control and composure to go the distance and shock the Cardinals?

Game 4’s scheduled starts are Kyle Lohse (16-3, 2.86 ERA) and Ross Detwiler (10-8, 3.40 ERA). Again, the onus is on Detwiler to do something better against the Cardinals than he did when facing them during a late-September start, a game where he took the loss on five earned runs in five innings.

Despite the fact that Loshe took a loss for the Cardinals in his most recent matchup against the Nationals, Lohse has been effective, as expected, in the long run for St Louis…case in point, his September 1st victory against the Nationals in Washington. You could flip a coin and have a better idea.

Should this series go all five games (and it’s likely that it will, Game 4 seems to be a toss-up at the moment), the Nationals will have to pull out all the stops for Game 5; all the Cardinals seem to need right now is to maintain their historic momentum to claim the NLDS this year.